Issue 192

September 2020

The UFC featherweight on the chances to grow stronger in the pandemic

You have had a lot of success in the Octagon and at a higher level each time out. How great is it to see that hard work and dedication come to fruition on the sport’s biggest stage?

That’s just trusting the process, keeping your head down and going to work every day. We have good systems in place and good people around us and we are only getting better over here. I just got done training with my guy Rob Font. This kid is a monster. We train harder than everybody. We didn’t just fall into this position. We worked hard to get where we are at but we are not complacent. We are not done yet. We are excited to see where this thing goes. Now we are fighting the best guys in the world. It’s a great time to be a featherweight in the UFC right now. 

You mentioned Rob, so I’ll ask you about the New England Cartel. If you could share one gym story that would let our readers know what you guys are all about what story would that be?

It’s more just a culture, man. It’s a lot of shit talk and ragging on the guys. We keep it chippy. We keep it fun. It’s really the culture that we encompass each time we get together. There are no egos. There is a lot of shit talk followed by a lot of hard work. These guys are all hard workers and we just try to step it up in each practice.  

You seem like a very self-motivated person, but who are your inspirations? Who pushes you to strive for greatness every single day?

It’s a combination of things, man. I study the greats – the Tom Bradys, the Kobes, the Jordans. The Relentless book. It’s about studying the greats and understanding their mindsets. Aside from that, it’s just life throwing shit at you. When life just keeps beating on you and you keep coming back you realize how much you can handle and how much you can take. I’ve had nothing before, so I don’t mind going all-in every fight. I know I will come out the other end fine. I will survive, always. So, it’s that combination of studying the greats and life kicking you in the balls and you responding. I think adversity creates strong minds and strong bodies. I have always gone through things the hard way. I think you learn a lot more that way. 

You’ve fought your last few fights in front of, basically, nobody. What has it been like to fight in that environment?

That is how I try to envision it going into every fight. I’m usually already running on one hundred going into the fights. I don’t need the fans’ energy to get me overhyped. I try to tone it all out and focus on the cage and what I have to do. I try to stay even keeled and ready to go. I try to not get too high or too low. I’m just ready to go. Walking in there without the crowd was weird. It was weird hearing the commentators over the past few fights, too. ‘Oh Kattar lands a big shot and Jeremy just eats it.’ We are just kind of standing there looking at each other like that’s what happened. With the commentators it’s just like a normal Saturday at the gym and Rob Font is talking shit. He’s the commentator at the gym. ‘Oh you are going to get hit like that and do nothing? You are just going to get hit like that?’ He keeps the energy going. We have a good crew around and a lot of hard workers. People see what we have going on and they think it just falls into place.

How has COVID-19 and the pandemic in general changed your training over the past few months?

Everything about the whole entire process is different. I felt like throughout this whole pandemic there is a big opportunity for people to make mental gains. It is a challenging time but it leaves room for growth. You can get high with the high and low with the lows but I just keep training and keep my head down and dig deeper and work harder. If you do that enough every day, by the time you step into the Octagon on the day that the competition is happening you will be ready. You can develop that mental toughness to just train no matter what and understand that it’s about the journey as much as the destination. Work hard. Stay in the moment. Come fight night, the only thing that matters is what you have been doing all camp. People worry too much about what goes on outside the Octagon. My focus solely goes to what happens in that Octagon. They can do whatever they want leading up to the fight but once we step in the Octagon its go-time for fifteen minutes and that is my world.