Starting 2020 on a winning note, Chris Curtis wants another shot in PFL tournament

There’s no denying that 2019 was probably the roughest year of welterweight Chris Curtis’ career. In three bouts last year, Curtis suffered three straight losses, which was quite a shock to someone who had never lost more than one fight at a time before.

Thankfully for Curtis, 2020 has started off much better, as he picked up a fourth-round stoppage over Darren Smith Jr. at Fight Night 12 on January 25 to kick off his year on a positive note.

“It was good to get back in and kind of shake off a lot of the doubts and whatnot,” Curtis told MMAWeekly.com.

“It wasn’t the cleanest win and how I wanted to win, but I had never had a skid in my career, and coming off a knockout (loss in my last fight of 2019), according to my coach you’re going to be a little apprehensive and slow to pull the trigger. I’m glad to shake that off, pick up a win and get back the course.”

For Curtis what was going on in his life outside the cage could have played a role in affecting how he was able to perform inside of it.

“You don’t want to make excuses, (but) I had a lot of change last year,” said Curtis. “I moved across the country again. I had a lot of change in my personal life. It was just a really hectic year.

“You still get in the gym and do what you need to do, but it’s really hard to have all those changes and then have to go out there and perform at your best every time.”

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One of the other things that could have plagued Curtis’ performances was the hectic schedule of the PFL, which schedule bouts ever six to eight weeks apart for its regular season and beginning of post-season formats.

“Especially in the tournament – the tournament is hard – people don’t realize how stressful and exhausting it is to fight every couple weeks,” said Curtis. “You never really have time to relax.

“It’s hard to learn new things. You might be able to get a half a new skill down, but you’ve got to keep things polished and keep going. It didn’t gel as well as I would have hoped to, but everything’s starting to feel better now.”

While the PFL schedule was difficult for Curtis to adjust to his first go around, he would very much like an opportunity to redeem himself in 2020 should he be given the opportunity to do so.

“I would love to tournament again this year,” said Curtis. “I really don’t want (the 2019 season) to be my legacy for the PFL. It hurts me to see that, but everybody has a rough patch. I just want to go back out and show that even though I had a skid, I should be there, and I know I can win it.

“If I don’t get the PLF, I’ll want to travel the world, beat people up for money, and just seeing where I land.”