Athletes
Jake Matthews | Everything Happens for a Reason
Welterweight Veteran Shares Outlook On Life, Career Ahead Of 2026 Debut
Just before the end of the first round in his last fight, Jake Matthews believed he had earned a submission win over Neil Magny. Clamped onto a mounted guillotine choke as the clock ticked down, the 10-second clacker sounded, analyst Paul Felder acknowledged the tightness of the hold on the broadcast, and just before the horn sounded, Magny’s right arm twirled and drooped, prompting Perdios to proclaim, ‘He’s out!” as he put his two hands on Matthews’ back, a sign for the Australian welterweight to release the hold.
Matthews complied, the horn sounded, and as the 32-year-old began to celebrate, a clearly lucid Magny objected to the stoppage, rising to his feet in frustration at the fight being halted prematurely.
And then the referee declared the round was over, and the fight was to continue.
“First I’ll start by saying that as soon as the fight was done — obviously, looking back, it was not the best situation, but there is no way to go back and change things, we don’t have a time machine, so I don’t dwell on anything; I don’t let it become a detriment to what we’re doing in the future,” stated Matthews earlier this week as we spoke about the controversial moment ahead of his return to action this weekend against Carlston Harris in Macau. “I let it go.
Jake Matthews Gets The Submission Win Against Chidi Njokuani | UFC Nashville
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Jake Matthews Gets The Submission Win Against Chidi Njokuani | UFC Nashville
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“But you are right: the relief that comes off you when you think that you’ve won a fight…” continued the young veteran, who went on to lose the bout by submission in the third round. “For me to rally in the second round and dominate the way that I did makes me proud to have been able to do that. I pushed hard in the second round to get the finish because I knew that was all I had in me. As soon as that round ended, I knew I was in trouble.
“Michael Bisping spoke about it as somebody who has been in there, and he said (something to the effect of) ‘It can take two weeks to recover from the adrenaline dump from a fight,’” he added. “Two weeks home, you’re still tired, you’re still exhausted, so absolutely that relief and that adrenaline dump hit me when that fight was called off.”
The situation was a new one, not only for Matthews, but for the UFC, as while there have been instances where fights have been halted prematurely in the past, there had not been an instance where that decision was simply discarded and treated like it didn’t happen on the fly, with the bout continuing.
What’s even more challenging is that because things happen so quickly inside the Octagon, there is no real time for anyone to take a beat and figure out what they should do — the referee said the bout was still going, none of the officials outside the cage suggested otherwise, and so Matthews simply had a minute to ready himself to go back out and get back to work. He did so and fought with vigor in the second, but ultimately, he landed on the wrong side of the results in a fight where he had momentarily been declared victorious, and in hindsight, he understandably wishes he or anyone else involved in the matter had handled things differently.
“Again, it’s one of those things you cannot go and change, but in hindsight, I probably just should have protested and said, ‘Nah!’” he said with a smirk, given the benefit of nine months of distance from the contest. “We train, and when we’re told to go, we fight, so you’re not thinking straight. I should have sat on the canvas and said, “No — you can disqualify me if you want, but I’m gonna protest and take a stand.’
“It should follow the guidelines or the rules, which is that the fight is called off, that’s the decision, and it should be up to Neil to go and appeal. That’s should have been the way it went down, but we’re fighters — you tell us to keep fighting and we automatically keep fighting.
“It’s a tough one,” he added with far more grace and acceptance than most would have under the circumstances. “That’s what happened, but if we dwell on it, it’s gonna be a detriment to family life, what we’re doing back at home, the next fight, so we get over it and move on.”
A big part of what has helped the former Ultimate Fighter: Nations competitor to take that “what’s done is done” approach in the wake of his last outing has been his faith.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” explained Matthews, who converted to Islam in 2023. “I did everything I could in that fight, and it played out (the way it did).
“As long as you do everything you can, the way your life plays out, I believe that’s the way it’s meant to play out. I definitely have faith in that, so I just trust the process, trust the journey, and that’s what helps me move on from things.”
That core tenet applies to everything in his life, both personal and professional, and has become a source of great ease and relief over the last few years.
After requesting to return on this weekend’s fight card, Matthews was originally matched up with fellow veteran Muslim Salikhov, who has a massive following in Asia dating back to his days competing in Sanda. But the “King of Kung Fu” was forced to withdraw, creating a brief period where the Australian was without an opponent before Harris was tabbed to fill the void.
Where some competitors would see the momentary uncertainty as a cause for panic, Matthews simply stuck to his routine and had faith that things would work out one way or another.
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“Again, if I was meant to fight on this card, I was gonna get an opponent,” he said smiling, reiterating his overall approach to life. “If I wasn’t meant to fight on this card, then there was no opponent. That’s how I look at it, and it gives me a lot less stress in my life to just trust that process. We kept training as if we had a fight, and then a week or so later, we had an opponent.
“One of the biggest differences I’ve seen is during Fight Week,” continued Matthews, expanding on how his faith has brought greater peace and calm to his business trips. “A lot of fighters talk about sleepless nights, stressing about the outcome, whereas I know I’m gonna go and give a hundred percent during the fight, do what I can, and I honestly believe the rest is in God’s hands.
“Even a loss can lead to good things down the track, and if that’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. A lot of stress is alleviated now — I sleep really well; I don’t have that nervous energy of ‘What if?’
“The fight in Nashville against Chidi,” he added, referencing his bout against Chidi Njokuani last July in Tennessee. “I got sick during that week, my lungs weren’t feeling the best, and in the warmup room, I just said to myself, ‘I’m gonna go five minutes as hard as I can and whatever happens after happens.’ I went out hard and got the win in like 90 seconds.”
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He actually won the fight in 69 seconds, but his point remains the same.
“It just reinforces that you just trust your gut, follow the process, and whatever happens, happens.”
Having spoken with “The Celtic Kid” since he was, in fact, a 19-year-old kid debuting in the UFC, I can say from experience that there is a pronounced change in his demeanor and outlook on things over these last few years. Some of it can surely be chalked up to maturation — becoming a man, getting married, having children — but the bedrock over the last few years has without question been his faith.
In a hyper-competitive sport on the biggest stage in the world, there are infinite variables and scenarios athletes can obsess over and fixate on, tying themselves into knots as they try to make all the right moves at the exact right time and prepare for anything and everything they may encounter. It’s a fool’s errand, as this sport has shown time and again, and it’s always heartening to hear athletes recognize a better approach, like the one Matthews has been adhering to since he was teenage amateur training in a shed in the backyard of his family home.
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“Since my first amateur fight when I was 15 years old, it has always been the same: if you can look yourself in the mirror after the fight and say, ‘I gave a hundred percent,’ that’s all you can do,” he said with a grin. “There are so many unknown factors that can come into play; there is always something that can go wrong, anything can happen, but the one thing you can control is your effort in the cage.
“As long as I can look in the mirror after and say, ‘I gave it a hundred percent,’ to me, that’s all you can do.”
Everything else is in God’s hands.
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