Buried beneath the hype and stature of the UFC 182 main event between UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his challenger, Daniel Cormier, lightweight Myles “Fury” Jury looked to capitalize on a grand opportunity.
Taking on streaking, red-hot veteran Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Jury was afforded the chance to catapult himself to the top of the talented 155-pound class. A win over the then-No. 5-ranked Cerrone, and Jury’s 16-0 record would be impossible to deny.
As their bout wore on, however, something became clear. Cowboy, a veteran of 32 professional fights, was too much for the rising youngster.
His grappling was more refined, his demeanor was more relaxed yet more aggressive all the same, and his striking was precise and purposeful. Jury had no answers.
After 15 minutes of action, Cerrone‘s hand was raised, and Jury’s fell to his side, slumped under the weight of his first professional defeat.
Cerrone, relatively unscathed from the battle, would go on to accept a bout on two weeks’ notice against former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Benson Henderson at UFC Fight Night 59 in Boston.
Jury would go home and regroup.
Bleacher Report took the time to catch up with Jury following this defeat. Here’s what the Michigan native had to say.
Bleacher Report: Hey, Myles, thanks for taking the time to chat. UFC 182 didn’t go your way, obviously, and it marked your first loss in amateur or professional action. How did you initially respond? How did you feel immediately after the decision was announced?
Jury: I was gutted, my heart was heavy, and I was very disappointed in myself.
B/R: Being the intense, confident competitor you are, you probably never thought of losing as a possibility, but if you ever did, how did this experience compare to your thoughts? Does it feel different than you expected?
Jury: My style and everything I do leading up to the fight brings more than just confidence to the point I don’t think about losing. If that time ever came, I would just deal with it the best way I can, but I’m not going to think far into things I work my ass off for every day to not happen. If you think things can happen, you’ll allow them to happen. Losing a round is horrible to me and something I can’t accept, so a loss is like hitting rock bottom. But yeah, this is horrible, and I can’t wait to get past this and never allow it to happen again.
B/R: For all the talk about the fight and Cerrone signing up to fight again so quickly, he really didn’t dominate you in my eyes. You never seemed hurt, and besides the submission attempts in Round 1, there really wasn’t much of a threat it seemed. How did you feel in the fight? Did you feel any danger?
Jury: Basically, our styles were countering each other, which was just frustrating both of us. His mental toughness and experience showed, and really, there isn’t a lot to say about anything else other than it for sure will help me more than it’ll hurt me.
B/R: Cerrone talked a lot about how your post-fight interview after the Diego Sanchez fight pissed him off and added fuel to the fire for him. Looking back, do you wish you hadn’t said those things?
Jury: Look back at that interview. It was nothing like he or (the UFC) Countdown (pre-fight special) made it out to be.
But either way, Diego—like most of my opponents—talked a bunch of s–t to me on social media and about me in the media. He did this for a couple of months all the way to the fight then continued to talk crap after the fight while making excuses. So no, it was nothing meant in a cocky or disrespectful way.
I’m in no way a fan of Diego’s any longer, but I’ve looked up to him in the past and honestly was more prepared for that fight than ever before. So when the fight didn’t go as I thought it would, I was surprised it wasn’t a barnburner. I guess it was a poor word to use (easy), but damn, I just fought for 15 minutes with someone that’s been talking s–t for months and was being honest.
I’m respectful at all times and would never mean to intentionally disrespect someone, but I guess honesty can be a good and bad thing, depending on the timing.
B/R: Now that you’ve fought a top-five guy, how do you feel about your place in the division? Is it disheartening at all, or do you feel like you could definitely hang with them after making some small adjustments?
Jury: I know I belong at the top and just made a lot of mistakes that I need to correct and will then never hold myself down or back ever again. To be at the top of the division, it just showed me that I need to stop putting pressure on myself to be perfect and do everything perfectly and start getting ruthless, taking big risks to get big rewards.
That is the biggest wake-up call for me.
B/R: What would those adjustments be, specifically, in your eyes? What do you need to do?
Jury: Getting more ruthless and taking big risks to get big rewards. Cerrone has been with Zuffa over seven years, and I feel his main strength is his mental toughness, which has come over that seven years.
I really like that about him, and it’s nothing anyone can just learn other than through years of experience or by fighting someone like Cerrone. I feel he gave me five years of experience in that 15 minutes and (it was) exactly what I needed to bring out the best in me.
B/R: You’re still young and motivated and hungry, and you’re a professional inside and outside the cage. Where does Myles Jury go from here?
Jury: I sacrifice a lot in camps, so I’m just spending time with family and friends in Michigan these next few weeks. I’m also using this time to reflect on everything I need to be doing differently and correcting.
Other than that, I’m going to be spending time with the Michigan Wolverines wrestling team, helping out a local high school wrestling team, training at local MMA gyms and focusing on having fun until I get back to San Diego to get back to work.
B/R: Do you have an ideal time line or an opponent in mind for getting back inside the Octagon?
Jury: I leave that up to my manager, so I’m sure we’ll work that out the end of the month when I get back.
B/R: Thanks for the time, Myles. Best of luck to you moving forward.
*All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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