While he wasn’t ready to divulge the specifics of what he’s been focused on over these past months, the candid 27-year-old did acknowledge that the loss, coupled with another extended stay on the sidelines, gave him plenty of time to think about where he stands in his career and what he wants for himself going forward.
And it prompted him to admit some difficult truths about the effort he’s put forth in the past, and what needed to change as he begins this next chapter of his UFC career on Saturday night.
Preview Every Fight Happening In Mexico City
“I’ve had a lot of down time and have made up my mind on some of the things that I want to do from here on,” began Puelles, who made his promotional debut in Mexico City in November 2016 and carries a 13-3 overall record into his clash with Ziam. „I started thinking, ‘I’m not 21, 22 anymore.’ It’s not ‘in 10 years, I’m only going to be 31, 32.’ Now, in 10 years I’m gonna be 37, 38, and when I say 37, 38, I visualize the end of my career; maybe I’m already done.
“I’ve been fighting since I was 15. At 38, I probably already want to be done with the sport, and that tells me, ‘Okay, you’ve got to really put the effort in’ because I don’t want to look back and think, ‘I could have done more.’
“Honestly, this is gonna be my eighth year in the UFC, and I feel out of the eight, I’ve only put 100 percent in three years out of the eight,” he admitted. “The other five, I have been either after a surgery or I haven’t been training or there was the pandemic.
“Most of my time in the UFC, I haven’t been training 100 percent, so I want to make that time up with the next seven or eight years — giving 100 percent in training; training year-round, not only when I have a fight.”
