{"id":233410,"date":"2017-04-13T09:29:27","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T16:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=233410"},"modified":"2017-04-13T09:33:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T16:33:06","slug":"dylan-andrews-hated-fighting-ufc-release-josh-samman-service-rekindled-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/dylan-andrews-hated-fighting-ufc-release-josh-samman-service-rekindled-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylan Andrews “despised MMA” after UFC release, but stateside trip for Josh Samman service rekindled his fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, in the main event of Superior Challenge 15 in Sweden, UFC and Ultimate Fighter veteran Dylan Andrews knocked out Papy Abedi with a thunderous, second-round head-kick<\/a>. It was his second knockout defeat of the Swedish fighter.<\/p>\n

With this win, Andrews rebounded from a three-fight losing streak, a disappointing release from the UFC, and a hiatus of almost two years. Yet the win was important to the Australia-based Kiwi for another reason. It represented his rekindled love for the sport of MMA \u2013 a love that devolved into downright hatred around the time of his UFC release.<\/p>\n

“No disrespect to my last three opponents [in the UFC], but I should have won those fights,” Andrews said on the latest edition of BJ Penn Radio<\/a>. “I lost the love for MMA. That third fight for me – and even my first fight with Papy \u2013 it started going down hill. I don’t know what happened. I just lost the love, man. I lost the love to compete. I didn’t appreciate what I had. I was missing home too much, I was missing family. I just wasn’t doing what I needed to do to compete at the highest level. So I took that time away to sort of re-evaluate, because I despised MMA, you know? I’d given my life to it for so long, and after a year and a half, two years, I’d lost everything. I’d lost everything I had worked for. I was cut from the UFC. I was blaming people, I was miserable… It was just a rough time man. I hated the sport. And ultimately, the sport made me \u2013 it made me a better person than I was. But not only did it make me, it broke me too. So that was my emotional state. I left it. I wanted nothing to do with MMA. I was so bitter towards it.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Dylan<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, Andrews was able to rediscover his love for the sport. He explained that he was able to do so on a visit to the United States, when he attended a\u00a0service for fellow Ultimate Fighter veteran Josh Samman, who tragically passed away in October of 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The reason I sort of found the love again, was I went to the [service] of a friend of mine who passed away, Josh Samman,” he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Josh had a big impact on the sport, and he articulated it in a way that I could relate to.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“They did a last tribute show for him in Florida, so I want back for that, which was around March this year,” he continued. “I met up with a good friend of mine who was also on [The Ultimate Fighter], Clint Hester, and I stayed with him, and we started training together [in Atlanta]. I started working with his wrestling coach, John Laboranti, and also did some work with [UFC light heavyweight] Ovince St. Preux. And there were just little moments in the training session where I was like ‘Damn man, this is it, this is what you’re supposed to be doing, this is what really makes me happy.’ So I came back from Atlanta revitalized from that. About three weeks later, I booked the title fight in Sweden and flew straight back to Atlanta and just grinded man.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fruits\u00a0of Andrews’ return to the grind can be seen below:<\/p>\n

\n

LAWD. Dylan Andrews brutally KO's Papy Abedi at Superior Challenge 15 today. This was a rematch of their UFC fight from 2013. pic.twitter.com\/fgtxak5iNg<\/a><\/p>\n

— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) April 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n