UFC bantamweight Caolan Loughran was a bit critical of his performance in his win over Nathan Fletcher at UFC London on Saturday night.
If pressure creates diamonds then mindsets might be what keeps them gleaming.
“Obviously you’d be under pressure. You’re in your first contract and coming off a loss,” Loughran told Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“Winning’s a habit, but losing’s also a habit. So yeah put pressure on myself coming into this one. I felt I performed ok.”
Loughran (10-2) took a close split-decision victory over Fletcher at UFC London, but he wasn’t very confident when Bruce Buffer read the score cards. Ultimately he came out with the win and credited the ‘dog’ in him for pushing through adversity.
“I was in there I was like f*ck I thought they were going to take this away from me. It’s good to get in the win column. You just can’t teach ‘dog’,” he said.
“When the fight was in the bounds I pushed on a wee bit more. That’s something I’ll be proud of, you know what I mean? You just can’t teach ‘dog’.”
It’s still early on in 2025 and plenty of time for a mostly un-injured Loughran, who suffered a cut during the fight, and he’s got a wish list of fighters and a location.
“You know what I just want to fight in Abu Dhabi. Time-wise it just works well,” he said.
“It’s kind of a hub for MMA. I’d love to fight (Raul) Rosas (Jr). I was in Vegas, we were on the mat together, but we didn’t spar. I’d like to fight Cameron Saaiman if he can get a win.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Caolan Loughran above.
