“That Chad Anheliger would have said the same thing,” the Canadian veteran said when we spoke ahead of this weekend’s clash. “He expected the same.”
Some would say there’s no way that’s true or that Anheliger is playing the results; reframing how he felt back then now that he knows things have turned in his favor.
Others will attribute it to typical fighter talk or athlete talk – someone saying what they’re supposed to say in that situation, whether they believe it or not.
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But listening to the 35-year-old bantamweight break it down, it’s pretty clear that even despite his struggles at the time, he never stopped believing he would find his way to this stage.
“I had parted ways with that fighter when I was losing,” began Anheliger, who switched gyms, aligning himself with Champion’s Creed, and didn’t fight for 23 months after that June 2014 setback. I was so separated from them, so soon after, because I knew it wasn’t me.
“I didn’t need to be married to this record or this career because I can change it and it’s not me. If anything, it’s just boring because I had to spend through this process of change, but there was never a point of ‘Oh, I don’t think I can do this’ or ‘I’m not as good as I thought I was.’ I was just frustrated with the results, but the results are not always 100% within your control.
“You can train well, prepare well, you can be a better fighter, and you can still lose the fight, for whatever reason, and you can’t get too hung up on the results,” the Canadian veteran continued. , who won the championship. gold in two weight classes for Rise FC and successfully defended their bantamweight strap with a third-round stoppage victory over Brady Heistand before the Sikjitsu rep was selected for season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter, where he qualified for the final. “I know it sounds crazy now that I’m on this streak and it looks like all I can do is win, but the results are not 100% in your control so you have to let it go.
