Bryan Battle, the rising star from Springfield, Missouri, is all geared up for his upcoming welterweight bout against the Frenchman, Kevin Jousset, at UFC Fight Night in Paris, France. In his last win against AJ Fletcher, Battle proved why he is now known as ‘The Butcher’ in the realm of MMA. But do you know that Battle always wasn’t the butcher?

In fact, he had a moniker that truly doesn’t fit a MMA star, as he was called ‘Pooh Bear’ for years. But why was a 6’1″ former heavyweight with a dominant MMA record of 10-2-0 named after a cuddly Disney cartoon? Well, that’s quite an interesting story.

How did Bryan Battle get the nickname ‘Pooh Bear’?

Back in 2022, Battle sat for an interview with Sherdog right ahead of his fight against fellow The Ultimate Fighter Season 29 contestant Tresean Gore. In that, he talked all about his MMA journey and how it feels to be fighting for the UFC. While he revealed different facets of his life, one major mystery he shed light on was the story behind his moniker, ‘Pooh Bear.’

‘The Butcher’ revealed that he got the nickname during a roast session with one of his teammates. According to Battle, he was landing some great insults on his teammate, who couldn’t manage to come up with a savage reply of his own. As a result, he simply called Battle ‘Pooh Bear.’ This made the other teammates around chuckle, and while the fighter did protest against calling him after the fictional bear, his next amateur fight surely made things worse.

Back then, Battle did not have an official moniker, so his coach asked the announcer to call him ‘Pooh Bear’ instead. A moment that even the announcer loved as he said, “You got to be sh*tting me, right? That’s the best f*cking thing I’ve heard all day.” And in the end, the nickname stuck with him. “They announced me as ‘Pooh Bear,’ and they made a bunch of Winnie the Pooh jokes while I was fighting… so, after that, that’s when I decided to run with it.” But why did he change his moniker to ‘The Butcher’?

Bryan Battle changes his nickname to ‘The Butcher’

According to Battle, his decision to change his nickname from “Pooh Bear” to “The Butcher” is symbolic, to say the least. According to the former ‘Pooh Bear,’ he needed to change his mentality now that he fights for the UFC. As per the welterweight, he needs to be more ruthless in the ring. And a change in moniker would surely help him achieve that persona.

It was all decided at a specific moment when he looked at other vicious fighters, such as Shavkat Rakhmonov, with an epiphany. “It really dawned on me that if I want to compete at the highest level, I can’t be the same guy I’ve always been. I have to change; I have to be more ruthless (I thought), and so through that process, it was searching for who that person is; it was ‘The Butcher’, the butcher killed pooh bear.”

Well, with this new change of mindset, Battle would be aiming to grab himself a win against Jousset at UFC Paris. What do you think? Will we get to see ‘Pooh Bear’ or ‘The Butcher’ on Fight Night? Let us know in the comments.