George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah: MMA Vs Boxing Debate Settled
Exclusive Interview by Marc Anthony
“I am coming for a middleweight title. I am coming for worldwide recognition. I am not going to stop until my name is out there on the map…until I am war dancing on HBO!” — George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah
George Tahdooahnippah is building his boxing career up very nicely garnering a record of 26 wins with an amazing 20 KO’s. But, like all things, with success comes challenges, and people trying to leapfrog on the success of others.
Enter Dale “Apollo” Cook… He asked “Comanche Boy” to be on his radio show. During the broadcast, he was asked by the DJ if he was fighting Thomas Longacre. At the time, Thomas was not even in Comanche Boy’s radar.
You see, Thomas Longacre is an undefeated MMA fighter and kick-boxer. Eventually through Dale Cook’s insistence, Thomas Longacre’s public attacks on YouTube claiming that George is stepping up in competition if he fought him, along with Longacre’s fans going on George’s Facebook with racial attacks, the fight is set.
Xtreme Fight Night: Friday, February 25 | 8PM @ the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa
Doors open at 7 PM. Main Event Fighters: Thomas “Thunderkick” Longacre vs. George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah. MMA – Gerald “Hurricane” Harris. Kickboxing – Randy “Boom Boom” Blake Special Guest: Boxing champion Micky Ward, Tickets on sale now. $40, $50, $60 & $100 Buy Tickets .Must be 21 & over.
MA: I wanted to ask you about your wrestling career. You actually had a full scholarship to wrestle for Delaware State University. Can you talk about what you learned from wrestling all over the world?
I have done Greco and wrestled at 182 pounds. I wrestled on the national and world levels. I went to Japan to wrestle and I was an All-American wrestler. It gave me my strength, my core strength and because of wrestling, it made me strong. When I box against guys heavier than me or my weight, they all say how strong I am.
MA: Thomas Longacre talks about his 50 fight experience vs. your 25 fights. But he is not talking about how you competed in Kick-boxing and wrestling.
I don’t want to give too much credit, but he hasn’t fought like I have. I have over 300 wrestling matches. I have fought all over the world. I wrestled in Greco Roman in Japan.
MA: He also says that you are stepping up in competition against him. Do you feel he is putting a lot of pressure on himself?
Yeah, I know he has a MMA gym and has a good MMA following in his area, but this is boxing not MMA. I know what my competition has been, but I did it to help me grow in experience, to build my confidence. I started boxing at 23 so I had to build myself up.
MA: Jeff Mayweather recently came out and said you are very strong, durable, good hand speed and you have no quit in you. Is that a fair assessment of you?
Oh yeah, the way I train is the way I fight. If you want something, you have to go get it. I fight like the Mexican style. I keep going forward I put a lot of pressure on and I break them down. I look up to people’s tenacity like Antonio Margarito. His tenacity, just coming forward…I admire that. Our styles are different, but I carry that same type of tenacity: just coming at them. Just full force, that’s the way I see myself.
MA: You have a 70% KO ratio. You also have stopped people in the latter rounds. Do you do any type of specific training to keep your power in the latter rounds?
It’s really been a lot of learning…learning my body. There has been times when I over trained, and I am thirty two years old now, and things that I was doing when I was twenty six… I am not recovering the same.
Six days a week- two hours in the gym plus my cardio, I thought it was like that every single day but it’s not. One day, it is hard core training. The next day may be a light day. Maybe the next two days might be light then you come back with another hard day. I had to learn a lot about training. I had to learn a lot about my body. I had to learn how a lot of these other fighters are doing it.
Floyd Mayweather, he doesn’t train every day. I asked Jeff that. “How does he do it” and he said: “He doesn’t really have a set regiment…he doesn’t go every single day hardcore because his body can’t handle it. But when he does train he trains hard!”
It’s just non-stop two hours of training. It’s just about really training right. I am a sponge for everything. I have a lot of different things that work I have been doing lately and it’s been helping me out. But, it’s just good old fashion hard work that is what helps me get the conditioning to go the later rounds.
MA: You have sparred with the likes of Allan Green, Ishe Smith, Zab Judah, and James Freeman. Can you talk about the difference that makes as opposed to sparring, say a 1st year Pro?
It really made my confidence go through the roof. So, it has helped me a whole lot and it will show when I fight.
MA: Grady Brewer has been your mentor; can you talk about what that has meant for you?
With Grady, it’s good for me to get his experience. At the time, he had probably ten fights…when I started and joined the same boxing gym. But what I learned from him, I learned from his mistakes. He went into these fights not being prepared and that’s why he has these losses on his record. It’s because he wasn’t prepared.
If he was prepared and if he would have been wise on his decisions, Grady Brewer would be World Champion! No doubt in my mind…he has power and he has all the skills. I am sure he has a couple more years in him. I have learned from him. It took me a long time just to think I could go with him or (I don’t want to disrespect him) but thinking I could beat him. It took a while, but, that is where I am at today. I feel like I am “the man” now. As a fighter you have to believe you are the dominant one. I have learned everything from him and his career.
MA: Your next fight is going be at what weight and how many rounds?
