JAI FLYING
Herbert beats demons as he gets crucial win
JAI HERBERT produced one hell of a performance to silence the “demons” in his head that were threatening to leave his UFC career dead and buried.
The Wolverhampton lightweight had been having a devil of a time getting his hand raised in the octagon and knew it was all or nothing in his third fight with the company.
However, ‘The Black Country Banger’ responded impressively against Khama Worthy in Las Vegas last weekend, with a flurry of on-point strikes sending the American to the canvas before the referee stepped in midway through the first round.
With three-fight losing runs often leading to the chop in the UFC Herbert, who is now 11-3 in his MMA career, said: “I am feeling relieved.
‘‘I have been in the UFC a year and a half and lost my first two against top-level opponents.
Now I have come out and got the win and I am over the moon.
“I have always believed in myself but you have always got those demons in your head telling you, ‘You can’t do it, you are not good enough.’
‘‘Even in the cage this time I was still fighting them.
“It was a battle in my head and I had to think, ‘No, I am going to win, I am going to win.’
“You just have to keep the faith and believe in the process, which is what I did. Now I have got my first win in the UFC, but I need to continue this run.”
The former Cage Warriors champion knew the pressure was on after losing to Francisco Trinaldo and Renato Moicano.
Having finally got off the mark, Herbert added: “There is a sense of relief but I am still annoyed about those first two fights.
‘‘I need to go on a 10-fight winning streak to redeem myself.
“Initially, I was a little bit naive. I thought, ‘Great, win a couple of fights (in the UFC) and I will be straight in the top 15.’ But I came up against veterans and they enlightened me, gave me a baptism of fire.
‘‘They helped me and made me realise I need to be more of a dual-threat fighter, adding more grappling.
“Fighters are not going to go away that easily in the UFC, they will be there until the end. So now I am going to take it fight by fight, just focus on the next one.”