How Josh Parisian's carefree approach allowed him to get back into UFC win column

LAS VEGAS – Josh Parisian’s past outing got him back into the win column and a new UFC contract.

On the final fight of his UFC deal, Parisian (15-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC) was able to score a Performance of the Night TKO of Alan Baudot in June. That led to a new deal and a matchup with Chase Sherman (16-10 MMA, 4-9 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 214 main card.

Parisian admits that he used to put a lot of pressure on himself. But with his back against the wall heading into his bout with Baudot, letting go is what allowed him to put on one of the best showings of his career.

“My goal is, I think having the goal of just go out there and have fun will give me more wins,” Parisian told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday’s media day. “If I’m sitting there like, ‘I’ve got to win, I’ve got to get on a streak, I’ve got to do this,’ that’s putting pressure on the end result, but I don’t care about that. Like my last fight, I’m like, I don’t really care.

“I’m gonna go out there and give it my all, and I was able to perform one of the best performances I had, because I was able to be me essentially. I think me is a good fighter, me trying to be the ‘cookie cutter,’ which a lot of people believe is a good fighter, maybe sometimes I think is supposed to be what people want to see is not a good fighter, because I don’t do that everyday.”

Watch the video of Parisian’s complete pre-fight media availability above.

UFC Fight Night 214 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 214.