“I mean, I really don’t know [why I’m on the prelims]. I really didn’t think I’d be on the prelims, but I’m not even going to sweat about it. I’m a big believer of if you focus on negative things, negative things are going to happen to you.

I mean, do I think it’s right? No. I beat [Dennis] Bermudez, he’s on the main card but if I worry about that [then] I’m not worried about the fight game. I’m gonna have to get in the Octagon on Saturday and if I get my ass beat, guess what? It doesn’t matter. Everybody’s going to be like, ‘oh maybe he should have been a prelim’. I just gotta focus on my task at hand.

When I’m done with this maybe I’ll have to re-evaluate what I have to do, be more entertaining…whatever I have to do but until then I can’t do anything about it. I’m not gonna go negative. When I first seen the things I was a little negative but I just need to focus on Saturday and fighting, and we’ll work out the rest later.”

When it comes to active winning streaks, there is only one fighter in Darren Elkins’ division that has a longer one than him. And that’s the champion, Max Holloway.

Matter of fact, the man known as ‘The Damage’, Elkins currently is tied for the seventh-longest winning streak in all of the UFC only behind the likes of bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes (7), Michel Prazeres (7), Kamaru Usman (8), middleweight champion Robert Whitaker (9), Tony Ferguson (10), lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (10), the previously mentioned featherweight champion in Holloway (12) and flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson (13).

Riding high off of six straight wins, Elkins is somehow only ranked at No. 10 in his division. And despite going 13-3 since his drop to 145-pounds in 2011, Elkins now finds himself positioned on the prelims for his fight this Saturday at UFC Boise against the unranked top prospect Alex Volkanovski.

There are many things wrong with the way that Elkins has been treated by the UFC as of late, but being the gritty fighter that he is his mentality is a key reason for his success so sticking with what’s got him here may be his only option.

As long as he keeps winning it will be harder and harder to deny him.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/12/2018