Weight limit is going be 162, middleweight with two pound allowance and it’s going be a six round fight. They originally wanted me to fight at 160 which I don’t have problem with it, but to me, it better be worth a title. They wanted four rounds and I am not a preliminary fighter anymore. They are calling me out. This Thomas Longacre does nothing to my boxing career. So, we finally agreed to 162 and six rounds.
MA: Strategy wise, is there a big difference between a four rounder vs. six rounder?
Yeah, four you go all out. Six rounds? I train for eight to ten rounds right now. So for six rounds you just pick up the intensity. A lot of 100 yard sprints. You train for a six round fight. If you are fighting in a six rounder, don’t train for a ten rounder. That way, when you fight in a six rounder you go 110 miles an hour the whole six rounds.
MA: Speaking of training, what training for you is harder, the wrestling or the boxing?
Oh, wrestling! Wrestling is hard! As an All American, I was fifteen or sixteen years old and I was a cadet Greco-Roman wrestler. To me, I hit a little mountain top and after that I didn’t want to work anymore. My desire kind of dwindled out … I didn’t want to work anymore. But boxing, it’s a different style of training. You have to run, and it’s a different training in itself. The gym, the sparring, all different and on top of that you have to diet.
In wrestling, I just went to practice: the room was hot and it was a five minute round or a three two minute round. It was tough… the glory? You were not glorified in wrestling…it was a self-sport. No one gets to see or recognize how hard wrestlers work.
Now with MMA, all these wrestlers now are already thinking MMA. In my time, I didn’t really have MMA. So, by far wrestling! It’s just a tough sport.
MA: Would you have made that transition to MMA as opposed to Boxing?
Yeah, that was where I would have been headed. I have always been a striker… a tough person. I would have gone to MMA and had some good fights going in there but right now my goal is boxing. It’s the only thing I have been naturally talented at. I have God given power…God given speed and timing. My vision, seeing punches and being able to move is God given. So I have to capitalize on that. I have to make the most out of it.
MA: Is training going different for Longacre?
I am not looking past this Longacre dude, but at the same time, I am not putting myself under a lot of pressure thinking that he is a dominant force that is going to be something I have never seen before. I am going in there and if he is a kick-boxer or MMA guy and I am a boxer? I am going be a boxer! So I am going be the best boxer I can be for fight night and of course I am going drop hard shots and I am going make him fall.
MA: Is this going be a mixture of MMA and a boxing event? I know Gerald Harris is fighting in the event too.
Yeah Gerald Harris, it’s actually a mixture of MMA, boxing and kick-boxing, all professionals. It’s a pretty cool show.
MA: I noticed online that the fight is almost sold out.
Yeah, most people buy tickets come fight night but by fight night, I bet it will already be sold out for this show.
MA: Final Words?
I appreciate your time and the interest in speaking with me. I want the boxing people to know that “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah is coming and I am coming for a middleweight title. I am coming for worldwide recognition. I am not going to stop until my name is out there on the map…until I am war dancing on HBO! So I am coming! “Comanche Boy!”
George Tahdooahnippah
Nickname: “Comanche Boy”
Division: Middleweight
Professional Record: 26- 0-1, 20 KO’s
2011-01-13 Eloy Suarez Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W UD 6 6
2010-11-12 Steve Walker Tulsa, Oklahoma W TKO 2 6
2010-07-08 Dezi Ford Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 6
2010-04-22 Dave Saunders Tulsa, Oklahoma W UD 6 6
2010-01-28 Chris Overbey Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W UD 6 6
2009-10-02 Brooke Wellby Newkirk, Oklahoma W UD 6 6
2009-08-25 Chris Ray Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 6
2009-07-25 Dan Wallace Wichita Falls, Texas W UD 6 6
2009-05-15 Dan Wallace Lawton, Oklahoma NC NC 1 10
Bout halted after one round due to severe weather that required evacuation of the tent fight was being held in.
2009-03-13 Jerry Perez Newkirk, Oklahoma W KO 6 6
2009-02-13 Tyrone Dowdy Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 6
2009-01-16 Brandon Wooten Tulsa, Oklahoma W TKO 6 6
2008-09-20 Mike McGuire Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 6
2008-09-12 Jonathan Corn Lawton, Oklahoma W TKO 7 8
USA Native American Boxing Council super-middleweight title
2008-07-22 Terrence Wilson Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 2 6
2008-05-08 Brad Hill Tulsa, Oklahoma W TKO 1 6
2008-04-18 Steve Walker Miami, Oklahoma W KO 2 6
2008-04-01 Lyle Barron Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W KO 1 4
2008-01-04 James Cook Tulsa, Oklahoma D MD 4 4
2007-10-19 Ray Cuningham Miami, Oklahoma W TKO 3 6
2007-08-10 Clifton Blake Springfield, Missouri W TKO 1 6
2007-07-13 Mike Jackson Tulsa, Oklahoma W KO 1 4
2007-05-18 Gary Culp Tulsa, Oklahoma W TKO 1 4
2007-04-13 Steven Smith Enid, Oklahoma W KO 1 4
2006-07-21 Julian Williams Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 2 4
2005-07-22 Shane Cotton Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 4
2004-04-17 Ronald Allen Lawton, Oklahoma W UD 4 4
2004-03-12 Robert Ross Oklahoma City, Oklahoma W TKO 1 4
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