Credit: LegacyFC

Forgive undefeated UFC newcomer Andrew Todhunter if he doesn't seem too giddy about his debut at UFC 188.

It's just that, you see, he's kind of been here, in a state of chaos, before. Maybe he hasn't been on this exact stage. He certainly hasn't fought in the UFC Octagon, and he's never faced anybody quite as dangerous as Albert Tumenov in his seven-fight professional career.

But as a former U.S. Army sniper who was wounded in Iraq and had to undergo three surgeries and rigorous physical therapy as a result, Todhunter just isn't easily fazed.

"Man, I was a sniper, you know?" Todhunter told Bleacher Report. "I'm pretty emotionless...The opportunity's great, the money's great, but it's not like I’m going to jump up and down."

After Hector Urbina pulled out of his originally scheduled bout against Tumenov with an apparent arm injury, UFC officials scrambled to find an opponent, according to Todhunter. Nobody answered the call before they buzzed him, but he gladly stepped in to save the day.

Forget that he was overweight. Forget that he'd previously competed at middleweight—never at welterweight—as a pro.

Forget that he had eight days to prepare for the biggest fight of his life and had fought in—and won—a professional boxing match at 197 pounds just two weeks earlier. Todhunter knows an opportunity when he sees it, and he pounces.

"I heard about the injury like two days ago," Todhunter said. "They [UFC officials] said they were going to scrub the fight if I didn’t make it. I guess they called around and tried to get people to take it, and no one would take it. I said, 'Well, what's the deal?' They said, 'We'll give you a four-fight contract, but you gotta fight in eight days.' OK. Sounds like a plan. And I have to lose a lot of weight. That's the kicker."

While he wouldn't disclose his exact weight as of Friday evening, Todhunter said he was "up there." He is, however, a professional who routinely cuts 20 pounds of water weight within one day of weigh-ins. He's also hired a doctor to help with this particular cut, so he believes he can get the job done and hit the 171-pound mark at UFC 188.

Also in his favor is the fact that he's no stranger to short-notice fights, and one particular instance from earlier in his career sounds a whole lot like his current situation when you hear him tell it. Sure, the stakes are higher now, but in the end, a fight's a fight, and he's been here before.

"I feel like it's been like that [short-notice] every fight," Todhunter said. "I fought for the amateur Oklahoma state championship against one of Dale 'Apollo' Cook's guys, a Golden Gloves boxer who wrestled, and I wasn't even training. I was drinking beer out on a boat with my friends."

The conversation, as Todhunter recalls, went something like this:

Dale Cook: Hey, I heard you're some kind of tough guy.

Andrew Todhunter: Who is this?

DC: This is Dale 'Apollo' Cook.

AT: Well, I wouldn't say that [that I'm a tough guy], but I'm not scared of you, if that's what you're getting at.

DC: Well, it's not me, but I got a fight, a title fight, and his opponent fell out.

AT: What kind of fight is it?

DC: It's an MMA fight.

AT: When is it?

DC: It's on Friday.

"This is on a Tuesday," Todhunter said. "I'm throwing back Bud Lights with my friends, but I said, 'Yeah, I can do it.' I was young back then, 21, 22. I actually went to the weigh-ins—I was like 192 back then, so it wasn't a big deal—and I was probably dehydrated from all the beer.

"So I went to the weigh-ins, weighed in, then we went back to partying like we just were. I never trained at all for it, then I went out and knocked him out in a minute and six seconds or something like that."

Fights like this give Todhunter the confidence he can pull off the seemingly impossible again. Fighting, as they say, is more mental than physical, and Todhunter believes it is here that he gains an edge over his competitors.

In the military, one particularly driven sergeant, Sergeant First Class Cashman, forced him and his platoon to endure a hellacious grind. This moment, Todhunter said, taught him what mental toughness was all about, and he's been imposing the lessons learned upon his opponents ever since.

"I had this 24-mile ruck march one time," Todhunter said. "My platoon sergeant, he was a Ranger instructor before he got to us, and he wanted to set records. So we ran this 24 miles for the base record with one-third of our body weight plus our body armor and our gun.

"So you take your body armor, your gun, then you weigh in and one-third of that weight has to be in your rucksack. So then you take off. Twenty-four miles is a long way, man. I remember my feet were bleeding. I was hurting, and this old man was just going. I say old, but I was like 19 at the time. He was like 35.

"I was like, 'This old man is not going to beat me down. There's no way.' He was just a regular guy, probably 5'8". Nothing crazy athletic, but he was the toughest motherf--ker mentally. That guy, I had him around me for the next year-and-a-half, and he taught me what mental toughness is all about.

"We were supposed to walk it. But he wanted to ruck-run it. And when you're in the military and your platoon sergeant says something, and not only does he say it, he does it, and he's 35 years old and 5'8" and he's putting a whooping on everybody, you gotta just bite down and go."

Todhunter knows his opponents haven't run 24 miles, feet bleeding and body aching, in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. There was no money at the end of that run, no big award ceremony. Bruce Buffer didn't raise his hand and announce his name to thousands of spectators when he crossed mile marker No. 24.

There was just the knowledge that he and his team accomplished what they set out to do and broke a base record in the process. That's where mental toughness comes from.

Losing some weight and fighting a world-class opponent in eight days, in this context, is nothing to get too excited about. While he recognizes that the weight cut and the short-notice scrap at a high-altitude venue will affect his performance, Todhunter thinks about Cashman chugging along, refusing to break under the weight of the moment, and it's here he draws power and inspiration.

"It's not humanly possible to lose the amount of weight I'm losing and go out there and perform at my absolute best, but the only thing I have to say about all that is: I'm not a quitter, man," Todhunter said. "You can beat my body, but you still gotta beat my mind."

When the lights go down in Mexico and the Fight Pass preliminary portion of the card kicks off, Tumenov will have to rise up to that challenge. As Todhunter sees it, the fight can go one of two ways. Win or lose, the result will be earned.

"Either he's [Tumenov's] going to stay on the feet and keep this fight standing, which, if that happens, then God bless him, because I've got some awesome f--king takedowns," Todhunter said. "If I can't take you down in 15 minutes, then God bless you, because I've been taking people down for 20 years who have good takedowns and takedown defense. That's how I feel about it.

"Or he gets taken down, and I win the fight. That's how the fight's going to go. That's how I see it in my head."