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Joe Rogan and Sean O'Malley are opening up about the mental and emotional toll a fight takes on the competitors.
O'Malley joined Joe Rogan on episode 133 of his Joe Rogan Experience MMA show, where he discussed the pre-fight emotions he went through as well as the fighter's mindset. During the conversation, Rogan mentioned nervous energy and tensions is something fighters can't and used Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya as an example by saying:
"When you're looking at like Alex Pereira looking at 'Stylebender' (Adesanya) in the faceoff. There has to be some crazy heightened sense of tension and awareness and the moment and it's a crazy big fight. I don't think you get away without not having that. I think everybody has it, it's just some people handle it better. And I think the guys that don't have it, I think sometimes they get in trouble."
'Sugar' brought up his most recent fight against Petr Yan and mentioned that he didn't feel overwhelming pressure and found himself having a better mindset heading into the fight:
"Going in there with Petr (Yan), I felt no nerves, I felt so calm. And I've had nerves...my debut when I fought Terrion Ware, I remember in the backstage like closing my eyes too long and I was thinking, 'If I lose this and then lose one more, I could get cut.' Like having that though vividly and I was like, 'woah, f*** that', counter that obviosly with some postitive s***t."
'Sugar' has clearly done well managing his emotions as he is on a roll in a stacked UFC bantamweight division. He is currently the No.1 ranked bantamweight, coming off a split decision win against the former champion. This extended his winning streak to 4 straight wins.
Check out the full video:
Joe Rogan and Sean O'Malley discussed the importance of controlling emotions
During his conversation with UFC bantamweight Sean O'Malley, Joe Rogan brought up the importance of fighters controlling their emotions.
The UFC commentator and podcast host mentioned that making it a normal feeling to control emotions under difficult circumstances is a difficult skill to learn.
"For you, I'm sure you get heightened senses and you get fired up and your adrenaline kicks in but this is a normal thing to you. There's people that just would completely freeze and not be able to walk into the cage, they would have a panic attack. But you have done it so many times. I think that that's the case with all things that are difficult to do."
Rogan alluded to how not being able to clear their conscience and be aware has led to fighters losing their bouts. Not being in-control of emotions can be detrimental to a fighter's career because they could be too preoccupied with thinking of hypotheticals like title shots or possibly being cut from the promotion instead of focusing on the task at hand.
