Nearly a dozen years after his amateur debut Blake Bilder left the cage with a feeling he had never felt before. Defeat.
After losing a tough bout to wily veteran Kyle Nelson, Blake Bilder spoke about what it felt like to walk away without the ‘W’. He also shared a bit about what he felt he needed to change as he began to prep for UFC Vegas 85.
“You know what? It was unfortunate. There were times in that fight when I could have won,” he said. “But for me it just showed, hey, I have areas I need to work on. I’m at the highest level that you can be at. I’m proud of myself for getting to this level and I’m looking forward to what comes next.”
But despite getting a result he hadn’t wanted, he’s done dwelling on the past. Instead, he’s focused on making sure he uses it to build the best version of himself.
“I’m not sitting around beating myself up over something that’s already happened,” Bilder stressed. “I’m just seeing where I made mistakes and moving forward from it.”
Bilder wasn’t shy about sharing what some of those mistakes were. Among them were some issues with gameplanning and execution, but others were surrounding lifestyle choices.
“We have really good jiu jitsu. However, the wrestling needed to be a little bit more fluid. We needed more work in being more active. We needed to button up the discipline of the diet,” he explained. “The nutrition was good, but it wasn’t great. Little things like that add up.”
Now will all that squared away, he’s zeroed in on getting back on the right side of the fight. In doing so, he’s remembering what the most important part of this all is.
“The number one thing is always enjoying yourself, having fun, and enjoying the journey,” Bilder said. “So very few get to do this and so very few get to do this for a long time.”
You can catch the new and improved Blake Bilder as he fights Jeong Yeong Lee on the prelims of UFC Vegas 85. Those fights start at 4pm EST on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:17.
