There is an old MMA adage that you learn more from your losses than you do your wins. That concept is not lost on Devin Clark, who has alternated wins and loses over his last 5 fights en route to a 3-2 record in that span. 

While not top contenders at the top, those losses came to Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic, who now sit at #5 and #10 in the rankings respectively. Despite the outcome, the loss to up and comer Rakic is one that Clark sees in a very positive light. 

“Alexander Rakic, that was a really good fight for me,” Clark shared. “I had the fight won. I dropped him a couple of times - had him hurt and then ended up getting dropped.”

Although it ended in a TKO loss in just the first round, the takeaways from the fight are what Clark cares about now. Those takeaways from this fight were plentiful. 

“[Rakic] won the fight and it was the most I’ve ever learned in a fight even though it was one round. I took that and learned from it. I got back to training and it added something to my game,” he said. “Mainly working on my composure and stuff like that because that’s what got me in trouble in that fight as well as in past fights.” 

And that fight, along with the fight against Jan Blachowicz, were not just about making sure to not get too zealous with the finish, but also about finding some faith in himself and what he is able to do. 

“[It helps] knowing that I can hurt guys like that,” Clark said. “Even in the Jan fight, it went 2 rounds, and it was a close fight. He didn’t just slaughter me, but he caught me with a submission that I didn’t see coming because I was rushing for something that wasn’t there. So that’s where the composure comes in.”

With those two things in mind, he’ll look to make it a 2-fight win streak this weekend, which would be his first since June of 2017. In order to do so, he’ll have to get through Ryan Spann, who is undefeated since joining the UFC. Clark thinks that he just has to use those lessons though and things should go as planned. 

“Just gotta use my composure, stay composed, and use my skill set and my athleticism, which is hard for a lot of the guys in the UFC to keep up with,” Clark said.