Themba Gorimbo never wants his kids to attend his fights after ‘disturbing’ incident in recent win

Themba Gorimbo always fights for his family but that doesn’t mean he wants his family front and center whenever he competes.

While he never really contemplated his children attending one of his fights, that belief was only further strengthened following a rough outing in his most recent win where he bludgeoned Niko Price for the better part of 15 minutes to earn a unanimous decision win. Throughout the fight, Gorimbo revealed that he could hear Price’s kids cheering for their dad as he was dropping punches and elbows on him during the three round affair.

“It’s very, very disturbing,” Gorimbo told MMA Fighting. “I don’t understand why people bring their kids to the fight. But I get it, it works for some, it doesn’t work for some but damn. It was so bad. I don’t think it was right.”

It didn’t help matters much that Gorimbo was fighting Price at the UFC APEX, which is a notoriously quiet venue with only a small smattering of fans, friends and family members attending the events.

Perhaps that only made Price’s kids sound that much louder but Gorimbo admits it got in his head a little bit during some of the exchanges when he was really dishing out some punishment.

“It was very tough,” Gorimbo said. “I managed to get back into the fight many times but yeah, it is very important for me to focus on the fight more than focus on his kids. But those kids were yelling the whole time. ‘Let’s go Dad, let’s go Dad!.’ Oh my gosh. It was not nice.”

As a father himself, Gorimbo acknowledged that hearing those kids yelling throughout the fight probably affected him a little bit more but it also strengthened his belief that he’ll never allow his own children to sit front and center when he performs.

“No, they’ll never go to my fights,” Gorimbo said. “Never do that again. It’s not good. I think the fighting sport is not for kids. Leave the kids at home. We fight for them but not with them [there].”

Now as far as his kids watching his fights, Gorimbo admits that definitely happens but even that’s not necessarily what he wants.

“I’m not aware if they’re watching or not but they do watch. From home,” Gorimbo said. “But I’m not aware of it if they’re watching or not.”

On Saturday, Gorimbo looks to notch his fifth win in a row overall after calling his shot and stepping up on short notice to face Vicente Luque at UFC 310.

Unlike his previous fight, Gorimbo competes in front of a packed house at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this time around so it’s much less likely he’ll hear any specific person yelling at him — and that includes his opponent’s children.

As he works his way towards the top 15 rankings at welterweight, Gorimbo hopes maybe he can finally stick to shows with larger crowds in attendance.

“I was thinking I must not fight at the APEX anymore,” Gorimbo said. “Because it’s a little bit tough.”