It wasn’t a short road to the UFC for Da’Mon Blackshear. It took the better part of a decade and a handful of fights against UFC fighters on the regional scene to get where he is today. But just getting to the UFC was never the goal for Blackshear – he, like so many others, wants to leave his mark on the sport. However, his early stint in the UFC hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
A tough short notice bout combined with a hotly contested decision loss has him sitting at 0-1-1 after two fights. Blackshear doesn’t like the way that record looks, but notes that he feels like he’s shown what he’s made of.
“It sucks that it looks the way it looks, but I definitely had some great fights,” Blackshear stated. “I think I showed that I have the f*cking skill to be a f*cking top contender.”
For Blackshear, he doesn’t feel like wholesale changes needed to be made after his fights. Knowing that he’s as close to victory as he is, he has tried to hone in on minute fixes to his game in hopes of turning the results around.
“It’s small, little details that I’ve got to work on,” he said. “The first one was really short notice and I put on a f*cking show against a guy who was already established in the UFC. Then Farid Basharat – small, little things.”
Even though all of his fights have been exciting, Blackshear still feels the pressure of that record. At this stage of his career, he knows that the results matter far more to where you go next than the visuals.
“Yeah, but I got to get the ‘W’. That’s where the pressure is,” Blackshear said. “I’ve got to go in there and f*cking win and I have to win dominatly. That’s all there is to it.”
He’ll look to get that elusive first UFC win this weekend at UFC Vegas 74. He takes on Luan Lacerda as part of the ESPN+ preliminary card, which starts at 6pm EST.
