UFC
Nik Lentz's job safe after UFC on Fox 2 loss to Evan Dunham; sees loss as changing point in career
Jan 31, 2012 - 9:05:13 PM Nik Lentz's job safe after UFC on Fox 2 loss to Evan Dunham; sees loss as changing point in career

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Nik Lentz had gotten a bad rap in the UFC following a fight with Andre Winner back at UFC 118, the fourth fight of his that went to decision in the UFC and definitely the worst. His reputation was tarnished to the point where many felt a single loss may lead to him being released from the organization. However, he's since taken part in several exciting fights, starting with a come from behind win over Waylon Lowe.

After a loss to Evan Dunham last Saturday at UFC on Fox 2 - his second straight loss following a no contest against Charles Oliveira due to an illegal knee - Lentz took to his own blog at NikLentz.com to talk about his recent slide.

"For some reason that I don't understand, people are dropping out of fights with injury after injury," Lentz wrote. "This is something that just should not happen. If you are getting injured while practicing on a regular basis (not injured in a fight), you are doing something wrong. I took the Dunham fight and had a total of three weeks to train for it. Three weeks is simply not enough time to train for a fight with a top ten guy, but I wanted to prove to the UFC and fans that I'm worth keeping around. So I asked to be the replacement."

"Could I be in proper shape for this fight? No... Could I have the perfect game plan? No... but simply put, I said #$%@ that, I'm going to beat him anyway. The fight was exciting, I proved that even without being able to train properly, I belong in the UFC Octagon. The outcome is far from what I hoped, but that’s life. Things do not always go as planned."

He definitely proved himself to the UFC, as his two-round bout with Dunham took the fight of the night, and he said in a separate interview with MMAJunkie.com that he was told by UFC matchmaker Joe Silva that he will not be cut from the organization. Still, he's not satisfied with the last two losses he's suffered.

"Trust me when I say this: there is no one on this planet that hates failure more than I do," he wrote. "I was so upset at myself after my last two fights that I wanted to hide in a corner and rip my hair out while ending it Seppuku style. The training for the [Mark] Bocek fight was horrible. Coming off of the shattered orbital and herniated discs in my neck was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I got sick multiple times during the camp. I had to avoid the normal training because of my neck. I couldn't sleep because my neck was in too much pain. Overall I let the injuries defeat me through most of my training camp for Bocek fight. Maybe I should have just called up the UFC and said, 'sorry can't fight,' but I'm too stupid and hard headed for that."

"Going into the Dunham fight, I got my injuries under control and felt like a new man. I truly feel if I would have had a proper ten week training camp for the fight it would have turned out differently. I would have been more explosive, stronger, faster, and overall the better fighter at the end of the day. Too bad this is the real world, and I lost the fight. It's no one's fault but my own."

Still, while he's on this slide, he sees an opportunity to turn his career around, and he feels at the very least he's accomplished some very important things during this strech.

"At the end of the day I accomplished a great deal of things," he said. "The illusion that Nik Lentz is a boring fighter is gone. I won FOTN for the second time, which helps my status with fans and the UFC, not to mention gives me a little extra spending money! I proved that I belong in the UFC, and although there will be talk that 'Lentz is never going to be a contender,' or 'Lentz can't hang in the 55 lb division,' I know and proved to myself that this is all bulls***."

"MMA is not the safe guarded, [record] padding event that boxing has become. Look at the MMA greats, Randy Couture 19-11, B.J. Penn 16-8-2, and many more people have tasted defeat and come back stronger. I felt like this one other time in my life, changed what I was doing, and went undefeated for 3+ years."

"This is a changing point in my life. The only person to blame for my current failures is myself. Trust me, I wont be down for long."

Penick's Analysis: That Winner fight simply stuck with people because it was his first opportunity at a televised bout, and it was an awful fight. But that didn't mean he was a bad fighter or that he was incapable of exciting fights. He's shown that with Waylon Lowe, Charles Oliveira, and now Evan Dunham. Now, he'll just need to show that same excitement in his next outing, but get himself back into the win column as well. If he can do that, and find another run of consistent success, he can still be a force in the lightweight division.