Let me first say that I do not know Jeremy Stephens personally, and I only use him as an example out of convenience of the moment. I wish him the best, and hope he gets all of this unpleasantness behind him, and is back to competing ASAP. To be clear, anything I say here is pure speculation on my part for the sake of discussion.
My question is, how many people fail, in MMA or otherwise, because on some subconscious level, they simply will not allow themselves to succeed? I'm no head shrink by any stretch of the imagination, but after one too many episodes of Air Disasters, I find myself adopting their clinical approach to to trying to find out WTF happened when a plane (or in this case, a person), goes down in flames. Priest Driven Ambulance commented on another thread (regarding Stephens), "Wasn't he only signed to a 1 fight contract with the understanding that he had to impress?" I have no idea if this is true or not, but for the sake of argument let's say it is, putting even more weight on the need to turn in a solid performance. One of life's "make or break" moments...
Now, clearly such a person can achieve on SOME level to make it to The UFC at all, but was the recent incident with Stephens (hypothetically) driven by a guilty Iowa conscience, or was it a deeper, sub-conscious Jeff Gillooly that's "built-in", predisposed to preventing success? Does someone like Stephens really think the law is going to just going to up and forget about them?
Maybe I'm the mental case for even delving into something like this, but I'm fascinated by the idea that someone could train, and prepare as hard as any pro MMA fighter does, knowing (probably) that there was an outstanding warrant which could, and in this case DID, get them pinched the night before such an important, even life-changing event… How many people set themselves up for failure so far in advance???
Signed -
Curious in Crazytowne
Didn't read the post because its waaaay too long., but I believe it's 70-80% mental.
Same reason Fedor or hell, even Tyson used to win fights before they started, and probably why Melvin Guillard never wins when it counts.. 
90% of fighting is half mental
happens all the time. some guys just have no discipline or ability to see the big picture, it happens in every sport
think of all the super-talented college prospects who get DUIs and tank their draft value, which can cost them literally millions of dollars
this is why talent is not the determining factor in success, even if its the most visible.
I don't know how much percentage-wise, but if you take two equally skilled fighters and pit them against each other, I'd put my money on the guy with the mental edge. I think it's a pretty big factor at the highest level seeing as how so many of these guys are now extremely proficient if not masters in several disciplines.
JROTT -Didn't read the post because its waaaay too long., but I believe it's 70-80% mental.
Same reason Fedor or hell, even Tyson used to win fights before they started, and probably why Melvin Guillard never wins when it counts..
I overthink just about everything and will try to keep brevity in mind in the future :D
UGCTT Combat Can Happen -I don't know how much percentage-wise, but if you take two equally skilled fighters and pit them against each other, I'd put my money on the guy with the mental edge. I think it's a pretty big factor at the highest level seeing as how so many of these guys are now extremely proficient if not masters in several disciplines.
Agreed... Just editing footage I've seen fights where I was able to pick winners based on their pre-fight interviews, however the the higher the level of competition, the better the poker face.
20% others will say more,but I`m not going for it.
ranier wolfcastle -
90% of fighting is half mental
so if 45% is mental, and 45% physical, is the other 10% social, emotional, or spiritual? lol jk sylvia's a retard