After suffering through 'a fighter's worst nightmare,' Kyle Stewart 'enjoying hurting people again'

Kyle Stewart knows what it feels like to step inside the UFC's famed octagon for a fight. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know what it's like to have his hand raised at the end of the contest.

"I've been kicking myself in the ass since I got cut by the UFC," Stewart said. "People say it all the time: the octagon jitters. You know, I think I think I set my eyes on the UFC for so long that it was like a finish line or something. It was like, 'Oh, I made it.'"

Stewart did make it to the UFC in 2019, but after suffering a submission loss to Chance Rencountre and dropping a decision to Erik Koch, he was released from the promotion. Stewart said he wasn't bitter at the organization's decision and actually believes it was the right call.

"It was time for them to cut me, for sure," Stewart said. "I wasn't in a mental headspace to stay in the UFC. I would've lost. I would've lost again if they were to book me another fight. I kind of needed to be let go to, like, reset on myself and kind of look at myself."

Stewart opened his professional career with 10 straight wins before suffering a decision loss to current ONE Championship fighter James Nakashima. Following the loss, Stewart asked Nakashima and his coach, John Crouch, if he could train with them at The MMA Lab, the famed Arizona gym that serves as the home of fighters such as Benson Henderson, Jared Cannonier, Bryan Barberena and many more top-level athletes. They obliged, and Stewart said the training was an eye-opener for him.

"I was at a small gym at that time and not training with too many guys at the world-class level," Stewart said. "You don't know what you don't know, and I went to The MMA Lab, and that's when I found out in the wrestling department more than anything how far behind I was.

"When you're training with mostly amateurs or low-level pro guys in a small camp, I went out in all my fights with all the confidence in the world, like I was going to find a way to win. Then I lost, and I went to the gym, and everybody was smashing everything. My confidence had taken a huge blow."

Nevertheless, after rebounding from the Nakashima loss with a decision win over Braden Smith, Stewart received an invitation to the UFC. Two fights later, he was handed his walking papers.

"Going 0-2, that's every fighter's worst nightmare," Stewart said. "To get to the UFC and not even fight out your first contract, like, that's every fighter's worst nightmare. It's like losing the Super Bowl."

Still, Stewart looked at the release as an opportunity to reset, to continue to improve and better himself with his team at The MMA Lab. Since his release, Stewart has moved up to middleweight and gone 3-1, with all three wins coming by knockout, and his lone setback was to Chris Curtis, who was recently signed to the UFC. Now he believes it's time for a major promotion to give him another look.

Stewart (14-4) has a chance to get their attention when he faces fellow big-show veteran Nah-Shon Burrell (18-11) in the main event of Saturday's CFFC 102, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Philadelphia's 2300 Arena as part of a dual-event weekend for Cage Fury Fighting Championships, which also hosts FURY Professional Grappling 2 on Friday.

Stewart says he'll enter the cage with an entirely different mindset that he had in his UFC run.

"I kick myself in the ass because I'm like, 'Why was it that I let all of that get to me?'" Stewart said. "You're always nervous before a fight, but I've never been like, 'Oh my God, I have to win this fight or it's all over.' Now I'm having fun fighting again. There's not so much nerves. I'm not putting so much pressure on myself to go out there and win or it's all over.

"My mentality, I think, has changed a little bit more. I'm enjoying fighting. I'm enjoying hurting people again as compared to just going out there and trying to win. I do my best work when I'm having fun and I'm trying to punish people."

On Saturday, Stewart will try to punish Burrell. Whether or not that is enough to get an invite back to the UFC remains to be seen, but Stewart is keeping his options open. But his confidence has been restored, and "Guns Up" believes it's time for him to get rewarded for his efforts behind the scenes.

"I just want to go in there and hurt Nah-Shon Burrell," Stewart said. "I've kind of got a vendetta – not against him, but against the fight game, in itself. I feel it's my fault, but it didn't play out the way it was supposed to.

"I put in the work. I put in the time. I flipped my life upside down for the fight game, and I ended up getting nothing back in return. My last fight, I really enjoyed highlight-reeling that dude, and now I want to do it again. It's nothing personal against anybody. It's more me trying to get what I've earned."