It’s an attitude necessary for success in any field, especially in mixed martial arts. If you want to be at the highest level, you have to do everything necessary to get there. And even with the setback on the Contender Series, Kailua’s Day knew it was just a matter of time.
“I think I stayed positive just by realizing that you have to take these setbacks as opportunities to learn and get better,” he said. “Maybe that was a way of God telling me that I wasn’t ready for the UFC yet. I believe I was, but now I have no doubt in my mind that I’m even more ready and I’ve gotten that much better. So maybe it’s all for the best, and you just gotta stay positive by knowing that these are all learning experiences.”
Knowing it for yourself is one thing. Convincing the UFC is another. That’s where Day’s manager Jason House came in, and after each one of his fighter’s post-Contender Series wins, he was on the phone with UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.
“He’s been hustling hard for me and after each one of those wins, he was in Sean Shelby’s ear, sending him highlight videos,” said Day, who also has the Hawaii Elite MMA and Technics Jiu-Jitsu squads in his corner, making sure that the work in the gym is harder than the work on fight night.
“A mistake a lot of fighters make is they like to do their own thing and they don’t like to surround themselves with the vets,” he said. “But to get to the top you’ve got to surround yourself with the vets, you’ve got to face adversity in the gym and overcome it, day in and day out. You learn from your coaches, obviously, but you learn a helluva lot from your training partners too.”
