Warlley Alves on recent losses: I let my past winning streak get to my head, didn’t train as hard

Welterweight Warlley Alves reflects on his two-fight losing skid and how it changed his mindset.

The Ultimate Fight Brazil 3 middleweight champion, Warlley Alves came out of the house as a hot, undefeated, Brazilian prospect. This was mostly bolstered after he followed that up with a four-fight winning streak in the UFC, in which he picked three submission wins.

However, now that he has suffered back-to-back losses, Alves confessed to Portal do Vale Tudo how he let the wins go to his head and how humbling a loss can be.

“I thought I was someone I’m far away from being. My feet are back on the ground again, and they weren’t for a while. I thought I could afford to not train as hard and I didn’t do everything that had to be done. Now my mindset is changed, I’m back to that frantic training style and I will put on a show again, in my next fight, if God abides.

“I’m going to say something that maybe no fighters admit. After a while, winning makes you settle down. I don’t think I trained like I used to. I trained hard and I had my injuries, but they don’t justify my losses. I just relaxed a little too much. I let that get to my head. I was more worried about things going on outside the Octagon. Now I’m the Warlley from TUF again. The one who was obsessed with winning.”

In his UFC run, Warlley Alves holds wins over Marcio Alexandre, Alan Jouban, Nordine Taleb and Colby Covington. He was defeated by Bryan Barberena and, most recently, by Kamaru Usman, in November 2016. He was expected to take on Kiichi Kunimoton in June, but was removed from the fight due to an injury.

Welterweight Warlley Alves reflects on his two-fight losing skid and how it changed his mindset.

The Ultimate Fight Brazil 3 middleweight champion, Warlley Alves came out of the house as a hot, undefeated, Brazilian prospect. This was mostly bolstered after he followed that up with a four-fight winning streak in the UFC, in which he picked three submission wins.

However, now that he has suffered back-to-back losses, Alves confessed to Portal do Vale Tudo how he let the wins go to his head and how humbling a loss can be.

“I thought I was someone I’m far away from being. My feet are back on the ground again, and they weren’t for a while. I thought I could afford to not train as hard and I didn’t do everything that had to be done. Now my mindset is changed, I’m back to that frantic training style and I will put on a show again, in my next fight, if God abides.

“I’m going to say something that maybe no fighters admit. After a while, winning makes you settle down. I don’t think I trained like I used to. I trained hard and I had my injuries, but they don’t justify my losses. I just relaxed a little too much. I let that get to my head. I was more worried about things going on outside the Octagon. Now I’m the Warlley from TUF again. The one who was obsessed with winning.”

In his UFC run, Warlley Alves holds wins over Marcio Alexandre, Alan Jouban, Nordine Taleb and Colby Covington. He was defeated by Bryan Barberena and, most recently, by Kamaru Usman, in November 2016. He was expected to take on Kiichi Kunimoton in June, but was removed from the fight due to an injury.