Jose Miguel Delgado is determined to make amends after experiencing his first UFC defeat. He is scheduled to fight Andre Fili in a featherweight contest this Saturday night at Meta APEX in Las Vegas during UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs Vallejos. The 27-year-old expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming fight.
“Ah, man, I’m coming off a loss, so I’m hungry as ever,” he told UFC.com.
Delgado’s Eagerness to Return to the Cage
Delgado conveyed his eagerness to get back into the Octagon. “I want this so bad, you’ve got no idea. It feels like the moment I stepped out of the cage, I just wanted to return. I just wanted to be back in that cage. I just wanted to write those wrongs. And coming in here, I feel so grateful. I feel really calm, like really calm all week, just knowing that I put in all the work, I put everything into this, and I know that I will reap what I sow.”
Lessons Learned From UFC 321
Delgado’s previous fight was at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi against English veteran Nathaniel Wood. Delgado started strong, but Wood, a former Cage Warriors bantamweight champion, ultimately won by unanimous decision. Delgado said he has learned from the experience.
“It’s kind of a funky one to watch, because I look at myself and I can see how upset I was the entire time,” he assessed. “I was in my head. I wanted to dominate, and I was doing well. I got the knockdown. And then, shoutout to Nathaniel Wood, he’s a tough guy. He bounced back, and he made it a really tough, competitive fight (and) won the fight.
“I think I just was holding onto too much of wanting it to be like, ‘Oh, this is a dominant performance,’ wanting to do this. So when that started to slip, I could feel my frustration rise, and that can’t happen in there. That was a big lesson learned. And just maintaining that clear headspace and focusing on the very next step, maintaining presence, was a big focal point for this one.”
Rough Journey After the Defeat
Delgado had hoped to deliver an entertaining and dominant victory in Abu Dhabi, but instead, he returned home with an injured leg and his second career loss. “Yeah, that journey was a rough one, man,“ he admitted.
“It would have been a lot sweeter coming off a victory, but it’s all good. It’s all good at the end of the day. I just know that I trust myself to utilize it all properly. I trust myself to take the lessons learned, and man, I learned a lot in that one.
“Don’t get me wrong, those 16 hours on a plane when my leg was chewed up, it was, for sure, the most beat up I’ve been after a fight. I’m a little disillusioned in my belief most of the time. I was gonna say ’at times,’ (but it’s) most of the time! I think the world of myself, I think the world of my
Delgado doesn’t want his confidence to be mistaken for arrogance, saying his reaction to his first UFC defeat proves he is grounded. He intends to bounce back this weekend at UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs Vallejos.