(Photo by Esther Lin for MMAFighting.com)
At just 23-years of age, Sean Strickland has amassed an impressive 15-0 undefeated record.
With two fights inside the Octagon in 2014, the man known as “Tarzan” will look to keep his record unblemished against Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC Fight Night 61 in Brazil.
Even though he has yet to lose a fight, his mindset changes on a day to day basis.
“I had a kid come up to me, a high school wrestler, and he lost a match,” Strickland told MMASucka.com. “He was like, ‘Well you don’t know what it’s like, you’ve never lost.’ I’m like, yeah I haven’t lost yet, but there are some days when I step in the gym and I’ll have an amateur go toe to toe with me and take me down and submit me or a white belt. There are some days when I wake up and I’m like, ‘You’re a piece of shit. You do not belong in the UFC. How do you let this guy just destroy you?’ Then some days, I’ll jump in the gym and I’ll spar some of the best guys in the world and completely dominate. Then I feel like I am the best, I am great. Everyone has their day and that’s where the mental training comes in and you have to make every time you step in the cage your day.”
His first professional bout was 2008 and even after a seven-plus year career, Strickland never actually thought he’d be a fighter.
“I never intended on being a fighter, it was just a bi-product of training. When I was a kid, I always dreamed while watching guys on the UFC, but I think a lot of reasons why we fight is because we are trying to overcome something. I never thought I’d be here.”
Every day I wake up and think, ‘Oh I’m a UFC fighter.’ I still feel like I’m the same loser kid I was that just has a past time I’m good at.”
Over the past several years, fighters have learned that mental training is just as big an aspect to the sport, as physical training is — in fact it could be even bigger. His last outing against former Ultimate Fighter competitor Luke Barnatt weighed on Strickland’s mind and he has since realized how to focus on what needs to be done in the cage.
“Fighting is such a mental game as people know,” said Strickland. “Say you brought Luke Barnatt to the gym, I would run him over, I would play with him. But in a fight, there is a lot more things going on in your mind. For instance, in the later rounds if you miss a takedown, if you fatigue and this and that. My brain was overworking and had me overthinking. I learned that I just need to shut it off and just do what I do. Not think about what I do and it was a big reason why I wasn’t pulling the trigger in that last fight.”
On top of the mental weakness in that UFC Fight Night 41 bout, he didn’t want that fight. There is a habit that the California native has and it could have turned out bad in his last outing.
“I didn’t really want that fight. I have a bad habit of just not turning things down. I should have turned the fight down and told them I really want to get down to 170. But I’m not the guy that does that. So when they offered me the fight, I just jumped on it and I took it.”
This fight is different. I wanted this fight. It’s hard to take a fight when your heads not in it. I don’t think my head was really in the fight. I was the one bugging the UFC to get me on a card. I didn’t care if it was in Brazil, I didn’t care what country it was in, I just wanted to fight.”
With just under nine-months out of action, Strickland completely changed up his training camp for his 170-pound debut. There are a ton of high level gyms in the California area and for his bout with Ponzinibbio he has spent part of his time with a UFC veteran, as well as Reign Training Center.
“I completely switched up my training. I left my old gym and I went to Millennia with [Lorenz] Larkin and then this camp, I did three weeks up at Dethrone with [Josh] Koscheck and then the last two weeks I’m at Reign right now, so I definitely picked up my training.”
Everyone’s goal is UFC gold, but Strickland knows it’ll take some time to get there. He has short term and long term goals for himself — moving up the ladder is on top of that list.
“Time will tell. If I win, I mean I will win, but how I win, where is it going to put me. If I go and I just mop him up and it’s an easy fight, then jump me back in the cage, just keep climbing the ladder. I’m the kind of guy, if I go and I see a hole in my game, I want to fix it. So after this win, I just want to keep climbing the ladder, I want to get ranked at 170 and I just want to move up.”
Every fight the UFC gives me I want to beat them and I want to beat them impressively. I’m hoping to get three or four fights in this year if all goes well. If I can get three or four wins this year, it’ll put me in a good ranked spot for 2016 to really make my mark for a 170-pound title shot. But that’s a long way down the road and I have a long roster of guys to beat before I get there.”
There is one thing that Strickland knows for certain. It’s something that every fighter believes in their mind prior to stepping inside the Octagon, but the 23-year-old’s mindset is so high that he knows he will be able to stop his Brazilian foe in front of his home country.
“The thing that separates the great fighters from the OK fighters, is we’re all training the same way, we’re all doing the same stuff, great fighters are able to mentally handle fights better. I feel like Ponzinibbio, every fight he fights is exactly the same and I feel that I have the tools to exploit what he does. I don’t know how I’m going to finish him, but I will finish him.”
