Fili grabbed his chin and squinted his eyes, playfully reenacting trying to discern what happened between feeling great about his first combination and his wife meeting him backstage.
“(Dan) and I were talking (the other day) — he just had a tough one, and the fight didn’t go his way, but he prepared great, fought his a** off, and we were talking about how you can do everything right and (something out of your control happens). I told him, ‘You have such a good life. You’re so rich. You have a wife that is your biggest fan. You have two healthy, beautiful kids; you’re winning, man.’ That’s not something he doesn’t already know, but sometimes it’s good to remind your friends.
“But yeah, he and I were just having that conversation that you can do everything right, try to control every single bit of it, and something crazy can happen,” he added. “Or something amazing can happen! That’s a conversation I’ve been having with multiple people — Dan, Micah (Schnurstein) at the UFC PI, who is an incredible sports psychologist. I’ve had that talk with some really good people and that’s where I’m at: I’m gonna control what I can control… The only time things don’t work out for me is when I try to force them. I’ll gain traction and instead of letting the happen naturally, I start internalizing things, trying to force it, trying to prove this and that, (thinking), ‘I wanna be remembered and leave a legacy,’ and it’s just like, ‘No one is gonna remember anyone.’”
Once more, Fili laughed at the conclusion he’s reached in order to help settle himself and put things into perspective.
Once more, he’s not wrong.
