Athletes
Blake Bilder Made The Right Adjustments
UFC Featherweight Blake Bilder Feels He Made The Necessary Changes To Bounce-Back In A Big Way At UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs Imavov.
A couple weeks away from his one-year anniversary as a UFC fighter, Blake Bilder has experienced all the emotions you can imagine.
“It's been a beautiful experience,” he said. “A lot of ups and downs. The highest highs, the lowest lows. Losing a fight is like…I've never been divorced, but it’s like losing a serious girlfriend or losing a significant other. It's tough, because the fans can be ruthless.”
Owner of a 7-0-1 record when he arrived in the Octagon on the heels of a 2022 win over Alexander Morgan on season six of Dana White’s Contender Series, Bilder made it 8-0-1 when he defeated Shane Young last February. But four months later, he suffered his first pro loss at the hands of Kyle Nelson, and that “0” was gone. And out came the wolves.
READ: Fight By Fight Preview | UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs Imavov
“You know what? I've developed thick skin from it, and I just realized everybody is entitled to their opinion,” Bilder said. “It doesn't define who I am. It's just tough after your first loss. It's like, guys, I lost one fight.”
Welcome to the part of the story where everything is magnified, and you’re only as good as your last fight. Bilder knows how the game is played, but in an as honest a statement as you’ll ever hear, losing to Nelson came as a shock to the ultra-competitive featherweight.
“I told everybody I'm never going to lose,” he laughs. “And people would be like, ‘Oh, well, eventually the day's going to come where you lose a fight; everybody loses.’ And I'm like, ‘Not true.’ And it happened.”
It wasn’t a horrible loss, the kind that makes someone assess their choice of career. So when it was over, Bilder dusted himself off and figured out what went wrong in Vancouver.
RELATED: Main Event Breakdown | See Which Fighters Are On The Rise
“I always envision myself winning,” he said. “So when the fight comes, I'm like, man, there's no way. I've trained so hard, I'm so disciplined, my nutrition's on point, my weight cut is crazy. And eventually you meet your match. Somebody has a better night than you, maybe they cut weight a little bit better than you. Sometimes it's the smaller, seemingly insignificant, things. They just ate better. Their nutrition was better. Not even the training, but the recovery was better.”
Recovery has been a key aspect of Bilder’s preparation for his Saturday meeting with JeongYeong Lee, beginning with the ice baths that are the rage throughout the fight world.
“Right now, recovery is number one,” he said. “We're training hard, everybody's training hard, but are you recovered when you’re showing up to your practices?”
Bilder is making sure he is, and then the hard work begins. But it’s not all work and no play for “El Animal,” who had a little fun in August when YouTubers Mad House showed up at his gym looking for a fight. The sparring sessions, which were reported on by TMZ, went as expected when amateurs face a professional, but Bilder does admit that before the festivities began there were some nerves, as you never know when a ringer is going to show up.
Order UFC 298: Volkanovski vs Topuria
“You get knocked out or something happens, you could become a meme,” laughed Bilder, who did get a little free publicity out of the whole thing before he returns to the Octagon to prove that the adage “you win or you learn” is real.
“I feel like it took a lot of pressure off me because before, it's like, ‘I'm undefeated, I can't lose,’ it's my whole identity. I'm the undefeated fighter,” said Bilder. “So a loss is interesting. You could be like, ‘Maybe I'm not the best. Maybe somebody has my number out there and that'll happen more often, dah, dah, dah.’ But, for me, I'm like, all right, there are things that I needed to tighten up. I needed to keep my weight lower. I needed to have my nutrition more on point, more organic, more whole foods. I need to work with certain coaches. I need to push harder with certain sparring partners and challenge myself in different ways. I need to have different movement patterns. I need to stretch more. There are so many things that a loss will open your mind to that a win won't, because when you're a winner, everything that you're doing has caused you to win.”
UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs Imavov took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 3, 2024. See the final Main Card & Prelim Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
