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What happens in your head when the announcer says 'split decision,' according to UFC bantam Russell Doane

UFC bantamweight Russell Doane gets nervous in the octagon. This he can admit; it’s the one thing that makes watching his fights uncomfortable and keeps him from calling out a top-five fighter.

“I think I have a lot of work to do,” Doane (14-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) told MMAjunkie Radio. “I’m not completely comfortable in the octagon yet. I’m still hesitant.

“I’m not where I want to be as a fighter. You see me in the gym, I move a lot more. I think it’s just jitters. It’s really a big deal for me to be there.”

Such a big deal, in fact, that he stiffens up when he’s fighting in the cage. It happened again in his bout with Marcus Brimage (6-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) earlier this month at UFC 175, despite a split decision that earned him his second straight octagon win.

“I’m so stationary,” he said of his main-card win at the pay-per-view event at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center. “Whenever I watch my fights, I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with you?'”

So, Doane has some work to do. At the time he gave his interview, he was still healing from taking so many of Brimage’s leg kicks. But he wanted to get a head start and said he would sneak into the gym.

He wants to avoid hearing those words “split decision.” They’re never a happy utterance for the Hawaii native, who won several regional titles before graduating to the UFC.

“Nervous,” he said of his reaction when UFC announcer Bruce Buffer said those words. “Always nervous. Any time it goes to the judges, you should be nervous.

“I’ve been on the wrong side of a split decision, that’s for sure. As soon as you realize the split decision, you’re like, ‘Oh, man.’ You replay the whole fight in your head. You just wonder.”

Doane did a mental rundown of the fight in those tense seconds while the judges did their work. He could hardly forget the leg kicks he took, but he also remembered nabbing takedowns. It was a competitive fight, but he felt he lagged in later rounds.

Depending on the officials looking at his fight, his grappling accomplishments might or might not carry the weight needed to win the fight. As it turned out, they did. But he couldn’t help feeling let down.

“If I’m going to be completely happy with myself, I’m not 100 percent happy with my performance,” Doane said. “I had a lot of respect for his standup and he had a lot of respect for my standup, and I think it held us back a little bit. I just think I faded; I think I could have controlled the octagon more.”

With more time in the octagon, Doane might feel better about asking for a marquee opponent in the division. Right now, he’s waiting to heal, and then he’ll get a call from the UFC.

For all the work that he does outside the octagon, however, he’ll only know whether he’s getting over his mental hump once he’s doing his work. That’s the tricky thing about getting over performance anxiety: it’s not necessarily a linear process.

As he works his way up the UFC ladder, Doane has to make his mind to work for him, and not against him. And only he can do that.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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