Malcolm Wellmaker moved to a major camp in hopes of turning things around.
After an undefeated start to his professional MMA career, Wellmaker (10-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) has dropped two straight to Ethyn Ewing and Juan Diaz. He was a big favorite in both fights, which prompted the 32-year-old to make a change.
Wellmaker now trains out of American Top Team as he preps for his upcoming fight against Otari Tanzilovi (10-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 290 on Oct. 10 from the Meta APEX in Las Vegas (Paramount+).
"I'm out here, Coconut Creek, enjoying the weather as much as I can when it's not raining, but more so than anything, obviously here for the training, and it's incredible, man," Wellmaker told MMA Junkie Radio. "The coaches are really, really invested
in me, showing me a lot of attention. The teammates are really pushing me but really welcomed me onto the team, too. And I really feel like I fit in much better than I thought I would, to be honest."
Getting to train with former champions has given Wellmaker the exact boost he believes he needed to maximize his potential.
"It's this sense of confidence, man," Wellmaker said. "Like, one of the things I talked about a lot before when I was at my small town gym in Augusta was I never really got to move around with bodies in the UFC, like guys that have real names that are accomplished other than in competition, or maybe once on a fight trip I took to Vegas when I went down with Jason House and them, and he had some guys. But that question mark is always in your head. I believe in myself, but I don't have the concrete evidence to know that my belief is reality. But the guys that I'm working with here, man, they are killers. Like they're real killers, man. The guys that I'm doing my rounds with are world class. I'm getting rounds with real champions. On my very first day, it was a wrestling day, and we did 10 rounds of wrestling, and Round 9 was with Kyoji Horiguchi, and Round 10 was with Pantoja.
"So you can imagine what my very first day was like, right? It was horrible. But what's even more beautiful about that experience is I remember how I felt on the first week here and how I was the nail, and I expected to be the nail every day, and I was OK with that. But I look at myself today, and I come into the gym with intentions to try to win rounds. I come in with intentions to be confident, to be competitive, and that's something that I haven't had up to this point. I had a lot of things, but I didn't have that. And just knowing that the guys I'm going with are the best in the world. And when we spar, it is sparring, bro. It's real sparring. I can count on one hand – maybe not one hand, but less than 10 times for sure, less than a dozen times in Augusta, bro, that I've had the feeling that I have every time I spar here. Every day that's a spar day in ATT, it's almost like you get nervous before going because you know how hard you're about to push, you know? And it's just a level of confidence that comes with that, and I feel like I really can be the best in the world with what I have."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Why Malcolm Wellmaker's confidence has skyrocketed heading into UFC Vegas 122
