Hungary’s Adam Borics trains full time in the U.S., which has allowed him to take part in Bellator 250 on Thursday night. At the same time, he’s now cut off from family during the pandemic.
Still, as Borics (15-1) told Cageside Press ahead of the bout, “if you want to be the best, you have to train with the best guys in the world.”
That’s what he’s doing at Sandford MMA, under watchful eye of head coach Henri Hooft. Borics has some high-level training partners, working alongside the likes of Michael Chandler and Robbie Lawler, two well-known world champions.
The results have been there, early in the 27-year old’s career. High profile wins over top prospect Aaron Pico and former champion Pat Curran landed Borics in the spotlight, and in Bellator’s featherweight grand prix. That resulted in his only loss to date, against another former champ in Darrion Caldwell.
While he bounced back in his next fight, that loss to Caldwell was both a teaching moment, and added motivation for his career. After staying undefeated for years, Borics believes the issue with the Caldwell fight was that he didn’t “get in fight mode.” In the locker room before the fight, he had a ticket for a visit to Hungary. He knew that, win or lose, his family loved him. “It was really bad, because in the locker room, you have to be just focused on the fight,” he explained.
Training camp for that bout was too long, he added. He’d focused only on the fight, doing nothing else, eating clean for so long, that his head wasn’t in the right place. That has changed, however. For one thing, “now it’s a lifestyle for me.” Now that he’s older, “I have more experience. My mindset is getting stronger.” And those world-class teammates have helped as well. “I learned a lot from Kamaru Usman. His mindset is one of the strongest in the world. I talk to him a lot. I just learn everything. Physically and mentally I’m strong.”
In terms of motivation, “I never want to feel that way again. I know [losing] is part of the sport, especially facing the best guys in the world. But it gives me a lot of motivation,” said Borics. “And I just know what I did wrong, I fixed it, I learned from it, and it’s never going to happen again.”
At Bellator 250 against Erick Sanchez, Borics will be fighting at150lbs. “The Kid” does expect to return to the featherweight division, where he feels he has one or two more years. “But I think in the future, I’m going to be a 155’er some day for sure,” he told us.
Adam Borics returns to the Bellator cage Thursday, October 29 at Bellator 250, where he takes on Erick Sanchez as part of the evening’s preliminary card. You can catch the early bouts right here on Cageside Press.
