PHOENIX -- If you can look long enough past the aggressive tattoos, dark sunglasses and jet-black floppy hair of rising UFC featherweight Tommy "Gun" McMillen, you'll notice a calculated businessman who espouses just as much method when he speaks as he does madness. In only 12 months, the trash-talking, hard-partying and bonus-cashing native of Great Falls, Montana, has taken the UFC by storm with a thrilling, come-from-behind victory last fall on "Dana White's Contender Series" to earn a contract and a pair of exciting finishes inside the Octagon that have made the 28-year-old feel like an overnight success. The reality is that McMillen (11-0), who often refers to himself in the third person as "Gunz," is where he's at as much for his sheer will and maniacal hard work as he is because of a seemingly other-worldly level of confidence that suggests his success was a foregone conclusion.
In fact, if you talk to him long enough about his plan to take over the sport, you'll often hear McMillen repeat the same line to close many of his responses. "This is unfolding just like I knew it would." McMillen, who packed up and left Montana while still a teenager to move to Phoenix and rent a room inside the house of future UFC bantamweight champion "Suga" Sean O'Malley, became the first fighter to be cornered by O'Malley and head coach Tim Welch while representing their Red Hawk Academy banner. Years later, McMillen appears to be knocking loudly on the door of breakout stardom entering Saturday's return.
FC numbered event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription! Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year! "[McMillen] is one of those rare kids that is born to fight," O'Malley told CBS Sports last month.
"His whole life has revolved around fighting and it shows." Just two months removed from stealing the show at UFC Fight Night in Oklahoma City, when he outbrawled and finished Alberto Montes to break Nate Diaz's long-standing UFC record for most significant strikes landed in a three-round bout, McMillen will enter as a small betting favorite when he faces knockout artist Marwan "Freaky" Rahiki (9-0) in a featured fight at Noche UFC in nearby Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale (5 p.m. ET main card start, Paramount+). A victory would catapult McMillen from prospect to contender in the 145-pound division just five months into his UFC career while a loss would satisfy his many vocal detractors who believe "Tommy Gun" is an overhyped attention seeker who has yet to defeat anyone with a name and employs a reckless fighting style that will prove unsustainable at the elite level.
"That's 20-plus years, two decades of obsessing over the same vision, over and over again," McMillen told CBS Sports. That's something that a lot of these guys haven't done and can't go back and get. It's something that just has to be in you.
It's that hunger that has been in me since a little kid and has driven me to where I'm at. That's why it truly feels like destiny. "This is a lot bigger than just me and I think a lot of people are starting to realize that now." In the three-plus decades of promoting up-and-coming fighters flashing future star potential, UFC has produced a number of athletes who became household names while creating a set of unique archetypes fans can easily identify with.
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