“It was just that extra push to find the finish,” Driscoll said. “I wasn’t able to shift into that next gear. I just didn’t have it to push that extra bit. It was taxing, and then when we got into the third round I made the decision that I had a lot of momentum so now I’m going to finish this guy but I wasn’t able to. I didn’t have the capacity inside myself to get it done due to the weight cut.”
Driscoll’s friends and teammates were about as supportive as he could have asked after the win.
Knowing what was on the line, people flew to Las Vegas with high hopes, and although the celebration wasn’t nearly to the level it may have been had Driscoll been signed, they were able to find a lot of fun in Driscoll’s mood after the biggest win of his career from their standpoint.
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“A lot of my close friends were kind of laughing like, ‘Dude, you’re acting like you lost. You still got the win,’” Driscoll recalls. “A lot of my teammates really understood and also told me I was on the right path and to keep my nose on the grindstone. It was a lot of good, affirmative reactions.”