Middleweight prospect Mansur Abdul-Malik is one plenty of people have had an eye on. His explosive, but calculated, style has had people intrigued since he was an amateur. However, with just five professional fights under his belt, some might be surprised that he already got his call to be on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Don’t include Abdul-Malik in the group who was surprised. The Maryland-born fighter wasn’t surprised in the slightest that the call came.
“As normal as any other day. It was expected,” Abdul-Malik shared. “In fact, I probably just went on a run after that – just a normal day.”
Many fighters find that confidence in a recent KO and Abdul-Malik is coming off of as good of one as you can be. He knocked out Allan St-Gelais viciously from an open guard position at LFA 176. However, it isn’t that big KO or the hype that had him sure this day would come. Instead it is the confidence of consistency.
“The confidence comes from me doing it every single day. I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. I’ve been involved in it for a very very very long time,” he said. “It’s not like the confidence has just sprouted from a single event. It’s come from my relevant experience and being on the mat.”
And that calm assuredness extends to the cage on Tuesday. Abdul-Malik faces Wes Schultz in the main event of Contender Series and he envisions a big victory.
“I see it ending in my favor. I see it ending in a beautiful way too,” Abdul-Malik said. “I’m just going to see things as they are, maximize the opportunities that I have on the things that he exposed and minimize the things that I expose.”
You can see his fight with Wes Schultz as the main event of Week 1 of Dana White’s Contender Series. The fight card begins at 7pm EST this Tuesday.
You can hear this entire interview at 2:15.
