{"id":37936,"date":"2026-04-26T16:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Rafa-Garcia-thanks-Cub-Swanson-for-mean-mentality-200965"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:41:12","slug":"rafa-garcia-thanks-cub-swanson-for-mean-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/rafa-garcia-thanks-cub-swanson-for-mean-mentality\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafa Garcia thanks Cub Swanson for ‘mean’ mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Coach Cub Swanson<\/a>
\nflipped a mental switch in Rafa
\nGarcia<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Garcia took on Alexander
\nHernandez<\/a>  (18-9) in a lightweight clash at
\nUFC Fight Night 274<\/a> in Las Vegas. While Hernandez showed
\nimmense grit, Garcia battered him increasingly as the fight
\nprogressed to earn a unanimous decision win. <\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Garcia (19-4) subsequently thanked his coach, Swanson, who is
\nrunning things at Team Bloodline in Costa Mesa, California, since
\nhis retirement from professional competition. Swanson urged Garcia
\nto get \u201cmean\u201d before heading into the final round against
\nHernandez. Garcia revealed that the UFC veteran has been instilling
\nthe \u201cmean mentality\u2019\u201din him for a while. While Garcia is naturally
\na \u201cnice\u201d person, he credits Swanson for teaching him to be \u201cmean\u201d
\ninside the Octagon. Not a man of many words, Garcia stays far away
\nfrom trash talk or other antics outside the Octagon. Garcia says
\nthat Swanson advised him to stay true to his nature instead of
\ntrying to pull off a facade. With trash talk not being his forte,
\nGarcia plans to sell himself by his performances.<\/p>\n

Being Authentic<\/h2>\n

\u201cJust the mentality Cub put me into, to get into that \u2018mean\u2019
\nmentality,\u201d Garcia said in a post-fight interview with the UFC. \u201cHe
\ntold me before my fight, \u2018You gotta be mean for 15 minutes. No more
\nnice Rafa. You\u2019re nice in training, but you gotta be mean right
\nhere. You gotta go in there and be a badass… I might not talk a
\nlot. Cub always told me, \u2018Don\u2019t try to be someone that you\u2019re not.\u2019
\nWhen I go in there, I\u2019m gonna sell myself by giving that show, that
\nfight, that war that you want to see.\u201d <\/p>\n

Swanson (31-14) was carried over from the
\nWEC<\/a> to the
\nUFC<\/a>. \u201cKiller\u201d acquired a wealth of experience, having fought in
\nthe UFC since 2011, beating elites like Dustin
\nPoirier<\/a> and Charles
\nOliveira<\/a>, among others. The 42-year-old hung up his gloves
\nearlier this month following a first-round stoppage win over
\nNate
\nLandwehr<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Garcia is 7-4 in the UFC and currently riding a
\nthree-fight winning streak, his longest in the promotion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“I feel like I put him into deep
\nwaters.”<\/p>\n

Rafa
\nGarcia<\/a> continues his impressive run at
\n#UFCVegas116<\/a>, earning a hard-fought win over Alexander
\nHernandez<\/a> to extend his win streak to three.<\/p>\n

Results, highlights & more \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/0vx7dhQOKw<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LPvu0yxEs8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC News (@UFCNews)
\nApril 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Coach Cub Swanson flipped a mental switch in Rafa Garcia.  Garcia took on Alexander Hernandez  (18-9) in a lightweight clash at UFC Fight Night 274 in Las Vegas. While Hernandez showed immense grit, Garcia battered him increasingly as the fight progressed to earn a unanimous decision win.  Advertisement Garcia (19-4) subsequently thanked his coach, Swanson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37936","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\/37936","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=37936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}