Themba Gorimbo is fighting for more than himself on Saturday.
This Saturday, Gorimbo takes on Ramiz Brahimaj on the main card of UFC Vegas 92, where he looks to extend his current two-fight winning streak. And this weekend, Gorimbo has plenty of extra motivation, as a pair of personal incidents are fueling his efforts.
“I was trying to do this building of the library, and what happened is someone scammed me,” Gorimbo told Aaron Bronsteter. “So I didn’t end up doing that. Someone scammed me. I lost $5,000 from the person that said they were going to buy the shorts. They sent me a proof of payment that was fake. A guy from England. They wanted me to send the kit to them. Luckily, because they sent money to somebody in Zimbabwe ... and that guy gave me the money, we had already bought some stuff for the building of the library, and a few days later, the guy told me the money had not cleared his bank account. It was a scam.
“So I ended up losing money because I had to pay back the money to the guy who already bought stuff to start the building of the library. But now I’m going to do it after this fight with my own money. It is what it is. It’s life. It happens. You learn. Sometimes expensive lessons.”
A native of Zimbabwe, Gorimbo rose to prominence under the patronage of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson after getting his first UFC win and revealing that he only had $7 in his bank account. Since then, Gorimbo has been open about pursuing charitable endeavors back home in Africa, which this library was supposed to be part of. But despite this setback, “The Answer” is not deterred.
“I’m going to win in spectacular fashion on Saturday, I’m going to get a Performance of the Night bonus and I’m going to do it myself,” Gorimbo added.
And if this wasn’t enough on his plate already, another unfortunate incident befell Gorimbo on fight week when his coach’s mother passed away just hours before the UFC Vegas 92 media day. Speaking at that event on Wednesday, Gorimbo was overcome by emotion.
“All I know is I’m going to win in spectacular fashion for my coach, whose mother just died two hours ago,” Gorimbo said, breaking down in tears. “He’s been here with me for eight weeks. He tells me his mother is sick with cancer. He never told me it was that bad. I just said to him, ‘OK man, after the fight, we’ll go back to South Africa together.’ I didn’t have a plan to go there, but I was going to go with him to see his mother.
“His mother just died like three hours, two hours ago. I’m going to win for him. ... He sacrificed the past eight weeks of his life. Obviously I pay him to be here with me, helping me get better with my wrestling and stuff, but I cannot bring his mother back.”
UFC Vegas 92 takes place this Saturday at the UFC Apex, kicking off at 4 p.m. ET.
