Pat Schilling Says He's Feeling The Pressure
Posted on 31 May 2012
by MMAScoops.com Staff

Pat Schilling recently spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight at The Ultimate Fighter: Live Finale. Check out the highlights:

On feeling the pressure to win: "I'm still going to appreciate everything. I'm a pretty content person. Wherever I am, I'm going to be happy with it. But with this situation, I understand that there's a little more pressure to win because if I lose, the odds of me coming back are very low."

On getting his UFC on F/X fight with Daniel Pineda: "The first fight, it was on such short notice, I thought, 'I understand if they have to let me go,. I had just gotten promoted that week, too. I had a whole week where I had to take off right away, but they were really accommodating. Luckily, I have UFC fans in the management of the store, so they understand what was going on. They knew it was an easy choice for me. If I had to choose one way or another, they knew where I was going to go, and that would be the UFC. I think they understood that, and they were really supportive of it."

On his loss to Pineda: "I didn't have a lot of time to train for that last fight. Last fight, I was at work. I got the call eight days before the fight. I wasn't really mentally prepared to get into a training camp or anything that strenuous. I definitely wasn't expecting to get the call from the UFC. That kind of hit me pretty quick – not to say that it was an excuse for the loss because there was other things that came into play there. I didn't perform the way I needed to. Now with an eight-week camp, my strength is through the roof. My cardio is great. My overall technique is definitely improved. I feel like I'm a lot more prepared for this one."

On thinking he had been cut: "I got a letter in the mail from Zuffa like two weeks later. I was like, 'Oh, crap. There it is.' I thought it was going to be like, 'It's been real. Goodbye.' But it wasn't. It was just some basic stuff, so I ended up in good shape, and I'm still here."

On being in a must-win position: "It's not negative pressure. "He's going through the same thing. I don't feel like there's any disadvantage there. But I do feel it. I know I have to win…This is a dream of mine, and it's something I really want to accomplish. I'm driven to do it."

On being ready for this fight: "I definitely feel like I'm more prepared. My technique has come a long way since that first fight. I've been working with a lot of different training partners than I had in the past. I'm at this point really early in my career right now, so the technique is still coming. I'm not a world-beater yet, but I think the opponent that I'm fighting, we both have holes in our game, and I think I can take better advantage of it than he can."