Jordan Wright Reflects on First Loss, Bouncing Back at UFC 262

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“The Beverly Hills Ninja” learned his lesson and came back even stronger.

Jordan Wright (12-1, 1 NC, 2-1 UFC) suffered his first pro defeat after being stopped by Joaquin Buckley in the second frame of their 185-pound encounter at UFC 255. After taking that loss, the 29-year old Jackson-Wink MMA product got back to the lab only to sharpen his tools and smash Jamie Pickett with elbows and punches at UFC 262. Now, Wright reflects on that first loss and how he overcame it with the right attitude. .

“I took it really well,” he said while talking with Sherdog. “Here is the thing, I’ve lost fights as an amateur, and even though it’s a No Contest on my record, my Contender Series loss to Anthony Hernandez, that is a real loss to me. I do view it as a loss. Having the O now no longer being there after the Buckley fight, of course, it is a little different, I suppose. It was a great thing because I learned a lot from my losses and I was able to go back to the drawing board immediately. One of the first things that sensei Anthony told me after the fight was, ‘Look, you can’t be a champion if you can’t take a loss.’ Look at some of the greatest guys in the world. He trained with Ernesto Hoost, who’s one of the greatest kickboxers of all time, if not the greatest. [Anthony] was like, ‘Dude, Ernesto got knocked out three times before he even won his first K1 belt.’”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog begun in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.