From zeros to heroes at the blink of an eye, a quick rise to the top takes cast-iron mentality. How to develop a champion's mentality.
Perched on his stool as doctors attended to his bloody face, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar sat somewhat bewildered, but knew exactly what was going on at UFC 121.
The Honda Center in Los Angeles had sold out; celebrities came out in droves to watch him.
The canyon below Lesnar’s left eye had finally stopped bleeding as his opponent, Cain Velasquez, stood in the middle of the Octagon.
UFC president Dana White wrapped the belt around the new champion’s waist.
Indeed, Lesnar came in a -150 favorite over Velasquez, but the fight served as a microcosm of meteoric career trajectories.
With a relative neophyte record of just 2-1, Lesnar had quickly earned a title shot against then-champ Randy Couture. Lesnar overwhelmed the smaller Couture to take the strap, but pundits all agreed – how did Lesnar get a title shot so fast?
His WWE cache aside, Lesnar had become a superstar in the UFC seemingly overnight and now was watching Velasquez do the same.
In the middle of the Octagon, Velasquez exclaimed to the audience: “Todos Latinos! We did it, huh?”
The salty brio of the crowd confirmed Velasquez’s arrival into superstardom. However, reaching the top so quickly also begs a fall just as swift.
To avoid that, fighters must stay healthy, deal with distractions – including a myriad of non-fight related issues – or be swallowed whole and drown in the hype that created them.
Some fighters must battle physical injury while on the fast track, like Lesnar, who has been battling diverticulitis for three years.
One way or another, overnight success takes as much fortitude as grinding your way to the top.
STAYING GROUNDED
The son of a Baptist minister, Jon Jones had always used his family and faith to stay grounded.
Certainly being the younger brother of two offensive linemen – one in the NFL and the other at Syracuse University – kept Jon in check, as well. Now, as the UFC light heavyweight champ, Jones has had to lean on both family and faith even more.
“My faith in God empowers me,” the 13-1 Jones says.
“But I give credit to my brothers for everything. They were always the more athletic ones. That’s how I got my nickname ‘Bones.’
I was always the skinny guy. If I didn’t want to get left behind, I always had to do more.”
Jones certainly did more on his way to becoming a UFC champion.
His ascension might seem quick considering he is just 24 years old and it has been barely 36 months since his very first professional MMA fight. But before Jones entered the UFC Octagon he actually fought every week to start his career.
Beginning with his April 12th 2008, win against Brad Bernard in Foxboro, Mass.
Jones then knocked out Carlos Eduardo the next week, then submitted Anthony Pina the week after that, then TKO’d Ryan Verrett the week after that, completing a month-long crucible of fights.
To withstand a month of weekly fights, not to mention the training, Jones had to push himself, mentally, and begin viewing himself as something more than a simple cage fighter.
To survive, he had to see himself as an artist, lest he find himself being ground down by the brutality and occasional banality of combat.
“Real martial artists are not just cage fighters,” Jones says.
“Take any other guy just training for a year. If I had that mentality, I would have hurt myself.”
As a college wrestler, Jones owned supreme confidence in his skills.
He has transformed that supreme confidence into supreme humility in the wake of his success within the UFC. His trainer, Greg Jackson, has had plenty to do with that.
“He’s teaching me the dos and don’ts of the sport,” says Jones.
“More than being a strategist, Greg helps you understand how to endure the sport. He tries to imbue the warrior spirit in you.
That’s a major advantage to my game. It gives me a base to work off of. You never catch him swearing, and he’s always got a positive mental outlook on things. More importantly, he’s not trying to change me.
He’s sort of a hippie like that!”
Jones said that thinking about the techniques Jackson has shown is about as good as doing it.
He considers himself a cerebral fighter, one who can compartmentalize where and with whom he dedicates time. Training, family – which includes his daughters, Leah and Carmen – keep him grounded, as well.
Getting to the top has been worth all the hard work, but Jones knows it will take as much mental fortitude as physical to remain there.
Jones’ best friend, Jed Michael knows him well.
“There’s no denying he’s athletically gifted,” Michael concedes.
“But there’s no doubt he has a superior mind about this stuff. He doesn’t get unbalanced physically or psychologically. And he’s grateful for what he learns and achieves.”
PRESSURE OF THE PEOPLE
With the tattoo ‘BROWN PRIDE’ etched across his chest, Cain Velasquez has made himself a lightning rod for admiration in the Latino community. His quick rise through the UFC ranks has established him as a bona fide hero and legend among la raza (Spanish for, the people).
He understands this pressure – to represent an entire race, to be the face of the fastest growing population in the United States – but that doesn’t mean he feels it.
