“I’m realizing that you have to embrace the whole experience,” he said. “Fight week, going to different places, meeting new people and giving my opinion on things like MMA. It’s all a part of the process, and the more you do it, the more practice you get, the better you are at doing it and the more comfortable you are and the more you can enjoy it. I think I’ve gotten to that point now where I feel comfortable enough to be able to enjoy it. I don’t view it as work.”

He even enjoys interviews these days, which isn’t something you hear often. And while he isn’t too enamored of the long plane flights outside of the States, the Chicago native is happy to be seeing the world once his feet hit the ground.

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“I enjoy going to all these different places I would never have gone to without the UFC, like Australia and Beijing; I got to go to the Great Wall with my dad and my brother and I enjoy that stuff. If they had given me Junior in Brazil, I would have been down. That would have been cool, too.”

Fighting a Brazilian in Brazil is a tough gig, but given the personalities of both Blaydes and Dos Santos, dare I say that Blaydes might have even received some cheers if he fought the former heavyweight champion in South America. That’s a testament to a young man choosing to conduct himself in a way that represents the sport well while setting an example for his daughter, Harlie.