{"id":37805,"date":"2026-04-19T16:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Robert-Valentin-drew-motivation-from-mothers-death-for-first-UFC-triumph-200883"},"modified":"2026-04-19T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:57:41","slug":"robert-valentin-drew-motivation-from-mothers-death-for-first-ufc-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/robert-valentin-drew-motivation-from-mothers-death-for-first-ufc-triumph\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Valentin drew motivation from mother\u2019s death for first UFC triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Robert
\nValentin<\/a> felt he just couldn\u2019t lose at UFC
\nWinnipeg<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Valentin (11-6) took on Canadian debutant Julien
\nLeblanc<\/a> (10-3) in a middleweight bout at the Canada Life Center
\nin Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on Saturday. Valentin looked for his
\nfirst
\nUFC<\/a> win, having lost all three of his previous fights in the
\npromotion. However, Valentin didn\u2019t let the pressure get to him
\nthis time, unlike in his previous fights. \u201cRobzilla\u201d also had the
\nadded motivation to win for his late mother, who passed away last
\nNovember. The Swiss fighter scored a first-round submission win
\nover Leblanc to make his mother proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had all of this pressure and it led me to not enjoying the
\nmoment,\u201d he told the UFC. \u201cI went back to having fun with my
\neveryday workouts and being around people. And another big thing
\nthat motivated me is the passing of my mom. I just know that she\u2019s
\nwatching and she\u2019s proud of me not matter what. I couldn\u2019t lose
\ntoday\u2026 I know momma\u2019s up there watching and she\u2019s so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backed by a Team<\/h2>\n

Valentin also thanked his coach, Dewey
\nCooper<\/a>, who took him under his wing without any questions.
\nValentin now feels that he has a team behind him at
\nXtreme Couture<\/a> who really wants him to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy that I found coach Dewey because he just picked me
\nup,\u201d Valentin said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even know where I am, what I am, who
\nI am. He just was like, \u2018You approached me, you have good hands,
\nlet\u2019s just get to work together.\u2019 And we put in so much hours and
\nso much work. And he gave me the feeling that I\u2019m not alone, I\u2019m
\nwith a team, someone that believes in me and truly wants me to
\nwin.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\u201cThat was truly a Robert
\nValentin<\/a> performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert
\nValentin<\/a> (@RobzillaTV_MMA<\/a>
) maintained confidence in his work and abilities, and he saw that
\ncome to fruition as he earned his first UFC win.
\n#UFCWinnipeg<\/a><\/p>\n

Complete Prelim Results \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/kOUxbMRYAL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/6hg1I1amse<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC News (@UFCNews)
\nApril 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Valentin felt he just couldn\u2019t lose at UFC Winnipeg.  Valentin (11-6) took on Canadian debutant Julien Leblanc (10-3) in a middleweight bout at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on Saturday. Valentin looked for his first UFC win, having lost all three of his previous fights in the promotion. However, Valentin didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}