Jordan Leavitt Grows From Overcoming The Conflict

But if you want to get some more insight on how the lightweight prospect differs from most in his position, realize that up until his recent submission win over Matt Sayles last December, he wasn’t truly convinced that he belonged…not just in the UFC, but in fighting.

“The fighter's journey is crazy, especially when you're undefeated in the amateurs, then you go pro and you make it to the UFC,” Leavitt explains. “It's like, ‘Am I really a fighter, though?’ Fighters have the ups and the downs and the overcoming, and I never really had that. So when I lost (to Claudio Puelles last June), I'm like, ‘Well, time to prove if I'm a fighter or not.’ And even after my debut, it was a highlight reel knockout and, in my head, I kept telling myself, 'Congratulations, you're a one-hit wonder.' If I would have stopped my career then, nothing would have ever mattered. I would have just been all this potential that never reached anything, and then I lost, so I'm like, is that gonna be the ending of my story? And when I got in there for my last fight, I felt very comfortable. It was a rough camp, lots of injuries, and I went out there and was still able to perform, and I was like, yeah, I'm a fighter.”

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Maybe he needed the validation of his second UFC victory (and finish) to reach that conclusion, but everyone looking from the outside knew he’s been the genuine article for a long time, whether he was building an unbeaten record on the regional scene, submitting Jose Flores on Dana White’s Contender Series to earn a UFC contract, or slamming Matt Wiman into defeat in 22 seconds in his Octagon debut. But maybe, just maybe, the 26-year-old overthinks things a little bit.

“I definitely think I overthink it,” he laughs. “And I do think for the longest time I needed to overthink it. It's a crazy thing that we do, day in and day out, especially that I have a lot of other avenues to pursue, and I still can pursue those things. So, for me, I really had to convince myself, okay, maybe you don't belong here, but you're still able to do these things, and try to reconcile all those conflicting emotions and feelings.

“There was just a lot of fear,” Leavitt continues. “If you reach too far and you fail, everyone will know that you're a failure because you're trying something that maybe didn't have guaranteed success or a guaranteed positive outcome. So I felt like a lot of the time I was just fighting myself about being a fighter and was always trying to talk myself out of it. And one thing my teammate taught me a few fights ago, he said, ‘Don't listen to yourself but you can always talk to yourself. If you listen to yourself, you're always gonna hear the negative, but if you talk to yourself you can choose what you're gonna put out there into your mind.’ That definitely made me see myself more as a fighter, and even if I don't feel like I fit in all the time, I'm doing better at being like a niche part of the community, and there's a sense of belonging now.”

Bouncing back from the first loss of his career to defeat Sayles in impressive fashion didn’t hurt either, and now he’ll look to make it 3-1 in the big show this weekend when he faces short-notice UFC newcomer Trey Ogden. On paper, it’s an intriguing clash of ground fighters, and that’s right up Leavitt’s alley, even if he did have to adjust to the opponent switch from Victor Martinez to Ogden. But that’s part of the fighter’s life, and remember, Leavitt’s a fighter, one who plans to stick around for a while.