Rob Brant certainly knows his way around the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota, a venue in his home state where the St. Paul native has boxed 11 times in his 25 career fights.
He knows where to park, where the dressing rooms are and where the news conference will be. He knows the place like the back of his hand.
"And I know where the good places are to eat there and where the ones that aren't so good are," Brant joked this week.
But something is a little different for Brant this week as he prepares for his next fight, No. 12 at the venue. He will go into it coming off the biggest victory of his career and with a secondary middleweight world title, which he will defend for the first time in a homecoming bout against unbeaten Khasan Baysangurov on Friday in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (9 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN Deportes with preliminaries on ESPN+ beginning at 6 p.m. ET).
Brant said he's excited to return to a place a little over an hour's drive from where he grew up and where he has fought so often. He is keeping a low profile during fight week, letting his wife, Tiffany, handle the logistics and ticket request for what he said will be more than 100 family members and close friends.
"It means a whole lot to have my first title defense here. It's a very comfortable place for me," said Brant, who lives in Dallas and trains in Las Vegas but still has family connections to the area. "I try to keep an even keel. I don't talk to a lot of my friends and family until after the fight, but I am very excited and ecstatic to fight in Minnesota. I am very honored to fight here."
But he knows to focus on the fight and not get caught up in the hoopla of his first fight in the four months since he stunningly and easily outpointed Japanese star Ryota Murata in a lopsided decision win to seize the 160-pound belt on Oct. 20.
"It's a motivation for me to bring this title fight home, but I can see it being a distraction if I was out doing meet-and-greets while I was in town," he said. "But I really seclude myself prefight. After the fight, we'll have a very good time."
Brant and Greg Cohen, who began promoting him in his 15th fight when he partnered with Cory Rapacz, signed a co-promotional deal with Top Rank before the mandatory fight with Murata. They have come a long way since their modest beginnings together.
"I feel the need to work a lot harder now that I have this title. Once you get something so big, you don't want to lose it or have anyone take it away. Becoming a champion is only the beginning. I've already been boxing longer than I have left in the sport, so for me this title is more motivation to work hard. I want to be active, fight three times a year. This is what I decided to do with my life, so this is what I'm gonna do." Rob Brant
"How many fighters get to have 11 fights out of [their first 25] in the same spot? It's pretty cool," Cohen said. "I've [promoted] double-digit shows at the Grand Casino. It's like home. It's comfortable. I can't think of a more fitting venue for Rob's first title defense. We've been sold out for a couple of weeks. It will be standing room only."
Cohen said the venue's capacity is about 3,000. The city of Hinckley's population is only about 1,800.
If Brant (24-1, 16 KOs), 28, continues to turn in eye-catching and entertaining performances like he did against Murata -- a fight in which he unleashed 1,262 punches and won 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110 -- he will move on to bigger venues and fights.
There has not been much time between Brant's title victory and his preparation for the fight with Baysangurov (17-0, 7 KOs), 21, who was born in Russia, fights out of Ukraine and will be boxing in the United States for the first time. He is the younger brother of former junior middleweight world titlist Zaurbek Baysangurov, who retired in 2014.
Life, Brant said, hasn't changed much since winning the belt. He said it took a little while for it to sink in that he had accomplished a lifelong dream, especially after the severe disappointment of a horrendous performance when he moved up to super middleweight and lost a lopsided decision to former light heavyweight titleholder Juergen Braehmer in Germany in the World Boxing Super Series tournament in October 2017.
"Some people it hits them right away, that they just won this big fight, but that isn't how it was for me after I beat Murata, an Olympic gold medalist," Brant said. "It came later. I was on vacation with my wife in Anguilla [a Caribbean island], and it hit me in a weird way. I'm sitting there on the beach, and I was thinking how I always told myself that I would beat that dude [Murata] and take the title from him. And then it hit me -- I wondered how many people watched me beat Murata and said the same thing: that one day they would beat me and take my belt. It hit me that I had done that."
Rob Brant dominates Ryota Murata to win the WBA middleweight championship by unanimous decision.
Brant didn't know at the time that he would be fighting Baysangurov so soon after the fight with Murata, but he said he still did some light training and running even while on his two-week vacation.
"I feel the need to work a lot harder now that I have this title," Brant said. "Once you get something so big, you don't want to lose it or have anyone take it away. Becoming a champion is only the beginning. I've already been boxing longer than I have left in the sport, so for me this title is more motivation to work hard. I want to be active, fight three times a year. This is what I decided to do with my life, so this is what I'm gonna do.
"I'm 28, but there's not a lot of time left. I'm not going to be boxing for 10 more years. This is the main stage of boxing, so if you don't work hard, somebody can beat you. I take it very seriously. However much time I have left in boxing, which I hope is lengthy, you push forward. At this level, there are no easy fights."
He fights in a deep weight class that also includes unified champion Canelo Alvarez, boxing's biggest star; former champion Gennady Golovkin, also a major star; titleholders Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade; and interim titlist Jermall Charlo. Brant fights on ESPN; Alvarez, Jacobs and Andrade fight on DAZN; Charlo is tied to Premier Boxing Champions, which has fights on Showtime and Fox; and GGG is still deciding among the various offers he has. So even though politics could prevent potential major fights for Brant in the near future, he said he is not concerned about that.
"Everything is going exactly where it should be going for me, in the right direction. Now it's time for me to do my job," he said. "I feel like the path is out there. I'm in my physical prime, and it's time to make a run at greatness. This belt is a launching pad, but there are other belts. Can't be truly content until there's one champion.
"I think once there's a hard enough push from fans and there's too much money in one of these fights not to make the fight, they'll happen. I just need to continue to win. I could spend my time calling out guys with different sanctioning bodies and networks and get momentum going, but the biggest momentum is to win and beat people. That's where my head's at. Winning and looking good can pump you up more than your mouth. It's on me to win and win impressively. It means go out there, be entertaining and be a fighter people want to watch, and then the bigger names will call you."
The tripleheader will also feature bantamweight Joshua Greer (19-1-1, 11 KOs), 24, of Chicago, who has notched six consecutive knockouts, in the co-feature against Giovanni Escaner (19-3, 12 KOs), 28, of the Philippines, in a 10-round fight, plus junior lightweight Mikaela Mayer (9-0, 4 KOs), 28, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Los Angeles, in an eight-rounder against Yareli Larios (13-1-1, 3 KOs), 20, of Mexico.