Dylan Budka, “The Mindless Hulk,” was welcomed into the Ultimate Fighting Competition umbrella on Sept. 5.
The Dundalk native, armed with a drive forged from a life defined by his competitive edge, rattled off 18 amateur fights in one year to force the attention of Dana White and Co.
A convincing win against Chad Hanekom in the Dana White Contender Series netted him his payday, a fresh UFC contract. This was the big break he’s waited for, which also served as his ticket to the potential glory that professional fighting can bring.
“The sport has done way more for me than just allow me to win, it’s allowed me to learn who I am as a man and how to adapt,” Budka said on Glenn Clark Radio Sept. 13. “That night, a lot changed for me inside and on the outside because I was finally able to accomplish that big goal that my dad wanted me to, too.”
Budka was raised on a steady appetite of team sports all the way up through high school. (He attended both Dundalk and Kenwood High.) He was convinced he’d make it to the professional ranks through one of his athletic skills. While he initially assumed it would be as a star football or baseball player, wrestling edged his other interests out as he left home for college.
“My senior year I decided, ‘All right, let’s just do it. Let’s wrestle a little bit in college and try to win an Olympic championship,'” Budka said.
He wrestled for a year at Ohio’s Urbana University before transferring to Ohio’s Notre Dame College. That’s where he further convinced himself of making the leap, seeing himself in the professionals who passed through his gym.
“When I went there, at the end of practice, I would see fighters come train in there from Ohio,” he said. “Notre Dame was one of the biggest colleges for wrestling in Ohio, so a lot of fighters from around this area go there. … I would just peek my head in, see what they’re doing and go like, ‘Damn, maybe I could do that, too.'”
He started training with the Demolition Fight Team Gym in Findlay, Ohio, straight out of college, dabbling in MMA training in preparation for some of his first professional fighting experiences. When Premier MMA Championship asked him why he got into mixed martial arts, he answered, “I like punching people in their mouth.”
Budka’s intensity and commitment to his job as a full-time fighter soon separated him from the pack, as he delved all the way into strengthening his experience by challenging any threat he purposefully crossed paths with.
“As an amateur, I fought for literally every promotion I could possibly find,” he said. “I was, like, stalking all the best people in my weight class, trying to find who I could beat, where I could beat ’em, what states I could beat ’em in. I fought in Alabama. I fought in Kentucky. I fought in Ohio [and Pennsylvania. I went to all the best states and tried to beat all the best guys that were in my weight class at the time.”
UFC president Dana White and his scouts soon took notice of Budka, with his work ethic and raw talent standing out enough to land him a spot on the Dana White Contender Series, where the winning fighters are rewarded with a UFC contract. Budka, who finally got the series invitation while on vacation with his sister, dropped everything to chase his goal, a date in the ring with Hanekom. He prevailed by unanimous decision.
His UFC deal was three years in the making after hurtling through the middleweight circuit, just the break he’s looked for after losing both of his parents within the last year. The sacrifice his parents made in getting Budka involved in athletics at a young age is something he’s eternally grateful for.
“In that moment, I felt like I was finally at peace for the first time in a long time,” he said.
But The Mindless Hulk, ever the workhorse, has already rejected complacency. Now that he’s a signed fighter, the 35th-ranked Pro Men’s Middleweight in America looks to stay awhile by showing off what his journey has taught him.
“I want to bang these next four fights out as quick as possible and get to the next contract,” Budka said. “I’m ready to take over the middleweight division if it’s that or the welterweight division, and I’m ready to bring a strap back to Baltimore, too.”
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Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dylan Budka