Winn would continue to earn Fight of the Night honors in his fight with Spicely, adding even more hype behind the American Kickboxing Academy product. The thrill of an early win led Winn to make a second trip to the Octagon to face Darren Stewart at UFC Boston in October.
The confrontation with “The Dentist” was a hotly contested battle, with Winn relying heavily on his struggle to control the action. However, after the first round, Winn found himself struggling with physical and mental difficulties. He would lose the fight by shared decision.
Winn believes that despite the loss, he has proven something and that the version of Deron Winn that the world will see in the future will be a completely different fighter.
“Getting out of a loss was a bit fragile,” he said. “I didn’t really know how to handle this because it was my first MMA defeat, but as a wrestler and true soul crusher, I took many of these values and training ideas that I always had, then I progressed it up. I always had a heart, but I think it told me that maybe I had an even bigger heart than I had ever thought because I had a lot of crazy and negative thoughts when I was there. If you understood how tired and out of me I looked compared to you, you would be blown away. It has changed a lot in me and I am more confident than ever now. “
And after this defeat, Meerschaert de Roufusport returned to relaunch the fight on Twitter. It didn’t take Winn long to accept Meerschaert’s challenge and, just like that, Twitter’s fingers turned into a bloody battle on this weekend’s UFC 248 card.