Recently announced on the Cagewarriors Forum was the return of David ‘B-52? Butlin to the Cage at Kudegras first Heavyweight Tournament show in Hull. Having not fought since 2003 due to injuries, this new has created quite a stir in the UKMMA community and will be a much anticipated return to action. The Butlin twins gained a fair bit of notoriety in the early days of UKMMA: They were a key part of the “Northern Cartel”, coaches of the Quannum gym, vocal members of the internet community and above all, they backed it up in the Cage. Whilst Ian was by far the more vocal of the two, David was (is!) the scary one and is more quiet and brooding than his brother. Anyone who saw the Butlin twins appearance in Danny Dyers “Britain’s Hardest” program will have realised that David is a pretty intense dude.
Although he only had a couple of professional MMA fights before injury put a halt to the run he was putting together, he made a big impression. A 30 second obliteration of Brian Blewitt and a submission victory over Greg Loughran were enough for him to be touted for big things. There was another fight as well which he won via armbar taking his actual professional record to 3-0 but this is not recorded on MMAUniverse or Sherdog.
We managed to get hold of David for an interview and were really impressed with how relaxed, open and honest he came across.
Hi Dave cheers for taking some time out to talk to us today.
No worries.
Hardcore UKMMA fans will be very familiar with you and your early career and certainly with your family name. Other more recently converted MMA fans may have only seen you on TV in Britain’s Hardest with Danny Dyer. For those readers that aren’t familiar with you, can you give them a little background on yourself please?
I started fighting at an early age. The first thing I competed in when I was about 6 or 7 was Judo which I did for about 4 years. After that I did thai boxing, boxing and started MMA in 2002. I taught kick boxing for a few years with my bro in Salford. I own Quannum Gym in Oldham and train the Quannum fight team. I am coached by some of the best guys around in my opinion: I wrestle with Billy Cooper, box with ex pros Ian Midwood and Andy Butlin, Thai box with Kru Aaron Chatfield and Markus Grosse, grapple with Les Allen and am coached BJJ by Roberto Atalla who is now based in Poland but a great friend who I still see and train with when I can. I thank him for a lot of my ground game as well as Les and Leigh Remedios who used to live at my house and has an excellent style for mma as he’s proved. I also have black belts in kick boxing and combat arts and some other shit. I train with my team and also have been helped through the years by close friends Aaron Chatfield and Matt 12 gauge Thorpe from the Colloseum.
So the obvious question is: How does it feel to be getting back in the cage after 7 years out?
It feels a long time coming. I love to fight and have been dreaming of getting back in.
Obviously in your time out from fighting, you haven’t been away from MMA as you run Quannum and you were the head coach for the UK M1 challenge team. As a man with a fighter’s heart, is it hard being around fights and fighters and not being able to get in there yourself?
Words can’t describe it. I teach 4-5 days a week at least and have had to watch people do something I love and not take part. I’ve always loved to spar hard and I’ve been unable to do anything but drill and light movement. How would you feel?
The M1 team made it right through to the semi-finals in their first time at the event. How was the M1 experience and will we see another UK team entering again in the future?
I don’t know about another UK team. If there is I won’t be taking part. I am going to be selfish for a while with my own training and that of my own team. As for the experience it was amazing. All the fighters were quality. Good guys and unbelievable fighters. We had a real laugh and many experiences I will never forget. It’s great to see Rob Broughton and Tom Blackledge going on to the UFC. No one more deserving than those two, it was an honour to work with them. It was actually more nerve racking cornering the 5 guys than if I was fighting!! Wrecked me but what a thrill!!
Can you tell us about the nature of the injury that has kept you away from fighting for so long?