Drakkar Klose Does Not Want To Have Any Regrets

“I hope so, and I believe it will,” he said. “Last fight I trained hard, but right before the walkout I started thinking about my brother and I started crying a little bit. I did everything right, but I wasn't mentally prepared for that fight. I was talking to (UFC Hall of Famer) Mark Kerr and he was talking to me about when he had lost his mom and how he was angry and all that, and he was like, ‘You're never going to get over the pain; you’ve just got to learn how to live with it. It's been a year now, and I've just been trying to learn to live with it and cherish the moments that I did have with my brother. So I'm in a way better head space than I was that last fight.”

That last fight, a first-round knockout loss at the hands of Joel Alvarez, came just four months after the senseless murder of Klose’s brother, Tuan Williams. Remarkably, Klose made it to the fight in Tampa in December, but he wasn’t ready. It’s the part of the fight game many don’t understand, that for all the superhuman things athletes do in the Octagon, they’re still human, and sometimes what happens outside of competition affects what happens in it. Klose got a reminder of that in June when he went to New Jersey to watch his teammate Sean O’Malley attempt to regain his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili and heard what some fans had to say.

MORE UFC 319: UFC 319 Embedded | Fight by Fight Preview | Fighters On The Rise | Significant Stats | Matchup Spotlight: Neal vs Prates

“Just sitting in the stands, you hear all this crazy stuff out of people's mouth and it's like, we're human. We're just like you, but we just chose to fight. And I think some people, they just don't understand that.”

Some won’t ever get it, but it doesn’t stop people like Klose from trying to block out the noise and go to work. And he’s done that leading up to his meeting with Barboza, a longtime lightweight contender returning to the division after an eight-fight stint at 145 pounds.

“He's definitely a dangerous opponent and he's been doing it for a long time,” said Klose of the Brazilian. “He's fought the who's who of MMA, and he has a good showing with them. But what his downfall is, it's his wrestling. He fought at ’55 and the guys were taking him down, wrestling him up, and then he made that transition down to ‘45. He had some success down there, but when guys started wrestling with him, it was the same thing that it was at ‘55. And he is a little bit older now and, to be honest, I don't think he has too many more left in him, so I think he's just trying to fight where he's comfortable. He's not cutting that much weight, but he's always a dangerous opponent and that excites me.”

The 37-year-old Klose also doesn’t mind being the young guy in the matchup against his 39-year-old opponent.

FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X | On Threads

“Two years younger, but hey, I’ll take it,” he laughs. “When they first gave me the call, I was like, thank God, it's someone older than me, because we all like to think that we still have it, but I'm not going to lie, I've slowed down throughout the years. It's kind of hard to compete with these younger guys, and good thing I have these younger guys to still compete with to show me like, ‘Hey man, this is a young man's sport.’ (Laughs) I'm just glad I get to go in there and compete with someone a little bit older than me.”

Older, yes. Wiser, yes again.  And though Klose knows he is closer to the end of his career than he was back in 2017, he believes he still has plenty to give to his fans and the sport.

“I'm not going to sit here and lie,” he admits. “I always wanted to chase the belt, but it just feels like it's not in my cards. So, for me right now, I want to go out, try to make as much money as I can for my family, and when it's my time, walk away on top, hopefully with a great record and still having my brain cells intact.”

For most, that might be a tough conversation to have. It wasn’t for Klose, one of the sport’s class acts.

Order UFC 319: Du Plessis vs Chimaev

“I always had a lot of regrets in wrestling,” he said. “Like, man, I wish I'd have done this. And then I found MMA and I was able to put all those, ‘oh, I wish I would've done this’ things and apply that to my MMA career. So put everything into it, and when it is time for me to walk away, I won't have those ‘I wish I would’ve done this,’ thoughts.”

He shouldn’t, because more than eight years on the UFC roster, with nine wins and counting, isn’t anything to scoff at. And he’s still going, so the best may be yet to come.

“I’ve lived with a lot of injuries along the road, but I grew as a person and that's all life is about,” said Klose of his run in the big show. “If you don't grow, why are you living? I still have friends who are like, ‘Oh, you changed.’ I'm like, yes, I changed. That's what you're supposed to do in life. If you're the same person you were from day one, you didn't learn anything in life.”