Keith Jardine Steps Back To Ponder His UFC Return Strategy

Keith Jardine

Taking a day off.

It would seem like a pretty simple thing to most people, but for former UFC light heavyweight Keith Jardine he hasn’t understood that concept for quite a long time.

The one-time “Ultimate Fighter” competitor went on a stretch through 2010 fighting four times in the span of 10 months. Looking back on how things went down, which included his exit from the UFC, he admits mistakes were made.

Coming off a win over Francisco “Kiko” France at the disastrous Nemesis Fighting show in the Dominican Republic, Jardine is finally getting some much needed rest and it’s giving him the time to finally reflect on everything that happened this year.

“Right now I’m enjoying my first real time off in eight months, and it’s a real opportunity to look at my career,” Jardine told MMAWeekly Radio. “Everything’s happened so fast and I’ve been in training camp. I’ve been taking these fights and maybe some fights I shouldn’t have. I don’t think I was as smart as I should have been.”

Jardine was released from the UFC after his fourth loss in a row, and without hesitation accepted a fight against American Kickboxing Academy fighter Trevor Prangley in Shark Fights almost immediately after.

“I ran into that Trevor Prangley fight because after I got fired from the UFC, I agreed to that two days afterwards, I just wanted to get that fight done and get back in the UFC. I was still over-trained from the (Matt) Hamill fight, I needed the time off,” Jardine confessed.

The over-training exposed a tired Jardine in the fight. He dropped a split decision to the South African, and now after getting back to his winning ways, he’s ready to focus on doing what’s right so he can earn his way back to the UFC.

“Now I’m taking a look at my career and where I need to go and my goal is to get back in the UFC, and contend for that title,” said Jardine. “I want to fight for that title and I feel like my career’s not going to be complete until that happens.

“Now what I’m going to do is take a look at everything and see what I need to do to get to that point.”

Jardine has started training again at Team Jackson in New Mexico, but he’s not going to take a fight until the timing and preparation feel right. He’s going back to his roots and loving to fight all over again, and the end result is hopefully a return to the Octagon.

“Right now I’m on a one-win winning streak and I’m in control of my destiny and I’m going to go make it two pretty soon,” Jardine said.

Currently Jardine doesn’t have any fights lined up, but he will go into 2011 with a fresh mind and attitude and make sure to take the right deal to get closer to his UFC resurrection.