In just five weeks’ time, Michael McDonald (15-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) could very well become the youngest UFC champion in the history of the promotion. But until then, he doesn’t want to talk about a belt.

“Honestly, it’s not something on my checklist,” McDonald told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I don’t think it’s my job to say, ‘I want the title. I want to be the youngest champion. I want to do this. I want to do that.’ I feel like doing that just puts stuff in my head that doesn’t need to be there.

“I feel like my job and what’s in front of me is just fighting. I feel like that’s what I’m supposed to do and what I’m supposed to stick at. I don’t think I’m supposed to get involved in media and what they think. I just stick to fighting.”

The approach has served the Californian well thus far, as he has downed Miguel Torres, Alex Soto, Chris Cariaso and Edwin Figueroa en route to a UFC on FUEL TV 7 bout with Renan Barao (29-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on Feb. 16 at London’s Wembley Arena. The two will compete for Barao’s interim bantamweight title – a belt necessitated by champ Dominick Cruz’s extended layoff for knee surgery and won by the Brazilian with a dominant decision win over Urijah Faber this past July.

McDonald, who turns 22 on Jan. 15, would make history with a win over the Nova Uniao product, but he refuses to discuss the importance of the moment. It’s not that the power puncher is superstitious. Quite the contrary, in fact. Instead, McDonald doesn’t want to bring any distractions to his preparation process.

“I don’t want to think about it until afterward,” McDonald said. “That’s kind of how I do it. This whole fighting thing is very stressful. It’s very overwhelming with the whole ‘first-fight jitters’ kind of thing. You can’t think about it. You have to be a good judge of when to block your emotions and when to let them in.

“Emotions cloud judgment, and I don’t want anything clouding my judgment when I go in there. I don’t want to think about a title. I don’t even want to see a title. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to go in there. I want to go home, I want to train, be with my family – do what makes me happy, do my job and go back at home.”

For McDonald, it’s that simple. Fighting professionally since he was just 16 years old, the knockout artist has learned to separate what happens inside of the cage from everything else in the sport. Expectations, labels, legacies and even championships are all secondary measurements of the real goal: improving as a mixed-martial-artist.

“There’s a fine line between knowing where you are and where you could be, and a lot of fighters know they can be here,” McDonaold said. “I did, too. I knew that I could be here, but it’s a difference between where you are and where you could be. Where I am right now, I just try to look at it only on the martial arts standpoint. I really don’t want to look at the possibilities of where I can be in the media’s eyes. I feel like it corrupts people when they take the media standpoint. The media blows people up. They’re heroes. They’re idols. They’re indestructible and all these kind of things.

“Anderson Silva will hit somebody, and they think, ‘Oh, crap. I got hit by Anderson Silva. I’m going to fall down now.’ I’m not putting anything against him as a martial artist. He’s a great martial artist, but there’s also a vibe about these people that gets built up by the media. When you believe that image about yourself, bad things happen. I prefer not to do that.”

If anything, McDonald seems to sell himself short. Similar to the way Georges St-Pierre recently described himself as lacking of any real athletic gifts, McDonald believes his impressive UFC run has been fueled by his understanding of martial arts and body mechanics and could actually be re-created by anyone willing to take the necessary steps.

“I’m not very big,” McDonald said. “I’m not very strong. I’m not even very fast, but I understand the body. I understand martial arts, and I understand body mechanics. Anyone can do what I do. It’s not me or something I was born with. It’s the way that I do it.”

Yet McDonald has done it better than just about everyone else at 135 pounds. Of course, Barao brings with him an incredible 29-fight unbeaten streak, as well as the experience of a UFC title fight. He’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and has shown dynamic striking and capable wrestling during his time under the Zuffa banner.

McDonald admits Barao is fantastic in those areas of the game, but he believes his own strengths will be evident in other facets of the fight.

“I feel like if I was going to match myself up against him, I would lose,” McDonald said. “But if I match myself with him with my strength, I feel like I have a good chance. I feel like he’s a better athlete than me. I feel like he has better cardio than me. He’s faster than me. He does all these flying knees and spinning back kicks and all this kind of stuff like that. He’s a world champion in jiu-jitsu from what I hear. I can’t match myself with what he does, but I kind of see it as the whole David vs. Goliath thing. I’m not saying that he’s a giant or I’m a boy or anything, but he has his weapons, and I have mine.

“David brought a sling to a battle with a warrior, a warrior who had been doing it his whole life. That was his weapon, and he was good at it. I feel like it’s the same thing. My weapons are my basics and my defense. My fight with Miguel Torres, I think I got hit four times, and that’s the most I’ve ever been hit in a fight.

“I consider defense more than anything a priority. I can’t win if I’m unconscious. If I get it over with fast, I go home and get punched less. So everything I do is defensive and basic.”

And potentially historic. Whether he wants to consider it or not, McDonald is on the verge of a special accomplishment. Just don’t expect him to discuss it until the belt is wrapped firmly around his waist.

“I really don’t pay attention to the sport and the media and what goes on in other people’s eyes,” McDonald said. “I just stick to myself and go home and do what I love.”

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