“I told my coaches, this is going one of two ways: I’m finishing him or I’m gassing out in the third and getting my ass beat, because I’m not going to a decision,” the Missouri heavyweight said with a laugh. “The judges can clock out that night — they don’t need to be at the table, because that’s not happening.
Order UFC 279: Chimaev vs Diaz | Get Your Tickets Here
“As a man, I can handle somebody being better than me and they just kick my ass,” continued Collier. “What I can’t handle are three guys that think that other guy won. I cannot handle that!”
The 33-year-old heavyweight’s frustration with the folks turning in scorecards started two fights back when he dropped a split decision to Carlos Felipe at UFC 263, where the scores were 29-28 across the board.
But the one that really sticks in his craw is his last performance against Andrei Arlovski at the end of April.
For 15 minutes, the two men battled it out, Collier frequently being the one initiating the engagements and appearing to get the better of the exchanges, while Arlovski was content to look for counters and complain to the referee about the two men frequently clashing heads as they looked to exchange.
“That really pissed me off because we were both leading with our heads, but I wasn’t swooping my head into his head,” Collier said when asked about Arlovski’s gamesmanship. “There were a couple times he caught me in the temple where I was like, ‘Damn! I don’t know how many more of those I can take and still stay standing,’ because he was rocking me with those headbutts.
“He busted my nose open real bad, which made it look worse; made it look like I got damage inflicted on me. But other than my nose busted open from his headbutt, I really wasn’t beat up, and he’s over here like, ‘He keeps headbutting me!’”
UFC 279 Embedded: Episode 1 | Episode 2
A couple months removed from the fight and on the cusp of returning to the Octagon, he can laugh about the interactions and Arlovski playing to the officials but, in the moment, it seemed to contribute to how the fight was scored.
Standing in the center of the cage following the contest, Collier was confident he’d done enough to earn the victory, and his belief was bolstered when the first scorecard read aloud was a 30-27 in his favor. But the next two judges scored the fight 29-28 for the former heavyweight champion, resulting in Arlovski earning the victory, and Collier collapsing to his knees in disbelief.
“It was definitely frustrating. I thought I won every round, and then to hear the first judge say, ’30-27,’ I really thought I had it in the books, but then it was 29-28 for Arlovski, and I was just like, ‘Come on, man!’
“Even their corner was even coming over and congratulating me, and then they announced him as the winner,” he added with a chuckle. “It’s just like, ‘What do I gotta do to win a damn decision?’
“They say, ‘don’t leave it to the judges,’ and I don’t think there is a fighter in the world that wants to, but it is what it is.”
While the outcome from both his fight with Arlovski and his previous loss to Felipe still irk him, the veteran heavyweight hasn’t just been sitting around stewing on the decision. Instead, Collier returned home and put his energy towards figuring out what more he could do in order to give himself a better chance of avoiding those same situations in the future.
UFC 279 COUNTDOWN: Full Episode | Chimaev vs Diaz | Jingliang vs Ferguson
He started doing a ton of research on how to get his heart rate down quicker, how to improve his nutrition, and added post-workout ice baths into his routine.
Although each of those are pretty common elements to a fight camp and a fighter’s routine, they’re new wrinkles for Collier, who worked 12-hour days as a welder before squeezing in a training session at night all the way through his return to the Octagon in the summer of 2020 against Tom Aspinall.
“I never did any of that stuff, and the stuff works,” he said with a howl. “I’m a hardheaded guy. I’ve always just been the guy that just works. Hell, for 14 years, I got up every morning and welded from six ‘til about 4:30pm, got off there, and I’d drive 45 minutes to the gym, train, and get home at nine o’clock.
“I did that every day, just to work; it’s all I know.”
Following his loss to Aspinall, Collier hung up his welding mask and made a full-time commitment to pursuing his fighting career, and with each subsequent trek into the Octagon, he’s felt better and better, even if the results haven’t necessarily been there.
“I honestly feel like I’m really coming into my own now,” said Collier, who made his UFC debut at middleweight towards the end of 2014 and was on the sidelines for nearly three years prior to his bout with the British heavyweight on Fight Island due to myriad injuries and the COVID pandemic. “I’m feeling more comfortable in the cage, the bright lights don’t make me nervous no more; it’s just another day.
UFC 279 FREE FIGHTS: Tony Ferguson vs Katsunori Kikuno | Li Jingliang vs Muslim Salikhov | Khamzat Chimaev vs Gilbert Burns | Khamzat Chimaev vs Li Jingliang | Nate Diaz vs Cowboy Cerrone | Nate Diaz vs Conor McGregor
“I’m feeling good; I’ve been working on a lot of explosiveness. Dakota Bush has helped me out a lot for this training camp, and I feel like I’ve gotten a lot faster.
“Keeping up with his pace of the movement and combos, I really feel like it has taken me — I wouldn’t say I’ve grown leaps and bounds, but, at this level, you get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, and I think we’ve done that in this camp.”
And he hopes that helps him break from the “lose one, win one” pattern he’s maintained since the outset of his UFC career… starting after his fight with Barnett, of course.
“I’m tired of win-loss, win-loss, win-loss. I really got to start stringing some wins together because I don’t want to be that guy where it’s like, ‘Here’s a new guy; let’s put Jake against him!’ I want to be getting ranked higher and fighting some tough dudes, and all this win-loss s*** ain’t gonna work out.
“I’ve got to start stringing wins together,” he added. “You look at these guys outside the Top 10, and I can beat a lot of these guys. I can hang with these guys. I’m just as good as these guys, if not better than them.”
That includes Barnett.
“I’m a fan of Chris’ — I’ve been watching him since before he got to the UFC, and I’m a fan of him,” Collier said of his veteran dance partner, who earned a cult following during his days on the regional circuit for his unexpected athleticism and undeniable charisma. “His athleticism, the things he does for his size is not normal, and it really does fire me up.
In Vegas For UFC 279? Here’s What’s Going On For Fight Week!
“I think Chris is very good. I think he has a wild style. I don’t think he’s fought anybody that fights like me — I feel like I can do it all — but I think it will be a good fight.
“I know the main event is a big fight and the co-main is pretty good, but damn, dude — you look at our style, we have Fight of the Night written all over us, if one of us doesn’t go to sleep.”
Even if someone does get finished, the bonus potential remains, and you can be sure that the fired-up Collier will be coming out hot on Saturday night, doing everything in his power to render the judges and their scorecards moot when it comes to determining the outcome of the fight.
“I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty wound up for this one,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve got a guy that I’m going to fight that likes to put on a show, and I like to put on shows, too, so let’s go out there and have some fun.”
