UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Leading up to a Bellator 204 meeting with AJ Matthews last August, Logan Storley had been able to beat everyone that stood across from him in a cage since his MMA debut in 2015.

When an illegal knee accidentally hit Matthews’ head in the first round of the welterweight co-headliner, though, Storley considered the possibility that his days of invincibility were over.

“I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Storley told MMAjunkie. “At one point, I thought I was going to have my first loss, for DQ.”

As we know, that wasn’t the case. After a break and a doctor’s evaluation, the welterweight bout went on until the 3:56 mark of Round 2, when a dominant Storley secured the sixth stoppage win of his career.

That, of course, involved Matthews powering through and moving forward despite a clear hematoma forming on his forehead – which Storley, by the way, still gives him props for. But it also involved Storley being able to stay calm and not let adversity throw him off as the fight resumed.

Keeping their cool, as we know, can be challenging for even the most experienced of fighters – let alone a 26-year-old with a number of pro fights one can count on their fingers. But, faced with increasingly experienced competition, in increasingly bigger stages, Storley doesn’t seem all that fazed by the circumstances.

His secret? Well, it would appear that staying focused under pressure is just the type of skill that a four-time NCAA Division-I All-American wrestler can pick up during a lifetime of pursuing athletic achievement.

“Wrestling at the university of Minnesota, in high school, there was a lot of big situations,” Storley said. “There was a lot of big pressure moments that I felt in high school, and in college, and competing in front of crowds of 15 to 18 thousand people. And coming down to the wire and having to get last-second takedowns. And the rivalries, and all that, prepared me for where I am now. And, when I get to training camp, you kind of shut everything out.

“I try to get better every single day. That’s all I can do. It’s really all I can do. And not worry about anything else. Obviously, things creep in your head and you think about things, but the biggest thing for me is getting better and being well-prepared for next Friday night. It’s a fight, anything can happen. But I’ve just got to go out and perform at the highest level I know.”

By next Friday night, of course, Storley (9-0 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) refers to Bellator 215, where he will put his unbeaten record on the line against Ion Pascu (18-9 MMA, 0-2 BMMA). The welterweight bout co-headlines the main card, which airs on Paramount and streams on DAZN from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

Once more, Storley is faced against a more experienced competitor in 36-year-old Pascu, who, despite a rocky 0-2 start to his Bellator run, has 18 professional fights over his rival. Storley, in turn, is part of Bellator’s team of notable prospects and carries that very specific target that highly-visible up-and-comers often do.

In Storley’s case, that target could be made a little bigger by the fact it also comes with an unbeaten label. But, thankfully, that’s yet another instance in which his ability to tune out the background noise – or most of it, anyway – comes in handy.

“Obviously, (the invincibility) is in your mind,” Storley said. “You’re lying if it’s not. But, obviously, my record doesn’t change anything that’s going to happen in there. It doesn’t changes who I am as a competitor once I step in there and the fight starts. Maybe there’s added pressure before the fight, in interviews, things like that, blah blah blah. But once you step in there and the fight starts, it doesn’t change anything.”

What does help change how a night goes inside the cage for a fighter, though, is training. And Storley has his reasons to feel confident when it comes to that. After all, while there’s some inevitable unpredictability in real competition, it doesn’t hurt to have the likes of coach Henri Hooft and former UFC champion Robbie Lawler helping you prepare for it.

“Some days you have great days, some days you have bad days,” Storley said. “But if it’s a bad day, it’s a learning day. You pick something up and say, ‘OK, I can do this better. What was he hitting me with there and why couldn’t I do this?’ So things like that really do help and make a difference and you’re like ‘All right, perfect.’

“Things like that help and make you a better fighter. And get to train with high-level guys who have seen it all and competed in a high level, you’re getting the best of the best. It makes you a better fighter and a better competitor.”

For the ever-focused Storley, what matters now is what happens on Friday – meaning, he’s not worrying too much about where a win over Pascu, however emphatic, would place him when it comes to Bellator’s stacked welterweight division.

We do know, though, that Storley had a rather ambitious plan of becoming champion by 27. With that birthday coming up in September, how are those plans coming along?

“This tournament obviously slows things down a little bit,” Storley said. “But, to me, the biggest thing is taking care of each fight. That gives me a year, a year-and-a-half to get to where I want to be. I’m going to do everything that I can and prepare for that every single day to get ready and put myself in the position to become world champ.”

For more on Bellator 215, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.