Having three straight losses in the UFC usually puts a target on a fighter's back. Not from opponents, but promotion brass. That kind of skid typically gets a fighter released.
Despite a trio of consecutive defeats, Jimi Manuwa isn't worried about his job security at all. When asked why, Manuwa points to fights like his last one, against Thiago Santos.
Manuwa and Santos spent five minutes and change throwing wild haymakers, trying to take each other's heads off at UFC 231 in December. Manuwa got rocked and dropped in that one. So did Santos. The crowd was on its feet, gasping with every swing.
In the end, Santos turned Manuwa's lights out with a clubbing left hook at 41 seconds of the second round. The mark in his record says "L," but Manuwa believes he gave the UFC -- and the fans -- what they wanted.
"[The UFC] usually cut people after two or three losses," Manuwa told ESPN. "But my fighting speaks for itself. And it is what it is. They know that if I lose, I go out on my shield."
Santos used that victory to help propel himself into a light heavyweight title shot against Jon Jones at UFC 239 on July 6 in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Manuwa will take on Aleksandar Rakic at UFC Stockholm on Saturday, facing the prospect of a fourth straight loss.
"That's just my natural killer instinct. You hit me, I hit you back harder. ... I've gotta take a step back from it. It's easy to say when you're on the outside and when you're the coach or for people to say, 'Oh, you should have done this, you should have done that.' But when you're in there in front of thousands of people and you get hit and you want to win the fight, it's totally different." Jimi Manuwa
Both Manuwa and his coach Andreas Michel know the score -- Manuwa is mortgaging the attractiveness of his record for the sake of being in Fight of the Night-caliber wars. For better or worse, Manuwa is chasing those $50,000 performance bonuses. He has won four of them in his career, including three in his past five fights.
"I think Jimi has a lot more skills than he shows in the fights," said Michel, the head coach at Allstars Training Center in Stockholm, Sweden. "He can grapple; they don't know that. His wrestling is getting better. I would like him to actually use those skills more. But I appreciate somebody who is willing to fight with his heart as well. Some people might say it's not the smartest way to fight, but when Jimi fights, everyone watches -- don't they?"
Therein lies one of the enigmas of mixed martial arts. No coach in the NBA talks about sacrificing the possibility of winning to play a more up-tempo, fan-friendly style. But MMA is entertainment as much as it is sport. The UFC compensates fighters based on how much money they can make the promotion (via ability to draw paying fans), not how much they win. And Manuwa keeps ending up on main cards, getting six-figure paydays.
UFC fighters on a three-fight losing streak have a record of 73-89-1, with three no contests in their next bouts. Manuwa is as much as a +190 underdog against Rakic, a top prospect on an 11-fight winning streak.
But when asked if he'll play it more conservative this weekend, Manuwa demurred. It's not so much that his game plan is to go out there swinging, it just ends up that way. That's what Michel has been talking to him about.
"That's just my natural killer instinct," Manuwa said. "You hit me, I hit you back harder. I've gotta take a step back from it. It's easy to say when you're on the outside and when you're the coach or for people to say, 'Oh, you should have done this, you should have done that.' But when you're in there in front of thousands of people and you get hit and you want to win the fight, it's totally different."
Manuwa, 39, was one of the top contenders for the UFC light heavyweight title in 2017 after vicious knockouts of Ovince Saint Preux and Corey Anderson. He even had a post-fight confrontation with then-champion Daniel Cormier after Cormier defeated Anthony Johnson at UFC 210. If Jones didn't return from suspension to fight Cormier at UFC 214 three months later, Manuwa was the likely next challenger.
Since then, Manuwa has dropped fights to Volkan Oezdemir, Jan Blachowicz and, most recently, Santos. All were barnburners. The Blachowicz bout won $50,000 Fight of the Night honors and the first round of Santos vs. Manuwa was probably the most thrilling round of 2018. Yet, Manuwa had a significant strike differential of minus-85 in those three bouts, compared to plus-39 differential in his first eight UFC fights, per ESPN Stats & Information tracking. Oezdemir and Santos knocked him out.
"There's not one boring fight," Manuwa said. "I don't go to get knocked out or go and say, 'Oh, I'm gonna have a shootout with this fight or whatever.' That is the way I fight. I go to knock you out. And that's it."
Cormier doesn't think Manuwa is a worse fighter than he was in 2017. The current UFC heavyweight champion said the British slugger has just faced the best the 205-pound division has to offer for the past five years.
"In those three fights that Jimi lost, he could have easily won those, because he's as good as any of the guys that he fought," Cormier told ESPN. "It's almost a compliment that he gets to fight that level of guy every time out. He doesn't get the tune-up fight."
In his past eight fights, Manuwa fought four future title contenders (Alexander Gustafsson, Anthony Johnson, Volkan Oezdemir and Santos). Blachowicz, who Manuwa fought twice (the first time was a Manuwa win), is currently ranked No. 6 among UFC light heavyweight contenders. Anderson is No. 8. Saint Preux, too, was ranked when Manuwa fought him.
Manuwa (17-5) hasn't had a break when it comes to elite competition, and that's another issue Michel takes fault with. Some fighters on a losing streak, especially ones with the propensity for knockouts that Manuwa has, get a chance to build themselves back up.
"Jimi has never backed down from a fight," Michel said. "Never. He's a warrior by nature. He's not one of these guys, 'Oh, I can't fight this guy, because this other guy is easier.' They give him somebody and he says, 'I'll take it, I don't care.' Because he's got balls of steel."
Rakic is not on the UFC's top-15 light heavyweight contender list. Manuwa is holding firm at No. 11 despite the defeats. Manuwa, whose nickname is "Poster Boy," believes he sees the writing on the wall with this matchup. A victory over someone with a name like his will be very meaningful to Rakic.
"He's trying to use my name to come up and further his career," Manuwa said.
Manuwa is determined to not let that happen. He still desperately wants to compile wins and get back to where he was before, a top contender spot for the light heavyweight title.
Yet, when asked if he would do something differently now against Santos than get into a wild, haymaker-flinging brawl, Manuwa paused and then sighed.
"No," Manuwa said. "No. I think we'd have another shootout. The same way. Another shootout."
Michel knows there's only so much he can do. And he can't help but to respect Manuwa's fighting spirit.
"Of course I would like him to fight more technical, as they say," Michel said. "A little bit of a more technical aspect. But that wouldn't be Jimi, would it?"