When the UFC re-signed Modestas Bukauskas, he immediately went on a run. He won his first two fights back with the organization – both of which were by unanimous decision. However, after facing a setback, he came back harder than ever. Now he’s riding another two-fight win streak, but has finishes in each of those fights.
‘The Baltic Gladiator’ attibutes that change to the steps he’s taken physically and spiritually in the cage.
“I think that’s just all due to sort of learning, learning from like previous mistakes and sort of changing things in my training and just becoming more of a professional and definitely more of an athlete,” Bukauskas explained. “The spirit of the martial artist definitely runs now deeper in my soul than it ever has.”
However, he won’t take all the credit for that work. Bukauskas made the move to work with Tom Aspinall and his team, and he knows that it’s brough him to a new level.
“I’ve got to give a massive credit to obviously the guys down at Tom Aspinall’s gym. Coming up there has just been a heaven sent really,” he said. “I think all things have sort of just been put into my path for a reason. I feel like God’s it’s all part of God’s plan.”
So when you combine the work that he’s doing in the training room and how he’s working on the mental side – it’s bound to create a dangerous fighter with an exciting future.
“I mean, when you’ve got a room full of guys at about 120 kilos and you’re like the smallest guy in the room, it’s not often that happens [for me],” Bukauskas said. “You can only get better from that, from that point onwards. I’ve just, I’ve just tweaked everything, tighten things up. I think mentally I’m in a very good place. So yeah, I’m just really looking forward to everything that happens.”
You can see what happens next to Bukauskas as he takes on Ion Cutelaba. His fight takes place as part of the UFC 315 prelims on ESPN+. That portion of the fight card begins at 6:30pm EST
You can catch the entire audio of this interview on the latest edition of the Top Turtle MMA Podcast. It airs at 26:00.
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