Athletes
Alice Ardelean Is Feeling At Peace
Ahead Of Her Third UFC Bout, Alice Ardelean Worked On Her Mental Health And Believes She Is At Her Best Going Into UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs Barber
If we’re being objective, 2024 had a lot of positives for Alice Ardelean to take in. But, as a fighter, all she’ll refer back to were the losses in her two UFC bouts against Shauna Bannon and Melissa Martinez.
“It sucks to lose, it sucks to lose two times in a row, and it sucks to lose two times in a row in the UFC, on top of everything,” said Romania’s Ardelean, who makes her third Octagon start this weekend against Rayanne Dos Santos.
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The Bannon fight was a split decision in favor of the Ireland native, and the Martinez fight was a lot closer than the judges’ 30-27 scores would indicate. In other words, Ardelean left a good impression as a fighter who can make some noise in the strawweight division. Add in a new training home with the Fusion Xcel squad in Florida, and it clearly wasn’t the end of the world for the 33-year-old. But one of the most affable and positive fighters in the entire promotion wasn’t feeling that way.
“The first fight, I was like, whatever, it was short notice, I did everything I can, split decision,” she said. “But the second fight, the whole thing was a bit weird. But I lost, and I took it really hard. I was really depressed, and I was super sad. I got some help from the UFC, I am talking with a psychologist, and since then, I've been working on my mental game.”
If you’re one of the 3.8 million people following Ardelean on TikTok, it’s hard to reconcile the idea of the jokester on social media being under the weather mentally, but it’s a reality, and one that took Ardelean by surprise. So she did something about it.
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“A lot of people, including myself, never thought about that,” she said, “I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm fine, whatever. Who cares about that type of stuff?’ But I've been working on it since the last fight, and I got over that sadness, and I said, you know what? I have one more chance. I'm not even going to say anything; I'm going to do my best, go there, put the work in, I'll put in everything now. Last time, I had only been in Orlando for three weeks. And I was fit. I was just stressed. I was in the fight and I lost my focus. It happened. I took it bad and I was really sad. But like I said, I don't even have anything to say. I've been training for the past three months, I'll do what I have to do, and I'll do my best.”
If anything, Ardelean has always done that, has always showed up to fight. Sometimes that effort doesn’t get rewarded, but that’s the sport. Somebody’s got to win, and somebody’s got to lose. And while you don’t wish those post-fight feelings Ardelean had on anybody, if there’s a silver lining, it’s that she was reminded how much she cares about this.
“I don’t know what to do with my life,” Ardelean said. “I have my other stuff, like social media, but I've been fighting since I was 18. I've been wanting to do this, I've been wanting to get to the UFC, I've been wanting to see how the level is here. So that's the thing. I never thought about quitting. I was sad, but I said, okay, cool, I have one more chance. Let's be honest. I have two losses. My opponent has two losses also, so I understand her, as well. So it's going to be a life and death fight, because we’re both fighting for the same place. If you keep losing, that means it's not for you. If I lose, that means I just couldn't compete with this level. So I'll just go back to fighting, lower level, whatever. But fighting, it's my life. I would be sad not to be in fight camp. I want to miss food, I want to miss stuff like that.”
Finally, a laugh, and the old Alice is back. And truth be told, she never left. She’s happy, she’s confident, and after all the chaos of last year, she’s at peace.
“I've been training hard, and it's weird, but I have more peace in my mind right now,” Ardelean said. “I remember the last fight camp, for example, at this time, I would be crazy stressed. I couldn't sleep at night. All I was thinking about was the fight and the fight was three weeks away. But right now, because I've been managing my stress levels, I feel much better and much more focused. I'm hoping this is going to help me more.”
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