After overcoming “the fear of losing” Evan Elder expects UFC Vegas 69 fight against Nazim Sadykhov to be a “three-round drag-out war”

Evan Elder had a sense of relief when he lost to Preston Parsons in his UFC debut last April.

Elder stepped up on short notice and moved up to welterweight to face Parsons and dropped a decision. It was his first career loss, and although he would’ve liked to remain undefeated, Elder says the loss has actually helped him quite a bit.

“I took away a lot. Failure is part of the process a lot of times and fortunately, I learned a ton from that loss, so I didn’t walk away empty-handed,” Elder said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “One of the biggest things is losing the fear of losing which has been tremendous for my confidence. Not going in there and worrying about the outcome and more just focused on the process.”

Now that he isn’t afraid of losing, Elder expects to put on a better performance at UFC Vegas 69 against Nazim Sadykhov. He now has a full camp to prepare for the fight and believes that will only add to his advantage.

“I think it is going to be significantly different,” Elder said. “Not be more physically prepared but more mentally prepared to go in with a game plan and structure a much more strategic approach and not winging it.”

With Evan Elder having a full camp to prepare, he is confident he will pick up his first Octagon win. However, he knows this fight will be a tough one as he says Nazim Sadykhov is as durable as they come, so Elder is expecting a war.

“Man, I’m preparing for a three-round drag-out war,” Elder explained. “If I can get him out of there earlier, whether it’s knockout, TKO, submission, it doesn’t matter. If it goes the distance, I think there is a good chance it will, it will be a good one. We are both very tough, and very durable, our conditioning is going to be there. It’s going to be a fun one.”

Ultimately, if Elder gets his hand raised, he doesn’t care who is next but rather hopes to have an active 2023.

“I’m not looking too far past this fight. But ideally, I get out of this fight unscathed, and I can fight again in a couple of months,” Elder concluded.

Do you think Evan Elder will beat Nazim Sadykhov at UFC Vegas 69?