It was a rough first round on the scorecards for Uriah Hall in his September bout against Gegard Mousasi, but the New Yorker always appeared calm, as if he knew that given the slightest opening, he could turn things around. Most fighters pray for such a blank out, as Hall took only 25 seconds to finish the highly-ranked middleweight contender and earn his own spot in the top ten. The spinning kick was vintage Hall and the kind of technique that draws oohs and aahs.
The flying knee, that landed with such force to make fans cringe. For a fighter that has been criticized for a lack of killer instinct, it was a killer move. The flying knee, you see a lot of times when guys get rocked, what do they do to relax?
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He beat two late replacement foes in Ron Stallings and Oluwale Bamgbose, was a late replacement himself when he filled in for Roan Carneiro against Mousasi, and in his lone loss of the year, he dropped a lackluster split decision to Rafael Natal in May. The Mousasi fight was the pivotal one though, for so many reasons. He forgets who he really is and gets outpointed.
So I owe that to Arshay. He should be. Hall has noticed it too, but he chooses to not let it get in his head. All this could be taken away just like that. And when you realize that and focus more on you, you focus on what you want to do and the tasks that are ahead of you.
And I see different outcomes. I see me inspiring and helping other people. Yeah, you have people out there saying get this money, and the followers, and the media, and great success comes behind it, but I see the craziness behind that.
