“Honestly, I went a long time and dealt with a lot of personal stuff,” said Stamann, who faces Douglas Silva de Andrade this Saturday in North Carolina. “Honestly, it wasn’t too personal cause it was public. But yeah, I think I just got in a weird rut. There was stuff in my life that kind of took the wind out of my sails. And I didn’t have it mentally and it showed when I fought. I thought I had it all together, but then when I fought, I think it came out and I didn’t have that dog in me anymore. Now, I don’t know who’s going to stop me from getting what I want. At this point, I’m ready to take this whole s**t over.”
In other words, this dog is back and barking louder than ever, and while he’s had to deal with the untimely death of his brother Jacob in 2020 and the losing streak, these days, everything is clicking and he’s realized how important the mental game is at the UFC level, where everyone has the physical tools to win any given fight.
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“Every single guy in the UFC is a great athlete, is well trained, and has the ability to shut your lights off or choke you out,” said Stamann. “We can all do it all at this point and everyone’s really, really good at what they do. So it’s just about who can put it together on fight night. And a lot of that comes down to what kind of stress are you under? Can you actually perform? Can you perform in front of a million people? Shooting a layup in your yard is easy. Shooting free throws, you might hit eight out of 10 and then you end up on a court and there’s thousands of people watching; you might not be able to get near the basket. And I think a lot of it just comes down to how mindful are you? How present are you? Do you let the moment overtake you? Do you let the pressure build up? Or do you just live in the moment? For me, it’s about mindfulness and just being present every day. Today, I’m just going to try to do the best I can to build a better tomorrow instead of, s**t, there’s a fight coming up and stressing about all the little things that you can stress about throughout the day.”
