Charlotte — Bantamweight Lewis McGrillen raised eyebrows when he chose to make a quick turnaround to compete at PFL Charlotte on Friday, just weeks after losing to Rafael do Nascimento back in Austin.
Things could not have gone better for McGrillen (13-2), however, as he came away with a thrilling unanimous decision victory over Brandon Lewis in Charlotte that has seemingly wiped away all memory of the loss.
Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, NC, England’s McGrillen revealed that he decided to make a quick turnaround immediately after that July loss.
“Soon as I got out of the cage, bro. Last fight, not this one, last fight, five minutes, [my team] was like ‘we need to go again.’ And I’m like ‘yup, straight away,'” McGrillen recalled.
“At the end of the day, I wasn’t happy with the result three weeks ago, and I was going to make the changes. Go again, man. I’m the guy that will take risks, I’m the guy that will step out of my comfort zone. When people walk down the path, I’ll take my own path, because I’m by own person, I’m my own man, but I get guided by the right people.”
On improving in just a matter of weeks, McGrillen believes that “you can learn a lot in 20 days if you know what you’re looking for,” he added. “If you know what you need to work on, if you stay honest and true with it. You can be self-aware, some people can be self-aware with what you need to work on, but then when you get in there with the pressure and the lights and the audience and stuff like that, people go back to old habits and cracking and things. I know I need to work on that, I was always thinking ahead. Patience, patience.”
It’s all about fine-tuning the in-cage artistry, it seems.
“I’m the threat, I don’t need to rush it,” he continued, making an analogy to the world of fine art. “I’m painting it, I’m making art. Don’t rush it. Before you know it, you’re just making a nursery or a preschool sketch, instead of a Van Gogh. I’m doing a Van Gogh painting, you know what I mean?”
Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Lewis McGrillen above.