“There aren’t too many Mexican heavyweights, if any, in any sport,” Velasquez says. “As far as being someone people can look up to, I don’t feel any pressure to be that role model.”
However, his mother, Isabel, recalls a conversation she had with Cain emphasizing he should.
“I just never spoke a whole lot of Spanish with him,” his mother says. “But he went out and learned how to speak it on his own.
He understood the marketing and promotion that was going to go along with his rise. And because he had that ‘BROWN PRIDE’ tattoo, I told him, ‘Yeah, you better know how to speak Spanish.’”
Likewise, Velasquez relies on not only the family he grew up with to keep him grounded, but also the one he’s made.
He and his wife, also named Isabel, dote on their daughter Coral.
He retreats to them when he feels he’s being pulled in too many directions – an oasis amid the storm.
“[Cain and Isabel] have such a good relationship,” says his mother.
“He will do anything for her and Coral.”
Being well-grounded like Jones and Velasquez is what separates a competitor from a champion. Yet being a belt holder brings more than just the pressure to keep it: you also have to live up to your own hype.
SHOWTIME IN NO TIME
Over the last year, UFC lightweight Anthony Pettis was the hottest thing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a city that is cold eight months of the year.
The last lightweight champion of the now annexed WEC, there wasn’t enough of Pettis to go around.
He opened his own gym alongside his coach, kickboxing legend Duke Roufus. He opened his own MMA bar in downtown Milwaukee, called what else? Showtime Bar and Grill. In just about two years, he was set for a bout against UFC veteran Clay Guida, likely for number-one contender status to the UFC lightweight belt.
That kind of rapid success can have a glazing effect on one’s personality or a galvanizing one.
With a glaze, things become superficial, momentary and lack depth.
This can be applied to friendships, business relationships, fight-team unity.
With Pettis, however, it became galvanizing.
“I have learned so much in such a short time,” Pettis says. “I learned how to run a business – I had already run my own taekwondo dojo with my brother – but I opened up my bar and another gym.
I took business classes. I saw how the UFC liked to promote things.”
Critics of Pettis said he was offered a title shot at the WEC lightweight title too soon. Like Velasquez and Jones, ability and performance trumped all. And when Pettis knocked down Ben Henderson with an epic high kick off the cage wall, he cemented his marketability within MMA.
On YouTube alone, clips of Pettis’ “kick seen ‘round the world” had garnered more than 1.5 million views collectively.
However, for Pettis, Jones and Velasquez, their paths were not entirely smooth. For Velasquez, his lackluster performance against Cheick Kongo at UFC 99 saw him take several massive punches that stunned him and exposed holes in his stand-up game.
For Jones, he learned a hard lesson about throwing 12-to-6 elbows. Although he was dominating Matt Hamill at The Ultimate Fighter finale in December 2009, Jones was disqualified for those illegal elbows, still his only loss to date.
And as for Pettis, he lost his bout with Guida in June as ‘The Capenter’ exposed holes in Pettis’ takedown defense.
Still, it comes down to the team that surrounds that fast-track superstar that will dictate just how long that gravy train goes.
“Everything happened so quickly,” assesses Pettis.
“But it was good that I have a great team behind me. Having a good bunch of guys around you is important.”
GETTING INTO THE FAST LANE: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
For guys like Cain Velasquez and Jon Jones, it seemed like the seas parted and they simply walked up to their title shots.
Of course, that’s not what happened. While they didn’t have to wait four years for a title shot, both paid their dues and then some.
But here are a couple of things – besides winning – that might help you get on that fast track...
Stay healthy.
Velasquez, Jones and Pettis all have stayed healthy, due in part to dedicated training. This means smart training, not overtraining, and listening to one’s body. This also is helped in part by their bouts.
All three of these fighters have taken minimal damage during their bouts (until their title fights, ironically), which is more a testament to their ability and skill than anything else.
And nothing derails a career trajectory more than bowing out of a bout due to a training injury or doing a stint on an extended injury suspension list after a fight.
Be marketable and well spoken.
While Velasquez is not the most verbose or effusive speaker, he does appeal to a large Latino demographic that has grown by leaps and bounds since his ascension.
Being the first Latino heavyweight champion in any combat sport is impressive enough. Jones however, with his churchy approach and beaming smile, looks like the boy next-door – even Jay Leno liked him!
Fight and defeat ‘Irish’ Jake O’Brien.
OK, Pettis never fought him, but both Jones and Velasquez went through O’Brien on their road to stardom.
Unfortunately, the shoulder of the road to success is littered with grinders and organizational guys like O’Brien who put up a good fight and have a little name recognition. O’Brien was cut by the UFC in 2010.
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