Simply put, 2015 was a rough year for middleweight Justin Fisher. The year got off to a great start with a stoppage victory against Ben Brewer at Valor Fights 23, but that would be the only positive news for Fisher last year.
Following that victory, he was defeated by Julio Gallegos and then suffered a knee injury. Once he recovered from that injury, he was booked to face Oluwale Bamgbose at Ring of Combat 52. However, Bamgbose would be signed by the UFC and he would end up being removed from the card.
Due to everything that went wrong in 2015 for Fisher, he learned one major learning lesson. He needs to embrace the process and everything that goes into the fight game.
“For a little bit there, it was kind of mildly depressive just angry at the world kind of state,” he told The MMA Report. “Then I realize through god’s grace, he showed me that you control this. You can do this. I have given you the ability to do these things. Given you the opportunity in the gym. As soon as I got back into the gym and really getting into it, around October when the knee was cleared.”
“Coach started to work with me on mental exercises,” he continued. “Just really learning to embrace the process. Going through daily drills. Going through technique workouts. Going through cardio workout. Whatever you are doing, embrace the process and when we say the process sucks, he said embrace the suck. Just embracing the sucks and realizing there is going to be the good times, bad times, hard times and easy times. Injuries are going to happen and they happen for a reason. You get to rebound from them.”
Tonight at Valor Fights 31, Fisher will be in the main event of the fight card when he challenges Sid Wheeler for the Valor Fights middleweight title. He understands that he is facing a talented young fighter in the sport and ultimately the key to victory for Fisher is to fight his fight.