Athletes
Josiah Harrell Is Chasing Progression, Not Perfection
After Tasting Defeat For The First Time In His UFC Debut, Josiah Harrell Is Back, Looking To Showcase His Improvements En Route To His First Win In The Octagon.
After taking his first career loss on his Octagon debut, Josiah Harrell is back and ready to put things right at the second time of asking.
Harrell’s UFC debut came on short notice against Jacobe Smith, and it lasted just three minutes and one second, as he was stopped with ground strikes by Jacobe Smith. It was a harsh introduction to the UFC as Harrell was forced to take his first L in his first appearance in the Octagon. But, on reflection, he’s taking the positives from the defeat.
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“I’m weird. I like the fact that I can be beat,” he admitted. “Because for a little bit I'm like, ‘I don't know if I can be,’ and it's egotistical in a lot of ways. But you need your ego in this – you can't be a fighter without it. So then, as you're doing it and you're becoming more successful and you're giving these people a lot more space to do what they want, and it's still not working, you start to get to yourself.
“And I learned a valuable lesson: you can't let people do what they want to do at the top of the heap. So either way, kudos to Jacobe. He's a good dude, got a lot going on. He's going to be successful in his run. If we end up meeting up again, awesome. If not, it’s not the end of the world.”
Sometimes carrying a 0 in the loss column can weigh around a fighter’s neck like a millstone, with athletes fixating on trying to keep that unbeaten record, rather than focusing on the win itself. Now that Harrell’s 0 has gone, he admits that he feels a newfound freedom to perform, and hopes to showcase that on Saturday night.
“It just takes everything off. It takes all the weight off,” he said. “I remember growing up watching Georges St-Pierre talk about the title and the weight of the title and how people [like him] are doing that. There's weight to everything, if you allow it to be, but it immediately, as soon as it happened, I'm like, ‘OK. Well, what happened?’
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“We went through it, and there's so many mistakes and so many ways that we can learn from that, and I'll still go through it and watch it if I can. But the biggest thing is that it allows me to keep my mind open to the possibilities that I don't need to be perfect.
“Obviously, it sounds good, it looks good, but I don't want anybody out there watching this thinking that they need to be perfect to do anything. Obviously, I dealt with the thing with the brain, and I think that's where most people were worried. But I think that it's a part of my story, and the only thing I can do is progress and head in one direction.”
Josiah Harrell: "It Is More About Giving The Fans The Fight They Deserve" | UFC Fight Night: Rosas Jr. vs Barcelos
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Josiah Harrell: "It Is More About Giving The Fans The Fight They Deserve" | UFC Fight Night: Rosas Jr. vs Barcelos
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That freedom wasn’t there earlier in Harrell’s career, when he struggled at times to find his “why”. But as his career has developed, and he has overcome significant challenges – most notably when a routine UFC medical ahead of his planned debut discovered a rare brain condition that led to him undergoing brain surgery – the Ohio native has gradually come to understand his motivation, both inside and outside the Octagon.
“I think [the fight with] Tracy Reeder was the worst fight mentally I've ever been a part of,” he recalled. “I just didn't want to fight anymore in general. That was my sixth pro fight. From there, he ended up helping me out in the corner, and I realized how much he cared. And I kind of took a step back and went, ‘How much is this really about me?’
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“And then obviously we get more [challenges] with the brain [surgery] and all that. Then you start to go like, if I can help anybody be inspired at any point for anything, whether it's being stupid, being funny, getting a giggle, whether it's dancing on a pole, I don't care how I inspire them, if that's how it gets done and they can progress and do something valuable with their life, I'm more excited about that than I ever will be fighting. Fighting is an ego thing for me. It's just that I enjoy pushing myself.”
Harrell will have to push himself on Saturday night when he takes on Brazil’s Elves Brener in a three-round lightweight battle on the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night: Rosas Jr vs Barcelos.
“My early impression is if this was a street fight, it'd be a lot of dick kicks and eye pokes, but it's not,” he grinned. “So it's just about staying as disciplined as possible. He's very tough. He's a veteran of the sport, especially when it comes to the UFC. So we expect a fight. We expect him to be there for all three rounds.
“Our goal is still to put him out – that should be anybody's goal. I think anybody that's there for a decision, you're lame in a lot of ways, and that's fine. That's just my opinion. So the goal is still to put him out, and then eat. That is the most important part. Have fun, put him out, eat … my Instagram right now is nothing but low-calorie desserts!”
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As Harrell prepares to get back into the Octagon in a bid to claim his first UFC win, he’ll do so motivated partly by his response to his last opponent, who contacted him in the aftermath of their fight to check in and see how he was doing.
“Right after the [last] fight, Jacobe did end up reaching out and was just like, ‘Hey, man, hope everything's all right,’ and he's real professional about it,” Harrell recalled. “I was just like, ‘Hey, man, the only thing I care about is I wasn't able to give the fans what they deserve.’
“So it's not more about me showing what I can do. Obviously, we want to be able to put everything out on the line, and that's the only thing that's going to make us feel better internally. But it's more about just giving the fans the fight they deserve without giving me the brain damage I don't deserve. So, it's a fine balance, but more about just giving the fans the fight they deserve.”
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And when we asked him what he’d want those same fans to say about him after his fight’s over, he said the best feedback he could receive is the knowledge that people want to see him in the Octagon again.
“I just hope they enjoy it,” he said. “I don't really care too much about what they say. I need to make sure I don't get into a gun-slinging battle. I'm not Justin Gaethje. That's not happening over here.
“I just think that the best thing that I could hear from a fan is, ‘When is he going to fight again?’”
UFC Fight Night: Rosas Jr. vs Barcelos took place live from Meta APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 26, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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