When the horn sounded to end the third round of Modestas Bukauskas’ UFC 260 bout with Michal Oleksiejczuk, ‘The Baltic Gladiator’ felt like he had clearly done enough to win the fight. However, the judges didn’t see it that way – at least two of them didn’t – as he dropped a split decision leaving him surprised.
Some fighters may have gotten fired up or wanted to mope – Bukauskas wanted neither of those things. All he wanted, at that moment, was to improve.
“Literally, as soon as I got back to my room, we watched the fight,” Bukauskas explained. “I was just thinking, I need to get back to the drawing board. I need to figure out what went wrong, what I need to do better.”
Bukauskas only added fuel to that fire after watching the fight back. After taking it all in, he was eager to get back to the gym because he knew there was more to his game than what he was able to show.
“As soon as I left [my last fight] and got back home, we made the appropriate adjustments and straightaway started working on it,” he said. “I was just focused on bringing out the best of myself and that’s what I’m looking to go out and do on Saturday.”
Although some of those preparations were physical or technical things, some of it involved his training camp. Bukauskas had long trained out of Team Blood, Sweat and Tears in Northampton. While he recognized that they had gotten him to where he had needed to be – he felt like he needed something to take him further than he currently was. That combined with a shorter commute led him to Team Titan in London, where he feels like he’s found all those skills that have been hiding in his fights.
“I needed something else to be able to unlock even more of my skill set because, like I’ve been saying in interviews previously, I’ve got so much more to show. I haven’t even shown everything,” he said. “It felt like I was fighting like the lights were on and nobody is home sort of thing, and now guess what – daddy’s home.”
Getting a look from new coaches (granted his father is still his head coach) helped him realize where he may have been missing some things. However, he also attributes some recent growth to the training partners he picked up at Team Titan, which appears to be appropriately named.
“It’s not often that I walk into a room and I’m the oldest guy in the room and I’m the shortest guy in the room,” Bukauskas said. “For me to be in that sort of situation where you got a lot of sparring partners that are all young, hungry and trying to make it to the top – and they really go at you… we’ve definitely unlocked the treasure box to what I could really do in there.”
We’ll get to see a first look at some of that treasure this weekend at UFC Vegas 36, where Bukauskas faces Khalil Rountree. That fight will take place on the main card on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:03.
