Maxx Crosby is proud to say he's a UFC superfan, and it seems the UFC are big fans of the Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher, too.
Crosby appeared on the desk at ESPN's UFC Live during UFC Vegas 101, where he told host Karyn Bryant and former UFC lightweight Paul Felder about his love for the UFC, and how his father first got him into the sport of MMA during the Zuffa era of the promotion.
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"I was young and watching Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell and those guys – that's what my dad showed me," he said.
"So me and my brother would be like, literally in the living room, beating each other, trying to be UFC fighters.
"So it started when I was really young, and I've been a UFC superfan my whole life. And then, ironically, we happen to move to Vegas after my rookie season, and I told my wife, I told everybody, 'I'm going to as many fights as possible! I'm going to be in Vegas. I can't wait!'"
Crosby has become a familiar face at Octagonside at the UFC's big Las Vegas events at T-Mobile Arena, and his regular attendance at the big pay-per-view shows has led to him becoming firm friends with the top brass, including CEO Dana White and CBO Hunter Campbell, who would both love to see the Raiders star parlay his on-field aggression into a run of fights in the Octagon later in his athletic career.
"I went to a lot of fights, and then me and Dana bumped into each other a couple of times. Now, we're great friends, and we're just always chopping it up, back and forth. He wants me to be in the ring!" he said.
"Hunter Campbell, he's like, 'I'm telling you. 2030, you're going to be my heavyweight champ!' I'm like, 'Hey, we'll see!' But I already take a lot of damage to my body, so I don't know if we're going to be doing that. But we'll see what happens."
Crosby isn't just a keen observer of the sport, either. The six-foot-five, 255-pound defensive end is also happy to pull on the gloves and throw hands in the cage or the boxing ring, and he's done so with some notable names.
"Once I got older, I really got into boxing. So, the last four or five years, I've actually trained with real heavyweight boxers," he explained.
"Michael Hunter, for example, one of the best heavyweights in the world right now, we train all the time, and Dominick Cruz, I've just seen him in the hallway, me and him spar. We had a great session this off-season."
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Crosby also name-checked another UFC star as he revealed that he's engaged in some heavy rounds with former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
"There's some videos of me and Strickland are beating the hell out of each other," he grinned.
"I probably took more of the brunt of it, but we duked it out! I just love that competition. That's my nature."
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