MMAOddsBreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with UFC Fight Night 63 lightweight Gray Maynard about his upcoming preliminary card bout on Saturday (April 4, 2015) against Alexander Yakovlev at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.
The talented former two-time title challenger is currently riding a three-fight losing streak and has returned to his original Xtreme Couture gym. Maynard reflected on the decision to leave and his mental state while away:
“I lost the title [fight] and that does a lot of weird stuff to your head. For me, I might have had one foot out the door at that time. ‘Well, I’m just gonna move to California, enjoy life,’ and that’s what I did. I had a kid and obviously I still competed because I had to, but maybe mentally I wasn’t there. Maybe mentally, I was kind of retired. You go through that stuff. Any time you’re going up against top 10 opponents which I did, you’ve got to be fully committed to the game and I don’t know if I was.”