Handout/One Championship.

MANILA, Philippines – There was a time when Jhanlo Mark Sangiao felt like he was going to retire undefeated, go through every fighter in front of him, and dominate them before calling it a career.

Call it a young man's naivety as #4-ranked contender Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu shattered those lofty and unrealistic expectations with the Mongolian securing a second-round submission win over him last year.

"I won't be lying and say that it didn't affect me," Sangiao said.

"Of course, I was dismayed when I experienced my first loss. But then again that's the result of it. That's what happened and there's nothing that I can really do about it other than to accept and learn."

The 22-year-old admitted that when he was younger, he wanted to end his career without dropping a single fight. But in such an unpredictable sport as mixed martial arts, even some of the greatest fighters in the sport's history have suffered setbacks.

That's why Sangiao is looking at the loss as a necessary one, something that would finally ease the pressure off him as he can now focus on what truly matters – continuous growth and improvement.

"Maybe we can look at it that way. When I was young, I was envisioning that I'll retire undefeated, I don't want to lose. I want to beat all the fighters in front of me but right now, I feel like the pressure lid's now off. It's all about growing now," Sangiao said.

"Now I just keep on working. I identified the things that went wrong for me in that fight, and I tried improving on it just in case we meet each other again." 

That fight showed Sangiao the value of pacing and having the ability and toughness to weather various rough patches in the fight.

At the end of the day, Baatarkhuu showed that he could win when he survived Sangiao's flurries in the first round, while the second-generation martial artist withered when the Mongolian pushed the action.

"The biggest lesson I've learned from that fight is composure and keeping a consistent energy for the entire fight. You can't be too low, you can't be too high. You've got to be steady at all times," Sangiao said.

"You have to identify where you'll surge, and where you'll conserve energy. It's really all about pacing."