Nate Landwehr Wouldn’t Wish for His ‘Worst Enemy’ to Be a Fighter

Nate Landwehr wouldn’t advise anyone to become a professional fighter even though he admittedly loves his job “more than he probably should.”

In his first fight as a father, Landwehr scored a come-from-behind Round 1 technical knockout win over Jamall Emmers (20-8) at UFC Atlantic City on Saturday. However, the Ultimate Fighting Championship fan favorite would never even wish for his worst enemy to pursue a career in mixed martial arts, let alone his son. Landwehr would in fact start by discouraging his son, which he believes is the first test to pass.

“That’s a tough one. I almost wouldn’t even wish this life on my worst enemy,” he said "The MMA Hour”. “I would try to discourage him [son], as that first little discouragement. And if he could get past, then he [could go ahead]. That’s why I always tell people, ‘Don’t do it.’ If me telling you, ‘Don’t do it,’ is gonna break you then you ain’t got what it takes. That’s always my go to. Somebody tell me they wanna fight, I’m like, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it.’ If that little ‘don’t do it’ can break a man then you’ll never be able to make it.”

According to Landwehr, the unforgiving nature of the sport makes it imperative to win. However, Landwehr noted that the losing side from each fight puts in as much hard work as the winner.

“This is a hard knock life man. This fight s—t’s like falling in love with the neighbourhood hoe. She ain’t never gonna love you… I always knew it man, you can think about winning in general, you can give your whole life to winning. There’s nothing that separated the winners and losers except for the win,” said Landwehr. “We do the same shit every time we get up: work, work, work, work, work, grind. Put our whole lives to this. But think about it, the whole roster, half of them lost their last fight. It’s not that they didn’t work harder, not that they put nothing into it, just a fine line. You go out there and put it on the line, win or lose.”

But as for himself, the featherweight veteran is admittedly a little too much in love with the sport. Landwehr claims that no other high throughout the year stands in comparison to the high of winning a fight amidt the flashing lights.

“Oh I love it, dawg. This is my blood,” he said. “I love this more than I probably should… When people ask me what’s one of my takeaways from it, man, it’ll dull out the rest of them Saturdays throughout the year. It’s hard to feel them blocks. You go out there and have a good time with your buddies, like, ‘Oh, I’m having a good time.' But it ain’t like that high off of winning when you walk back to that backstage and everybody’s treating you like you might even be something different.”