This past October, Te Edwards’s UFC debut didn’t play out the way he had dreamed. In Moncton, New Brunswick, the highly touted Arizona State wrestler-turned-striker’s dream went up in flames at the hands of fellow UFC debutant Don Madge.

In brutal, highlight-reel fashion, Madge (a considerable underdog that evening) obliterated Edwards with a heavy high kick, finishing him in the second round. The loss was the first Edwards had suffered in four years’ time, dating back to early 2014.

“It was disappointing,” Edwards told FloCombat in an interview. “There was a good five or 10 minutes after the fight where I was upset that I was sloppy on that head kick. I saw it coming a mile away, got sloppy and put my hand up, and it went right through the gloves to rattle me for the second one.”

While losing in MMA is still a relatively fresh experience for Edwards, wrestling at a Division-1 level mentally prepared him for the encounter.

“It happens, I’ve lost in big arenas before for wrestling and everything, so I’m familiar with losing,” Edwards said. “We don’t have time machines and we can’t change the past. So right after it happened I was like, ‘Alright, this sucks, but all we can do is keep moving forward, preparing for the next one.’ That’s been the mentality since I got back [in the gym].”

Saturday night, Edwards will attempt to shake the loss when he takes on former featherweight contender Dennis Bermudez at UFC on ESPN+ 1 in Brooklyn. 

Doing his best this camp to self-motivate, Edwards set his phone background to an image of his slumped, unconscious body with Madge standing over him. Every time he checks his cell, from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to bed, Edwards sees the image of his semi-soulless body.

“I set my [background] to a picture of me sleeping up against the cage,” Edwards said. “We always like to highlight our wins on social media, come around and tell everyone we won. We like to live in the hype with this and that. With losses, we like to put them on the back-burner. I don’t like to live like that, I want to keep the motivation there.

“I want to keep myself honest, so even on the days I’m not feeling great or I don’t do so well in practice or a fight, I can just take a look at my phone. You’re not always going to have your best day. So if on your worst day you can’t avoid taking a power nap in front of thousands of people, you might want to go in there and work a little harder than other people.”

While Bermudez brings a lot of name recognition to the matchup, Edwards implied he doesn’t really care. Concerned more with Bermudez’s in-cage abilities than his name value, Edwards believes he has what it takes to wipe out the former TUF finalist.

“Honestly, it’s just a body type, [his] tendencies and different points to exploit,” Edwards said. “He’s a 5’6” wrestler with crisp boxing and he’s a veteran. He’s going to have some veteran skills. … As always, if we connect on one or two good punches, we can put anybody down.

“Lately, I’ve been working on my grappling and wrestling—grabbing onto guys and beating them up a little bit. If we can grab and get a takedown or the clinch, we can hurt him with elbows and get another highlight-reel knockout.”