After enduring one of the toughest spells of his professional fighting career, Matthew Semelsberger will enter the Octagon at UFC Fight Night: Magny vs. Prates feeling much more free, and ready to deliver a big performance.
The 31-year-old welterweight went 5-2 in his first seven appearances inside the "ultimate proving ground," but has endured a torrid time over the last year and a half.
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A splitdecision loss to Jeremiah Wells was followed by a TKO loss to Uros Medic at UFC 291. Then another decision loss, this time to Preston Parsons in January, left Semelsberger with a mangled arm and sitting on a three-fight losing streak.
His injury forced him to step back and undergo surgery, and now, back to fighting fitness and suitably refreshed, "Semi the Jedi" is ready to return with a devil may care approach that could deliver one of the most exciting fights on the card at the UFC APEX.
Semelsberger will take on fellow all-action fighter Charles Radtke on Saturday night in a bout that has him eager for the battle ahead.
"Excited, definitely. Got to watch a few of his fights, and it doesn't take long for me to watch somebody and realize, like, 'OK, this is going to be a good one,'" he told UFC.com this week.
"Another guy who likes to strike (and) use his hands. Good grappling when he needs to use it, but generally it seems like he likes to keep it on the feet, just like yours truly.
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"His left hook is probably what makes him most dangerous from a striking standpoint. So his hands primarily, I think, are probably his big tools of destruction, but he's got some other tools that he likes to use.
"But I think, honestly, everything that he does generally seems to set up towards that left hand and landing a big shot that's going to either knock his opponent out or drop them so that he can swarm and follow up on the ground."
It's a fight that sees both men enter the Octagon this weekend coming off losses and desperate to pick up a win to turn their form around. But Semelsberger knows that his best path to success is to focus on what's ahead, rather than stress about what's gone before.
"I've been trying to just teach myself to let go of past mistakes and things that have tried to hold on to me," he explained.
"When you hold on to a lot of stuff from the past, it's like with stress, it's a weight on your shoulders. It's something that's holding you back. So I can definitely look back and relate to my past self, even just this past fight, and look and be like, 'Wow, I'm way better off than I was about a year ago,' which is true, and that's how I feel.
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"I feel like a different person. I definitely feel like a new man, in a way, but I don't put too much thought back into it. Once I got over some things I had to get over (from) this last fight, I've been hitting the ground running and not really looking back since."
That process included assessing his recent outings and identifying areas for improvement. But, while he admitted there were a few things he's addressed, the most important change he's made is to his mindset.
"You can always learn, definitely, from your past, and I have," he said.
"Looking into my past fights and stuff like that, if I'm being honest, there were some technical things that needed work and stuff that I needed to get better at, which I took note of, for sure. But it was more of just an attitude and a mentality change that I needed.
"No one knows what you're thinking in a fight, but right after a fight, if I go in and watch it, I can generally remember my state of mind as I was going through that fight. So that's probably the biggest thing that I use to learn from, other than the few technical things, which I definitely got to address."
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The other thing that needed addressing was his elbow injury, and he underwent Tommy John surgery in March to repair the ligament damage sustained in his defeat to Parsons.
"Baseball players usually get that injury, right? Pitchers and stuff like that," he said.
"So, when you get a tear in your UCL ligament in your elbow, that's the surgery that you get. It's pretty cool. They took out an auxiliary ligament from my wrist area, and they used that to reconstruct my UCL ligament. Speaking to how far we've come as humans and technology, that's pretty wild."
It's meant Semelsberger has had to spend longer than usual on the sidelines while he makes a full recovery. But now that he's through the rehab and ready to return to action, he's coming back with a steely determination to win, but with a twist.
"I don't have a prediction, but I will say the goal of the fight is just to put on a phenomenal performance," he said.
"Honest to God, I'm going for the f*****g win. You should want to win, but there's also a part of me that doesn't give a f**k. And I think when those two sides of Matt have a good balance, it's a recipe for a f*****g crazy good fight. So that's how I'm looking at it."
UFC Fight Night: Magny vs Prates took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 12, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
