Athletes
Mansur Abdul-Malik | The Thinker
Rising Middleweight’s Thoughtfulness Outside Of The Octagon Makes Him More Likely To Succeed Inside
Mansur Abdul-Malik is one of the most highly regarded prospects in the sport right now. After earning his place on the roster with a second-round stoppage win in the opening week of Season 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series, the unbeaten middleweight has flashed serious upside while registering stoppage wins in three of his four UFC appearances as he heads into a bout with Yousri Belgaroui on March 28.
But for all his impressive performances inside the cage, it’s his approach to his craft and mature, personal focus that makes the 28-year-old seem even more likely to fulfill his potential.
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“I’m grateful for it all, and I’m indifferent to it all,” Abdul-Malik said. “There is so much good There are so many beautiful things that people say about me — the message I get about how I’m inspiring people thousands of miles away and how I’m their favorite fighter — but then you also get a lot of bad too, bad where you question ‘What did I do? Where is this coming from?’… These things come: the good comes just as much as the bad, and the good is good, and the bad is good, and it means nothing to me. I’m grateful for it all because it fuels me with something you cannot see.
“It gives me the idea of ‘I’m gonna prove myself right’ because I’m not focused on proving anyone wrong or right. I’m just focused on proving myself right, and that stuff is gonna come, and it’s gonna come much heavier than it is right now, but I’m prepared and ready for it all.”
Mansur Abdul-Malik Fight Week Interview | UFC Seattle
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Mansur Abdul-Malik Fight Week Interview | UFC Seattle
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An introspective individual with a passion for philosophy, Abdul-Malik’s tandem acceptance and lack of attachment to the outside opinions represents a microcosm of his overall approach to life.
Few people in the sport prioritize personal growth the way the rising middleweight star exhibits, and what’s more is that it is so clearly genuine. Everything he does is to order to understand himself better and expand his mind, full stop. Whether it’s fighting-related or not, Abdul-Malik is on a quest for improvement. While his deep dives on different subjects can occasionally mesh with his professional pursuits, the two are not always bound together.
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Ironically, we worked into this discussion by starting with his hyper-fixation on MMA.
“It’s the perfect playground because it’s never what someone else does,” Abdul-Malik said. “So many different people can focus on things that are specific to them, and I focus on the internal-cultivation-of-myself aspect of it — and I love speaking to you about this… There are so many different realms, so many different avenues you can go down, and it never ends. Honestly, you can get lost in that and the self-improvement journey — you can adopt that to your personality, walk around and act like you’re better than somebody — but I know, that as much as I do, as much as I love this, I’m not s***. I’m not anybody. I’m not anything in this. I have a purpose, and I can be somebody when I, God-willing, attain my goals and all that.
“But everything about this is so beautiful, and you improve things that people cannot see like your mind and your heart. You can improve these things that only you know about — only you know the work, and you don’t have to prophesize it to the world. It’s all internal. I have internal confidence. I have an internal belief. I believe in my Lord, and everything is just going according to plan, and I’m very, very happy.
“I’m content, but not complacent.”
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When met with some pushback on his “I’m not s***” assessment, he goes into his ultimate goals, which again highlight his unique outlook.
“No.1 is being world champion,” he said. “No. 1 is being that two-weight world champion, but that’s sport goal. More importantly, with all the stuff that comes, I’m a young man with braids and dimples. I have the look, and I’m so grateful for it, but a lot of attention can come to you, and you can be fueled by that attention. You can see yourself in a bigger way than you should, and I just wanna put my head down a little bit more and be even more humble… As things get higher, I’m gonna put my hood on and be a little more secluded, not in a bad way, but just understanding who I am. Like I said before, I’m not s***, and I’m still not, and I won’t be. I’m just me. I’m not trying to be anybody else. I’m not trying to search for anything outside of myself. I’m just me, and my goal is focusing on my character, and that’s a goal that will never end.
“It’s a beautiful little battle because you know you’re always going to have to work on, focus on it, improve. Sometimes (you) bring yourself up, sometimes bring yourself down, so you can stay in that middle ground. I know that my focus and my true goal is to have good character within this, no matter the result. The result will always be good as long as I train, pray to my Lord… The result is always going to be good, but I just want to make sure that my character is always intact and improving.”
Having that goal and being able to express it so clearly is a good sign that Abdul-Malik is well on his way to achieving it, and he’s trending in the right direction when it comes to his professional aspirations as well.
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He stormed out of the gates with a first-round stoppage win over Dusko Todorovic in his debut and finished Nick Klein last year in his Seattle for his second UFC win before an accidental clash of heads with Cody Brundage resulted in the bout being ruled a draw. Six months later, “Manny,” as his head coach Eric Nicksick calls him, rolled into T-Mobile Arena and made quick work of Trocoli, leading him to commanding a place on every list of rising stars heading into this year.
But none of those previous efforts nor the opportunities that may await him are of any concern to Abdul-Malik. The past is the past and has been put in its proper place, and the future is unknown, so all he is focused on is the here and now.
“It’s crucial objectively for any fighter to stay within the present moment and not think about the past, not to think about the future, but to be in the present,” he said. “I don’t even think of it as crucial — I’m blessed to think this way, and I just want to be here in this moment… I swear I didn’t know exactly what my record was, and I truly do not care about that stuff. It’s a normal training session to me, and when you get out there on Saturday night, you compete with a lot more intensity, of course, but this is normal to me.
“I have the mentality of someone that is recreational. This is fun. It’s playful. It’s something I do every single Wednesday, even though I do it every day. But my actions are that of a man that is absolutely obsessed. The things I do, how I train, my diet, the way I conduct myself and my relationships with other people in my life, my actions are very solid and true, but my mind is very recreational.”
It’s because of all of this that many believe Abdul-Malik could emerge as a perennial contender in the middleweight division, likely sooner rather than later.
For the moment, he has Belgaroui to worry about, but true to his nature, he’s heading into the weekend carrying a different outlook than most of his contemporaries.
“Hand getting raised, a finish, God-willing, and it’s gonna be me having fun with a smile on my face, as always,” Abdul-Malik said. “It doesn’t need to be more than that in my mind… As long as I’m having fun, I have won. So really, I won three weeks ago because I’ve been having so much fun. I see the improvements in my technique, in my character, in the way my diet is going, my weight, my mood this close to weight-cut time — I just feel absolutely amazing, so in my mind, I have won.
“And on Saturday, I will celebrate before I win, God-willing.”
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