"But it's not there anymore, that's why I forgot about what it's called. And then after that, I was so eager and so hungry to come back to the winning column that I bolted into these two matches, I bolted into these two fights. And I think I lost not specifically because of lack of skills or not knowing how to crack these opponents, but because mentally I wasn't in the right place."
"This actually has been the hardest three years probably of my entire life. First, there was an injury and a surgery, then the recovery, then this one thing I forgot, what was it called? Oh yeah, depression,"
"Before those two, I'd never even been knocked down before. But this time around I lost twice, and both knockouts. So that's a huge thing mentally for me to get over."
Nikita Krylov knocked out Modestas Bukauskas at 4:57 of the third round at UFC 324, ending a two-fight losing streak and earning his first win since 2023. Krylov said the past three years were the hardest of his life, citing an injury, surgery, recovery and depression. He described rushing back into two fights while mentally unprepared, blaming mood and emotional swings for those losses rather than a lack of skill. Prior to the Bukauskas win, Krylov suffered knockout losses to Dominick Reyes and Bogdan Guskov, and he emphasized that being knocked out twice was a major mental hurdle.
Read at Cageside Press
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