TUF Nations Finale’s Chris Indich says mental strength in his favor vs. Walsh

QUEBEC CITY – Chris Indich lost early on “The Ultimate Fighter: Nations,” but he impressed the UFC brass enough to get a shot at sticking around, anyway.

Indich lost in the opening round of the welterweight bracket against Chad Laprise, who reached the finals. But the Australian said he turned that loss into an important learning experience he hopes pays off tonight.

Indich (6-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) meets fellow cast member and Aussie Richard Walsh (7-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at the TUF Nations Finale, which takes place at Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The main card airs live on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

“They say losses improve you more – they give you points to see where you’ve gone wrong and you can work on those,” Indich told MMAjunkie. “I thought I had poor head movement and got tagged a lot (against Laprise). So when I got home, I worked my head movement – hit and not get hit.

“That loss, it could have halted me from getting here today. That loss still hurt. I’m a really competitive guy.”

Instead, Indich got the call – and it was one he was pretty sure was going to happen to have him fighting a countryman, considering the welterweight and middleweight finals of the show feature four Canadians and nary an Aussie.

“I was super pumped and really happy and I was like, ‘Let’s get ready. Let’s do this,’” he said. “I wasn’t surprised. I knew it would happen (that I’d fight a teammate). I knew all Canadians were in the finals, so I assumed they’d make me fight an Aussie.”

But Indich is less concerned with fighting someone he trained with in the house than he is with just making sure he puts on a good show and gets a victory. That, of course, is likely to ensure a second official fight in the UFC.

“We both have a standup-oriented game. We both stood and traded (on the show), so I think it should be an entertaining fight if we could make it that way,” Indich said.

But there’s one area he believes he has the advantage against Walsh – even though Walsh reached the semifinals before being bounced by finalist Olivier Aubin-Mercier.

Indich believes he’ll have the edge in the mental game.

“I think I’m mentally stronger and mentally tougher,” he said. “He made it to the semis, but I think I still had a better mental vibe than he does.”

But regardless of what’s going on up in the noggin, regardless of who’s standing across from him, be it a house teammate or not, Indich goes into the fight with one goal in mind.

“For me, it doesn’t matter – I just want the victory. It doesn’t matter, Canadian or Australian. I just want the win.”

For more on TUF Nations Finale, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.