PAUL CRAIG knows only too well how dangerous losing even one percent of drive can be. One of Scotland’s top mixed martial arts fighters will appear at UFC London next month but the Airdrie fighter endured what he describes as a “horrible” 2017, during which he lost both of his fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), including being on the wrong end of a knock-out at UFC Glasgow.
But after taking a good, hard look at himself following his second defeat, he realised that he had lost something of the drive and dedication that got him to UFC in the first place. “Last year, I wasn’t giving it my all,” he admitted. “One of the things I lost was a bit of my drive. Years ago, I’d set myself the goal of fighting in UFC and when I got there and I got my first win and also got performance of the night, I felt like where do I go now? I’d achieved all my goals. Life goes in peaks and troughs and I was in a real dip.”
Craig admits that recovering from his two defeats was not easy. What he needed was someone telling him the cold, hard truth, not tip-toeing around the facts – and that’s what he got. “The physical side is almost the easy bit because you just go into the gym and do as your coach tells you but it’s the mental side that’s tough,” he said. “So you need to have a very good team around you – the very last thing you need is people around you who blow smoke up your backside. I had two losses and so I knew I had to cut out all of the niceties and get back to the horrible stuff like going out running when it’s rain, wind, snow, whatever and get back to the really hard work.”
Craig is confident that he has rediscovered his motivation and is back to his best ahead of UFC London, where he will take on Russia’s Magomed Ankalaev, of whom he knows little about but is conscious that he will be a tough opponent. “He’s good at everything but that’s what I’d expect,” he said. “Everyone’s skill level in UFC is very similar so it comes down to who wants it more and who has prepared the best and I’m confident that’s me.”
Craig is back to battering his body into submission and it does, he admits, take a toll. But his last twelve months have taught him that there is no room for shortcuts in this game. “When I wake up every day and my body is in pain because I’ve pushed it so hard, I keep going because I know that’s what I need to do,” he said. “But that’s what makes me the fighter I am. If you do the hard work now, when it comes to fight night, that’s the easy bit.
While Craig’s for 2018 fight-wise remain unclear, one thing he is sure of is that he is going on a family holiday to Disneyworld with his two young daughters and while that sounds like a walk in the park in comparison to UFC, Craig would beg to differ. “Disney even though it’s my worst nightmare because I absolutely hate roller coasters – we’re designed to stand on two feet not get launched up in the air. And I hate flying too so I can’t think of a worse holiday to go on but I want to take them because they’ll absolutely love it.”
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