There was nothing charming about Malcolm Wellmaker’s third time in the UFC this past fall.
Wellmaker’s third fight in the promotion, most people figured, would be a continuation of the first-round knockouts it delivered in his first two UFC bouts. But after Serhiy Sidey and Cody Haddon both pulled out, the latter during fight week, he took a fight against Ethyn Ewing.
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Despite heavy odds in his favor, Wellmaker (10-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) lost the first fight of his career when Ewing took him the distance for one of the biggest upsets of the calendar year at UFC 322.
In the wake of that, Wellmaker said he got to find out really fast who his friends were. He also learned it made him angry.
“I play this game with these trolls and these people that are saying ‘fraud check’ and all these other things,” Wellmaker told MMA Junkie Radio. “But it does piss you off. I give so much to this sport. I took the losing end of a deal that I knew even if I win wasn’t going to (mean much for me), and for everything to come crashing down so bad, to feel like people kicked me when I was down, yeah – it pissed me off bad.”
Wellmaker fought at featherweight against Ewing, given the late notice his opponent had to make the mark. Considering he fought at bantamweight on DWCS to get his contract with a first-round knockout, then had $50,000 bonuses for his first-round KOs in his first two UFC fights against Cameron Saaiman and Kris Moutinho, it’s safe to say Wellmaker will be pining for a return to 135 when he’s back this year.
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And once he does, he thinks he might be able to hold onto a little bit of the anger from the Ewing loss and make it work for him.
“When I go out there and do what I’m supposed to do, a lot of that will be motivated by the fact that there were people I feel like did me wrong and said things and kicked me while I was down,” he said. “But I think that if used correctly, it can be helpful and that it my plan – to not let (the anger) be such an overwhelming force that I used it in a way that doesn’t help me, but use it in a way that improves my performance.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Malcolm Wellmaker looking to channel anger after first UFC loss
