{"id":909163,"date":"2026-09-29T00:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909163\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T00:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:24:09","slug":"john-castaneda-takes-blame-for-ufc-vegas-121-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909163\/","title":{"rendered":"John Castaneda takes blame for UFC Vegas 121 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g79 _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">\u201cSaturday night didn\u2019t go my way.<br \/>This sport has a way of giving you exactly what you need, even when it isn\u2019t what you wanted. I prepared well, I believed in myself, and I stepped in there ready to compete. The result is mine to own.<br \/>What disappoints me most is knowing that I took the easy way out when I believed I was up two rounds to zero. Instead of continuing to fight with the urgency and intent that got me there, I allowed myself to get comfortable and tried to protect what I thought I had already earned. Comfortability BREEDS complacency.<br \/>I played possum in probably the most important third round of my career. I consciously made the decision to play it safe because I thought I had secured the win, and that decision cost me everything. At this level, you can\u2019t assume anything, you can\u2019t coast, and you can\u2019t leave your fate in anyone else\u2019s hands. I paid the ultimate price for that lesson Saturday night, and it\u2019s one I\u2019ll carry with me for the rest of my career.<br \/>I\u2019ve been doing this long enough to understand that one night doesn\u2019t define the work, the growth, or the person behind it. Wins deserve to be appreciated, and losses deserve to be learned from.<br \/>I\u2019ll take some time, reflect, and see what\u2019s next for me.<br \/>Grateful for the opportunity. Proud to represent the people in my corner. Most importantly, I\u2019m healthy, I\u2019m surrounded by people I love, and my faith in God remains bigger than any win or loss. There\u2019s a lot to be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSaturday night didn\u2019t go my way.This sport has a way of giving you exactly what you need, even&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,85770,6656,355513],"class_list":["post-909163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-prelims","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}