Chris Curtis: No More Fear

The hyper-fixation on the impact of each appearance and the way that social media can be uplifting or debilitating are universally understandable not just within the MMA space, but for most people, in general, if you turn each fight into a work assignment, business project, or task you’re looking to accomplish.

But Curtis is in a unique position professionally because his age works as a force multiplier when it comes to his career and the positive or negative effects each win and loss can carry.

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“Every fighter has a time limit — we can’t do this forever — and that’s why I’m so adamant and passionate about this because I’m working on a very limited time limit,” said Curtis, who arrived on the scene later than most, and therefore doesn’t have the space to embark on a 10-12-year run inside the Octagon. “I’ve been fighting for 20 something years. I’ve held together very well — thank God I come from durable genetics — but the survival rate for everybody drops to zero eventually, so I’m aware that I can’t do it forever.

“I’ve got three more years. I’ve been signed for two, and I’ve got three more, and really, I’ve got to put 10, 12 years into that,” he continued. “I can’t be afraid to take those risks, take those chances.

“There are probably fights I shouldn’t take, but f*** it. If you lose, what’s gonna happen? The internet is gonna say you suck or you’re mid, but so what? When it’s all said and done and I’m gone, I’m gonna have some awesome stories to tell and some cool f****** scars, so why not?”

From his vantage point, Curtis doesn’t believe there is much different about his opponent this weekend since their last meeting.

“I don’t think he’s changed from the time we fought to now, and that’s not a bad thing,” he said about Allen. “He’s a good fighter. He’s not bad at anything. He’s good everywhere.

“I haven’t seen anything super-different that has changed,” he reiterated. “We got into a fistfight and somebody got knocked out; that’s kind of how fistfights go.”

He turned the question around on me, seeking my thoughts, and I suggested that the biggest change has been in Allen’s belief in himself and his abilities.

Prior to their first encounter, Allen was like most confident individuals in their early-to-mid 20s — a little too brash, a little too quick to let you know how good he was, and eager to make it clear that if he ran it back with Strickland, the results would be different the second time around. But over the course of his current winning streak, he’s been talking less and doing more; playing to his strengths on the ground and letting his results speak for him.

I tell this to Curtis and he nods his head.

“It’s a big piece,” he said in regard to my self-belief theory on Allen. “It makes a very big difference if you believe it, especially after you have setbacks because you start to question it.

“You need to remember who the f*** you are sometimes.”

It’s a lesson Curtis has taken to heart himself, as he’s worked to tune out the nonsense and focus in on what really matters and the respect he commands with the MMA community.

“A big piece for me was that I had to stop giving a f*** about the fans; I honestly had to stop,” he said. “I love them, I love the sport and everything, but, at the end of the day, most of them will turn on you in a heartbeat. You can’t fight for validation from people that aren’t heavily invested in you; that’s a mistake.

“I have the respect of people I train with. I have the respect of people I’m rivals with. I’m respected by my peers, and that should mean more to me than any validation of some random guy behind a keyboard, and I accept that now and it’s taken a lot of stress off my shoulders. I can walk into any high-level gym in the world and I’ll be understood and respected, so how am I losing sleep over random people online?

“The people I respect, that I look up to, they know I’m good, and that means the f****** world to me.”