Athletes
Chris Curtis: "I'm A Five-Round Fighter"
After Getting Back Into The Win Column, Chris Curtis Wants To Make 2024 A Year To Remember.
By the time UFC 297 was over, Chris Curtis had watched his win over Marc-Andre Barriault three times.
Not to celebrate. But to criticize. Before he left the arena.
“I'm the worst person for celebrating my successes,” Curtis said. “I got grilled by my coaches and teammates on fight night because before I left the arena, I had to watch my fight three times and I was picking it apart already. They're all like, ‘You just won a fight in the UFC. You achieved something the majority of the population dreams of doing but they can't, and you don't look happy. So I'm really bad at celebrating my wins.”
Curtis, who returned to the win column for the first time since December of 2022 with the split decision victory, says this is something he’s working on, but apparently there’s plenty of work to be done given his reaction to the January 20 bout. In fact, when it comes to the topic of Chris Curtis, he says, “The biggest Chris Curtis hater is Chris Curtis. (Laughs) So I don't need anything else to make it harder than it already is. I'm going to make it harder myself already.”
That “anything else” prompted the Cincinnati native to press pause on social media and pre-fight interviews in the lead-up to the Barriault fight, allowing him to focus on work and nothing else.
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“I'm somebody who doom scrolls, and I go out searching for negativity about me, and then I get mad if I find it, because…I don’t know why,” he laughs. “I'm aware it's ridiculous, I'm absolutely aware. So, for me, it's better to just be away. I know the job I have in front of me. I don't need anything to make it harder on me than it already is. So just to unplug and be disconnected from it was really, really good for me.”
Not that it made training camp any easier.
“Camp was miserable,” he said. “It was a very, very hard, stressful camp. Towards the end, it started getting better and I stopped freaking out, but it was a miserable camp. Fight week was pretty fun, though, besides Canada being a frozen hellscape, That was a little hard.”
Yes, this is an Ohio native speaking.
“You know what, I've been out of Ohio for eight years,” Curtis laughs. “I'm aware that I should be ashamed, but I've been in good weather for so long that I lost my cold weather immunity. Plus, I was skinny. I was in shape and cutting weight. So I'm just out there dying at all times. I was even in the hotel freezing.”
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Curtis made it work, though, as he picked up his fifth UFC win to kick off 2024, and now he can begin looking forward again. As for the outside noise, that’s a work in progress, too, but he’s on top of it.
“My parents are doctors,” he said. “I imagine it's kind of like when WebMD came out and everyone's coming to the doctor and saying, ‘This is what I think.’ You wouldn't go to a brain surgeon and be like, ‘Well, I saw this on ‘House.’ Are you a doctor? You're like, ‘No, but I watch a lot of ‘Gray's Anatomy.’ This is how you do it.’ It kills me that I'm getting berated and criticized by people who can't do what I do. And it's not even like those that can't, teach; it's those who can't, criticize. It's absolutely insane to me. You don't go to any other profession and be like, ‘No, no, no. I saw this on TV. This is how you do it.’ But with athletes, man, everyone's got an opinion, and to them, their opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s is, despite not having any worthwhile experience in the field. It gets old, man. It gets really, really, really old really fast.”
He laughs.
“I'm not better yet, but I'm acknowledging the problem. That's step one - acknowledge the problem.”
And keep the focus on the task at hand, which is moving up the middleweight ladder. Or is it? Curtis has given thought to moving back to 170 pounds for the first time since 2021, which is an intriguing notion, even through there’s still unfinished business in his current weight class. But wherever he returns, the “Action-Man” has one request:
“I'm a five-round fighter,” Curtis said. “I'm the one guy asking for five-round fights. Let me headline an APEX card, give me five rounds, and I'll show you something special.”
UFC 297: Strickland vs Du Plessis took place live from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on January 20, 2024. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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