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Now the winner of five straight, a stretch that includes a pair of UFC victories, North Carolina’s Solecki isn’t the same person – or fighter – that he was a year ago.
“I feel like I’m definitely coming into my own and I feel comfortable in there,” he said. “I feel like I’m starting to figure out what works for me as far as my training schedule, as far as getting on that right page with all my coaches and everything else, and really just getting into the perspective of what fighting is to me. It’s different to every single person and everyone has their different motivating factors, everyone has their why, and I really stopped caring what people think. I have to. I have a lot left to prove, but I’m done proving stuff to other people. I’ll be exhausted if I try to do that. So I think that took a big weight off my shoulders and now I feel like I figured out what I need to do, the headspace I need to be in. Anything can happen on any given night, but I truly, truly feel like I can compete with anyone. And I don’t think I felt that a year ago or two years ago.”
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As for what’s next, Solecki is open to whatever the UFC throws at him. No, really, he means it.
“I wish they’d just give us a date and tell us to show up and then you find out ten minutes before you walk out, like jiu-jitsu tournaments,” he laughs. “There was almost more peace of mind that way.”
Unfortunately, Solecki will know who he’s going to be facing well ahead of his next assignment, but that’s okay; he’s exactly where he wants to be, and he can’t wait to top 2020 in 2021.
“I think it’s gonna be fantastic,” he said of the year ahead. “Every time I get this long break between fights, I feel like I really get to grow and come back and really look like a different fighter. So that’s really the plan. It’s gonna be my time to really come out and show that I’m a mature fighter, way beyond my years, with the ability to do all the work of a young man but the maturity of a much, much more seasoned person and fighter.”
Yeah, fatherhood will speed that maturity process up. Then again, Nora has always had a dad who carried himself the right way. Now she’ll get to see it for herself.
“I’m somebody that’s been so competitively driven for my entire life, whether it was for my own ego or fulfilling my own attempts at being successful, or whatever it was, and now it’s just not that,” he said. “Now, I want to be the champion because I want to provide the best life possible for my child. I want her to see what you can do with hard work.”