A big part of Daniel Sarafian’s six-fight UFC run was spent in fear.

Fear of losing fights. Of losing money. Of losing his contract.

Then one day it happened. After a quick knockout loss to Oluwale Bamgbose, which meant a third setback in four fights, “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” finalist was no longer a part of the UFC’s roster.

And what Sarafian at one point thought would mean the end of his world? It proved to be just a new beginning.

“For me, leaving the UFC ended up being great,” Sarafian told MMAjunkie. “I got more into teaching classes, and I saw that life doesn’t change. It doesn’t. I saw that it wasn’t what I was thinking, that I was tripping. I became a more relaxed and happier person. I was already working toward that tranquility by that at the end of my UFC run. When I fought Antonio dos Santos Jr. for instance.

“With Bamgbose, I had a few problems in camp that sort of made me be a calmer person. He knocked me out quickly, but I was very calm and at peace for that fight. And I left at peace, even with the loss. It was fine. Since then, I’ve grown a lot.”

“At peace” is the operative term for 35-year-old Sarafian (11-5 MMA). Fresh off a unanimous-decision win in his Absolute Championship Berkut debut, which took place in his hometown of Sao Paulo last month, he’ll answer without hesitation that, yes, this is the best moment of his life.

Daniel Sarafian in 2013.

But it took a process. A long one at that, riddled with lessons learned the hard way about his physical and mental well being.

“I went through a dark phase in the UFC,” Sarafian said. “I didn’t deal well with the pressure, with the politics there. I’m not afraid to say this, because I know if I ever return to the UFC, it’s something that will happen naturally. It’s no longer my focus.

“Before making it to the UFC, I’d always fought the same way I performed at ACB. I was always very relaxed, very calm. But then one fight before my UFC debut, I started changing.”

There is usually a process that happens in the making of a regular UFC fighter. They come out of the regional scene, put together a few wins in the octagon, then start gaining some time in the spotlight.

Sarafian, however, was thrust under it. As one of the finalists of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” which aired on the country’s biggest network channel, he was already somewhat of a star when he made his UFC debut in a co-headliner against C.B. Dollaway in January 2013.

It was a standard sink-or-swim moment for the then-prospect, who’d been rendered unable to compete in the show’s finale thanks to an injury. And while Sarafian would follow a split-decision loss to Dollaway with a win, swimming proved quite difficult in treacherous waters.

“When I entered ‘TUF’ and the UFC, everything had changed for me,” Sarafian said. “My values, my focus. It was no longer in living, it was in fighting. ‘If I lose, life is over.’ You know? ‘What if I lose, my money …’ That made me a suffering person. I was suffering all the time. I couldn’t think of fighting, and I suffered. I was afraid of losing my contract, of losing the fights.”

Other than the pressure to deliver results, Sarafian also had another major dark shadow hovering above him: his weight. He competed in the 185-pound division and, though his 5-foot-9 frame made many assume that was an easy cut, for the heavy-set Sarafian it meant 12 weeks of neurotic dieting – with no cheat days.

Daniel Sarafian.

An experience that was already bad became even worse when Sarafian, coming off a split-decision loss to the herculean Cezar Ferreira, decided to give 170 pounds a try.

“That was the worst experience ever – and I don’t mean just in fighting,” Sarafian said. “Making 170 was the worst experience of my life. I was going to lose friends, everything, because I became annoying and unbearable. Life was unbearable for me.”

Making it took a torturous four months of deprivation, a lot of them spent in complete despair due to the fact that the weight simply refused to come off.

“For three of those months, my weight was parked at 198, 200 pounds” Sarafian recalled. “I stopped there. I did the diet every day and trained every day. Even on Sundays, because I started going crazy. I thought I couldn’t have a day off. I needed to train in order to make the weight.”

