Mandel Nallo must derail ‘The Train’ this weekend during this Canada-based contest and get back on the tracks in his UFC journey. Mandel Nallo is taking on Nate Landwehr at UFC Fight Night Edmonton on October 17th in a contest between high-octane warriors that has the on-paper quality to inspire several Reddit threads discussing it. After a loss in a wild back and forth tilt with Jai Herbert during Nallo’s UFC debut and touching on the exciting nature of this sophomore UFC matchup, Mandel Nallo said [via MMA Canada],
“Yeah, I mean it’s a good one. You never really know what kind of offer you’re going to get after a loss. So, it’s nice to be still perceived by the matchmakers of being a guy that is capable of putting on high level fights and fighting a guy with a good amount of experience in the organization. That’s always nice to know. So, I was pretty happy with it. Stylistically, it’s a good one.”
Touching upon that small binary of a win and loss within MMA in the context of what his big takeaways were from fighting an opponent in his first UFC bout who pushed the likes of former two division UFC champ Ilia Topuria to his limits, Mandel Nallo stated [via MMA Canada],
“There’s a lot to take away from it. It’s more just learning about how to treat different aspects of a fight. Like it’s easy to expect the best, but that’s not really what we prepare for. Sometimes when good things happen in the cage, it’s up to you to remember that every 10 seconds is a different 10 seconds. You can’t just expect it to continue to kind of roll downhill for you. So just understanding momentum in fights and the ability [of] fighting to your strengths is so important.”
“So yeah, I’m pretty lucky to be able to learn a lesson like that on such a large scale. I know; yeah, sure [laughs], the perception might not be that it’s a horrible takeaway but the small binary of win or loss is [laughs] the only thing that really matters. So it is pretty immense the day after.”
Mandel Nallo discusses Nate Landwehr’s most notable attributes and the path to a UFC Edmonton win
In terms of the machinations of this matchup and what Nate Landwehr brings to the table here as an opponent, Mandel Nallo quipped [via MMA Canada],
“Well, the way that he is special is that he’s extremely durable and tough. He’s got high level cardio and he’s willing to push when other guys might decide that the damage is too much or the cardio, the pace is too high. Like he will always push you. So he’s really got that ability to break people and I think that’s probably his top attribute and he’s like very fan friendly in that way where he will not back down.”
“He will not play a 10-9 [round]. He’ll always attempt to score a finish and that’s where he really shines. If you let him pull you into that type of fight, it can be a long night and it has been for a lot of guys. So that’s where I see him really shining.”
Delving into how some of the key lessons imparted to him by his first UFC loss can pay dividends towards authoring his first UFC win in Alberta on Saturday night, Mandel Nallo said [via MMA Canada],
“Yeah, it does kind of lean into the things that I was hoping to work on anyways. It’ll be a good test to understand myself and know how to be patient in the cage.”
