January 6th and 7th brought out the best local fighting talents for the 35th annual West Virginia ToughMan Contest at the Mountain Health Arena in Huntington, WV. This event elevates amateur fighters with a range of style influences including boxing, kick boxing, and MMA.
After attending this incredible event, I wanted to connect with Brittani Vaughn to learn about her journey to becoming a unique ToughMan champion. I got to interview Brittani on camera at my office which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/6kLOPbquw54
MY CONVERSATION WITH BRITTANI VAUGHN:
Erika: What’s your name?
Brittani: Hi, my name is Brittany Vaughn. And I’m the new reigning Huntington tough man, lightweight champion. And I’m happy to be here.
E: How did you get the name “The Savage”?
B: Well, um, I didn’t just pick it randomly necessarily. I have Native American ancestry and so I feel like we should reclaim the term.
E: What makes the ToughMan Contest unique compared to other things you compete in?
B: Well, the ToughMan’s its own breed of intensity because normally, in most promotions, you just have one fight in one night and you’re done. With the tough man, depending on how many people are in your weight bracket, that second night that you fight you could fight up to four or five times if there’s that many people. Most people only fight three to four times.
E: How many times did you fight this time at ToughMan?
B: I had one fight the first night. And then the second night, I had two fights. But in past years, I’ve fought four times and one night.
E: How many years have you competed?
B: This was my seventh year fighting in the ToughMan. I’ve gotten really close to past few times. I got the runner up, which is really great in itself. It’s always been a great experience with the ToughMan crew there. They really do a good job putting a great event together.
E: When did you start fighting with contact/combat sports?
B: When I got out of the military back in 2011. I was searching for you know, an outlet to you know that…. There’s a lot of mental things and stuff that goes on with returning from service. So I fell into training with this guy named Kevin Nolan, way out Les age, and he’s a previous Bellator champion. And so I trained with him for about three months or so and he suggested one day there in his gym garage, “Oh, you should probably go fight in the tough man. You have a good chance to win it.” and that year I got third place- which doesn’t get paid but for my first time I was like, “this is pretty fun!” And I’ve trained at a few different gyms and in the past years Ground Zero, mostly and recently I’ve been training over at Tri State Fitness in Barboursville, West Virginia. But uh, yeah, its been a great experience. I started out with martial arts, though, when I was in sixth grade. I used to get picked on a lot and had a lot of bullies just because I’m different, you know. I’ve always not really followed the crowd. So my parents put me into Master Kim’s Taekwondo studio here in Huntington and Master Kim gave me the confidence that I needed to stand up to the people that were picking on me and that’s about it.
E: Where’s your next fight?
B: My next fight is most likely going to be in Parkersburg, West Virginia at the next ToughMan event. They let you win three jackets and then they kind of want you to move on after that. So I figure let’s go for the three-peat and just ride this train all the way. I plan on turning pro here this fall probably. I just need a few amateur fights. [I’m] Pretty excited about the prospects of furthering my career in sport and just bringing awareness to everyone that watches me. And, just to inspire others to go after whatever it is they want to do be it like a promotion at work or if you want to get started into anything new. Don’t be afraid to go after what’s going to make you happy in your heart.
E: How much do you pay attention to the music and the crowd noise during the fights?
B: Well, that is an interesting phenomenon. I don’t know about others- maybe not everybody is the same but I think most people- at least with me, I hear like the first few bars of the song and [then] it’s all kind of blacked out auditory wise. From that point on, you hear the crowd and you can hear the ref and sometimes your opponent is talking smack to you and you can hear that but I don’t really pay too much attention to the music. I do like to listen to music when I work out though because it really helps you get into that sort of rhythm. I hate when they play that song dude looks like a lady though. It just seems kind of insensitive. [It was] not my choice! I wanted them to play ‘Oops I Did It Again’. They’ve done it before in one of my other ToughMan fights.
E: It seemed like the crowd really, like, maybe it’s because you got second last year [or] maybe it’s because you’re a popular face around town but it seemed like the crowd really got excited to see you fight. Really like, kind of on the edge of their seats [with] a lot of extra noise and stuff which was cool to see.
B: Yeah, I really feed off of that too. That helps a lot when you have the crowd behind you, it’s just that much easier to get into fight mode and get the job done.
E: Oh yeah, you dominated! You clearly have an attack stance that others weren’t really ready for.
B: I think it’s because where I did Taekwondo and martial arts for so long, I do have that wider stance as opposed to traditional boxers [who] are a little bit more tucked in with where their feet are. I like to sit back a little bit because it’s just more comfortable to me.
E: Well, it certainly worked out!
B: Yeah! I switch up my stance a lot too. People aren’t used to that. Most people stay in one side. I switch it up every now and then just to land certain shots.
E: We are down to our last question and this is actually one that was submitted from a viewer! We had cryptid_orchid on Instagram ask “Does she miss doing drag shows? she’s one of my favorites!”
B: You know, I really do. Drag was what helped me come out of my shell as a trans woman. It gave me a good jumping off point to further my transition and gave me the confidence that I needed to go out in the world as my true self. I love to dance, I’ll always dance! I think the fact that I’m passionate about dancing and expressing oneself in that way really kind of transfers over to my fight game to it. It’s all about footwork. If you’ve got the footwork, you’re gonna beat somebody to the punch. Pardon my pun, but yeah, um, maybe one day I’ll get back on the stage. Well, we’ll see. I did an open stage maybe about two years ago at Stonewall. I think that was my last time putting on my mug.
E: All right. Well, thank you Brittani!
B: No problem. It’s been a pleasure.
(The end.)
LIST of ALL 2023 Huntington WV TOUGHMAN WINNERS:
Men’s Divisons:
Heavyweight Class(216-400lbs)
Champion: Leon Moshefy (Tutor Key, KY)
Runner Up: Steven Bartley (Chesapeake, OH)
Cruiserweight (185-214lbs.)
Champion: Tyler Hunter (Staffordsville, KY)
Runner Up: James Waller (Huntington, WV)
Middleweight (160-184lbs.)
Champion: Cody Noble (Galapolis, OH)
Runner Up: Teonno White (Charleston, WV)
Welterweight (140-159lbs.)
Champion: Darryn Garnes (Bidwell, OH)
Runner Up: Joshua Glasure (Charleston, WV)
Bantamweight (Up to 139lbs.)
Champion: Brittni Vaughn (Barboursville, WV)
Runner Up: Heath Harless (Paintsville, KY)
Women’s Division:
Bantamweight (Up to 139lbs.)
Champion: Paige Neal (Fayetteville, WV)
Runner Up: Triniti Dungey (Charleston, WV)
ADDITIONAL TOUGHMAN DATES:
Parkersburg, WV – Feb 3 & 4
Wheeling, WV – Feb 17 & 18
Martinsburg, WV – March 17 &18
Beckley, WV – April 14 & 15
Check their website for more details: https://wvtoughman.com