Sarafian consulted with different nutrition experts and finally managed to get himself down to 182 pounds. From there, he made a test cut down to 170 and, despite a not-so-great sparring session that followed, Sarafian thought that maybe he’d managed to change his body for good and could just stay at a lower weight moving forward.

So he took on a UFC 174 welterweight bout with Kiichi Kunimoto. He hit the mark with no major mishaps. But feeling weakened and energy-deprived, Sarafian succumbed to a submission in the second round. He’d not only lost the fight, but his desire to go through it all.

“That was the biggest learning experience of my life,” Sarafian said.

Sarafian now competes in the 205-pound division. And while many may deem him too short to hang with the light heavyweights, it’s where he wants to stay. Without the stress of the overly strict diet, Sarafian gets to stay happy throughout camp. His focus is only on performing. And, judging by the two wins he’s racked up since his UFC departure, it seems to be paying off.

“I always made 185 because they told me I was too small – until I realized that being small is an advantage for me,” Sarafian said.

A post shared by DANIEL SARAFIAN GANTMAN (@danielsarafian) on Mar 20, 2018 at 5:33pm PDT

‘And then I fight because it’s fun’

That wasn’t the only turning point in Sarafian’s career. He was living in Phoenix, still under contract with the UFC, when he started teaching private fight lessons. It was a move born out of necessity, but Sarafian would soon realize the multiple benefits of detaching his financial well being from the need for positive results in the cage.

“When I started fighting, it wasn’t because I needed it – it was my choice,” Sarafian said. “I liked fighting. Now, working, I’m back to that stage in which I can fight because I like it.”

Given Sarafian now has a pretty sweet gig giving private lessons to celebrities in Los Angeles, where he’s been living for three months, one would agree he did well for himself. But the role that teaching played into making the otherwise on-edge Sarafian into the happiest version of himself extends far beyond that.

“I’m kind of a different type of athlete. For me, resting between training sessions doesn’t work too well,” Sarafian said. “My head – I’m very hyper-active, my head starts spinning. I think too much. If I keep moving, I don’t have time to keep an empty head.

“Not to mention, when I teach, I also learn so much. There are many things that I won’t lean from a teacher that I’ll earn from my own creations. Or event a student can help me learn something from something they’ve done wrong.”

And then there are the less tangible benefits of knowing you’re positively impacting someone’s life.

“It’s something quite different than what happens in the fight world,” Sarafian said. “When you teach, you become an important person for someone. Because you change their life. And, in exchange, they give you warmth and care. They like you, they start wishing you well. This is something that, spiritually, does me very well. The competitive world doesn’t give you that.”

It’s hard to tell cause from consequence here, but fact is that Sarafian got back to his winning ways exactly when he decided that losing was no longer such a life-ending, tragic occurrence.

“This fight, I went into it: If I win, I’ll go out with my friends afterward and, if I don’t, I’ll do it anyway,” Sarafian said. “I don’t care anymore. When I started fighting, it was like this. I discovered I’m not competitive. Not when it coms to fighting, anyway.

“I want to have fun. Sure, I want to win. But if I don’t, my life won’t end. Those who like me will keep liking me. And those who don’t – that’s good, because then they’ll leave. I’m not worried.”

As for the UFC? Sarafian is not shutting the door on a return, but he’s not worried about it, either. Right now, following an ACB debut win over Carlos Eduardo, he’s got his sights set on the belt there. Whether that, or the UFC call, or whatever else will come, remains to be seen.

But, even if the UFC doesn’t, Sarafian has learned one thing: Life goes on. And he’s finally OK with his.

“You know why I fight? It’s not because I want to be a champion and win,” Sarafian said. “I fight because I was born fighting. I’ve done that since I was a child. It makes me happy. It motivates me. It gives me fuel and the motivation to train. Because if I don’t fight, I won’t train.

“If I stop training, I’m not happy. I start overcompensation with food and other things. I do it to stay healthy, mentally and physically, that’s all. And then I fight because it’s fun.”

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