Mandel Nallo’s Time Has Finally Come

“Also, in the eyes of the people who tangentially watch MMA or casual fans, this is the only thing,” he added with a laugh. “I was in Bellator fighting good guys, and people would be like, ‘Why don’t you just sign with the UFC? Did you ever think about that?’ You can tell people you do MMA, but until you tell people you fight in the UFC, they’re like, ‘This guy is kind of a joke.’”

The 36-year-old Tristar Gym representative is certainly no joke, having amassed a 14-3 record with a 100-percent finishing rate over the course of his career, while standing for years as one of those hidden gems from an elite gym everyone around the sport would constantly mention as someone capable of competing at the highest level.

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Every gym has them, but many of them either struggle when they finally get their chance or never get a look at all, as the focus and dedication it takes to grind through those months and years waiting for your number to be called can be daunting. Fortunately for Nallo, “The Grind” has never felt like a grind, and the steady flow of elite talents onto the mats in Montreal has allowed him to always measure himself against the best in the sport and know where he stacks up.

“Depending on your mindset, it could get you down, but to me, it was always encouraging knowing,” began the UFC newcomer, pausing to find the right words to convey his thoughts. “I train with a lot of UFC guys, we have great guys at the gym, and I’ve never felt out-matched. I’m the guy where I just need an opportunity, I just need something to go right.

“It’s such a joy being in the gym with my friends every day — it’s not a slog — so just having it be that the majority of the work I do is pleasure makes it much easier. If I was trudging it out, day in and day out, I’m sure I would be sadder than I was, but I get to hang out with Aiemann (Zahabi), Louie (Sanoudakis), all the guys that I’ve been with since I was a teenager.

“This is the dream, so it was never too bad, and my skills have always kept improving.”

That mindset — and the hustle of fight-finder Jordan Dykler — allowed Nallo to hit the ground running following his release from Bellator, which resulted in his earning four wins in 15 months before finally getting the call to compete last fall in Las Vegas.

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Now, more than 15 years after winning his first amateur fight and over a decade after earning his first professional victory, he gets the opportunity to step into the Octagon against Herbert this weekend in Winnipeg and immediately show where he fits in the loaded lightweight division.

“You need a metre stick fight in the UFC, and luckily for me, it’s happening earlier than later,” said Nallo, who declared himself a “finished product” in his DWCS post-fight interview with Laura Sanko. “If you’re fighting a guy with one or two fights in the UFC, no matter how well you do, the fanbase and the matchmakers don’t really know what that means.

“But when you get a guy like Jai Herbert, it gives you the ability to avoid the mix of all these other guys who are 2-0, 1-0 who could be very good, but they’re fighting their way out of this pit below the Top 20. Whereas if you can put on a good performance against a guy with an established reputation, it’s like, ‘Jump into the Top 20 now; go get a fight there.’

“You see it happen all the time,” he added. “It happened with Benoit Saint Denis, Fares Ziam, Payton Talbott; they get one good fight against — it happened with Sean O’Malley against Eddie Wineland! He was good, everybody knew he was good, and it’s not like Eddie Wineland was his toughest opponent, but he was an established name, people knew who he was and so it was, ‘Oh wow! He did that to Wineland; now he can be in the mix.’

“So it’s a blessing to get a guy like Jai Herbert.”

And for Nallo, it’s also a blessing to get to open his UFC career fighting in Canada, surrounded by several of the best competitors in the country, and joining the efforts to further elevate the sport in the Great White North.

“Canada, as large as a country as we are, we’re not viewed like that; we’re this plucky group of guys that are figuring it out,” laughed Nallo, correctly articulating the perception of his home country in general and the combat sports athletes representing the Maple Leaf more broadly. “We don’t have a culture of combat sports. If you do this coming out of Canada, it’s because you really love it and you sought out the best places to learn it. There’s no wrestling in high school, we’re not learning anything to do with MMA unless you really focus on it, so being able to show your skills in Canada is a bonus and maybe helps cultivate some excitement in Canadian MMA fandom that I feel is missing these days.

“I think a lot of people think it’s showtime and time to really put on a character — and maybe that works for some guys, but I think just be yourself, to an extreme level. Don’t tamp yourself down. You win a fight, there is no other time to be yourself than then. Take that in, and I think you’ll really be supported for showing who you are, fully… unless you’re a real piece of trash!”

It took longer than expected and required him to have faith that things would eventually work out in his favor, but the moment is finally here for Nallo, and if there was any question about his readiness to compete at this level and make a statement straight, his response when asked about what he was looking forward to most during his initial UFC experience is all the answer you need.

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“I think when the bell goes, feeling your feet in the cage,” he said, a wide smile stretching across his face. “You feel it in sparring, but that’s always such a good feeling. ‘I get to be as fast as I want, I get to hit as hard as I want; this is ‘Go Time’ and the stakes are high.’

“There is no more heightened feeling than ‘anything can happen now,’ and there is no better feeling than when you’re fully awake in the cage.”