Uriah Hall (once again) had to get out of his own head before KO win at UFC-Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH – As he sometimes does, Uriah Hall got off to a tough start in the first round against Krzysztof Jotko at UFC Fight Night 116.

The aggressive Jotko (19-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) wobbled Hall (13-8 MMA, 6-6 UFC) early, then took him down and battered him on the mat before nearly locking up a rear-naked choke to force the finish. But Hall hung on, weathered the storm and came back strong in the second, dropping Jotko midway through and then put him away with punches to cap the comeback at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

As Hall said after the FS1-televised fight, it was another instance where he had to get out of his own head. Especially after coming into the fight with three straight losses, Hall said he had to force himself to be more in the moment when he started suffering against Jotko.

“You worry about your losses,” Hall told MMAjunkie. “You worry about the people, what they’re thinking. You worry about, ‘Oh my God, I can’t lose again.’ Instead of saying, ‘Oh my God, there’s someone in front of me, let me try to punch him in the face.’”

According to Hall, when he realized Jotko had tired himself out, it became easier to focus on turning the tables. It also helped that he’d done it before, when he rebounded from a bad first round in his first fight with Gegard Mousasi, only to win with strikes in the second.

“There was a slight moment where I was like, ‘Oh man, this is it. I think I’m done,’” Hall said. “But it was kind of like the Mousasi moment again. I was like, ‘It’s not over. It’s not over. I’m still here, and I feel pain, but I’ve been through pain before. But it’s not over.’”

Hall admitted that his killer instinct is sometimes lacking, and he occasionally gets too caught up worrying about the future to focus on the present. But that, Hall said, is part of the challenge that keeps bringing him back to the sport of MMA, trying to fix his own deficiencies.

“I’m one of those head cases,” Hall said, “but I’m continuing to do it because I’m not good at it, and I’m trying to perfect it.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 116, check out the UFC Events section of the site.