Humbled Terrance McKinney Says He Was Falling in Love with His Gifts

Terrance McKinney learned a lot from his latest assignment in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

McKinney (12-4, 2-1 UFC) made his big-stage debut by scoring the quickest knockout for a UFC newcomer when he rendered Matt Frevola unconscious at UFC 263 in June 2021. “T-Wrecks” went on to quickly submit Fares Ziam at UFC Fight Night 202 thanks to a rear-naked choke before accepting to face Drew Dober on short notice UFC Fight Night 203. Things didn’t go according to McKinney’s plans that night as he was stopped with punches inside the opening frame. Ahead of his upcoming clash with Erick Gonzalez, McKinney confessed that he wasn’t taking his practice sessions as seriously as he should have to compete against guys at the highest level of mixed martial arts.

“I just need to make sure once I fight a high-level guy to get ranked or push myself into the ranking aspect, just making sure I put the work in because I was fall in love with my gift too much and taking it for granted and I could have been working a lot harder. I know what it takes to be at that top-edge launch of the game, and I've been doing it. We're really pushing the cardio every day. Like I said, I came to tears in practice because I just never want to lose again. This sport means so much to me, and I refuse to take another step backward because I want this belt as bad as I want to breed.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:49) Losing to Dober
(01:50) Whether he regrets taking the fight on short notice
(02:41) The lessons he learned from the Dober clash
(03:35) Whether he’s pushing for a rematch
(04:31) Not taking his preparation seriously for that match
(05:33) Preparing for Gonzalez
(06:16) The adjustments he made
(06:57) Training with Saidyokub Kakhramonov
(07:27) His cornermen
(07:40) His expectation for the fight
(08:30) Commenting on walking out to ‘Lose Yourself’ in his latest bout
(09:53) Picking Thiago Santos vs. Jamahal Hill
(10:19) Acknowledgments
(10:38) Outro