That Archie Colgan still is unbeaten reasonably early in his career is not that rare.
But lately, the heat has been turned up a bit, and the results have been mostly the same. Well, the part that’s been the same – the most important part – has been the wins at the end. But the most recent two have taken a little more work.
Colgan (9-0 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) had six finishes in his first seven fights, including stoppages in his first four Bellator wins. But this past year, the level of opponent was stepped up for him big time and he took a pair of decisions from former featherweight title challenger Emmanuel Sanchez and Pieter Buist.
Instead of opponents with his similar level of pro experience, he was fighting two guys with four times his experience. The finishes were traded for 15-minute decisions.
“My past two fights have been a big step up in competition,” Colgan told MMA Junkie Radio. “These guys had 25 (fights), and I’ve come away with dominant decisions. But I want to get back to that finishing way.”
Next week, Colgan will be in Paris for a Bellator Champions Series fight against French foe Thibault Gouti (17-6 MMA, 2-1 BMMA), who has gotten back on track of late after a tough 1-5 run in the UFC six or so years ago.
He knows to get a win, he’ll have to take some verbal punishment from Gouti’s home fans, but it’ll be worth it.
“(The goal is) coming out there, facing some adversity with the crowd, going through that pretty easily, dominating my way to a finish, and proving to everybody that I can do to this level as I believe I could – to the level that was maybe a step behind (before).”
Colgan said he’s never really felt the pressure that goes with being unbeaten, and he doesn’t plan on starting now, even if the level of competition stays high like with Gouti. But it no doubt will be increasingly difficult to keep that 0 at the end of his record.
“It wasn’t like I was like, ‘Hey man, I just want to get to 10-0 one day’ or 5-0 or 15 or any of that,” Colgan said. “It was really just like, ‘I just want to not lose. I just don’t want to lose. I just want to win.’ Every single fight was not about trying to hold on to an undefeated record. It was just like, ‘Man, I just don’t want to lose.’ That’s it. I just more than wanting to win.
“I just didn’t want to lose. I just had to go out there and perform my best and the next thing you know, it’s like, ‘Dang, I’m 5-0 – that’s pretty cool.’ And then, ‘Oh, I’m 9-0, going for 10 now.’ Perfect scenario to me is that I go out there, I want the adversity of being booed in (his) home crowd. … Then I go out there and impose my will and I go back to my finishing ways.”