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Kyler Phillips is looking to take a systematic approach in his climb up the 135-pound ladder.

Phillips (9-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) cracked the top 15 in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings when he defeated Song Yadong with a unanimous decision at UFC 259, extending his winning streak to four.

He credits his mindset and tactical approach, in which he was able to effectively mix things up with his striking and his grappling. Phillips emphasized the importance of getting his mentality right and weeding out the distractions ahead of what was his biggest test to date.

“I’m going to be here for a long time – for the longest time,” Phillips told MMA Junkie Radio. “It’s tough because fighting is one of those things where you can rise and win, but you can also fall at any point. So you’ve got to realize and recognize that you’re human, but you can also get those abilities and sharpen all the tools that make you a real fighter.

“And those are not just the things that are in the cage, but the things you do outside of the cage and all the stuff that you can do to make you a balanced person as far as vision, focus, doing things with your heart like loving what you do and developing the skill set that you have to to get you to that level and just see that it’s the truth. So it gets to that point when you see this is the truth: I am the champ. I can be the greatest.”

Phillips isn’t focused on either a slow or fast rise. The “Ultimate Fighter” and Dana White’s Contender Series alum has gone through his ups and downs in his MMA career and is just looking to capitalize on the chances he’s awarded moving forward.

“It’s a little bit of both,” Phillips said. “Opportunity: You’ve got to take it and pull the trigger when you’ve got to go. But you have to be smart because this is a stacked division. I mean, I’m confident in myself that I can beat anybody in the division right now, so I don’t really care. But with my management and stuff, I’m going to make the right choices to make sure that I capture gold, make sure that I get to the top. So that’s the smart thing I’ve got to do right now.”