St. Paul native Nik Lentz dropped out of wrestling and the pre-med program at the University of Minnesota to become an MMA fighter. Now, Lentz ranks as the eighth-best featherweight in the world and has won four of his past five bouts since dropping into the weight class. After a rematch with Thiago Tavares was scratched, Lentz (27-6-2, one no contest) will face Levan Makashvili in Makashvili's first UFC fight next Saturday in Broomfield, Colo. (7 p.m. Fox Sports 1). He spoke to the Star Tribune's Master Tesfatsion about the fight.

Q What went into the thought process of moving from Minnesota to Coconut Creek, Fla., to train?

A I moved [two] years ago to become the No. 1 fighter because Minnesota wasn't cutting it. There's good guys in Minnesota, but the training and all that stuff wasn't enough so I had to make a move. I sold all my stuff, sold my house and moved down to Florida.

Q After losing to Chad Mendes in 2013, what did you like the most about your performance against Manny Gamburyan last May?

A I dominated him everywhere. I'm a more complete fighter now. Before, I was a waste of talent. Now, I'm the real deal. And I showed it against that guy. Manny's fought some of the toughest guys in the world. No one had really dismantled him like I did. Everything went pretty well, but this fight is going to be an even better performance.

Q What led to your development of becoming the "real deal" in the octagon?

A I fought Chad Mendes, who fought for a world title [against Jose Aldo], and I could see that he's not much different than me. The only thing that I was lacking was next-level confidence, the ability to pull the trigger, the ability to trust your technique, your coaches and your team. That was over two years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

Q Makashvili has only fought 10 times, but what's been your assessment of his performance?

A He's a good kid. He's tough. Credit to him for stepping up on the fight in short notice, but they went through every 145-pounder that didn't have a fight in the game and said no. Nobody is signing up to fight with me, so give the kid credit, but he's got a lot of holes that I'm going to exploit. I'm treating this like it's a world title fight. I'm not overlooking him. I'm going to go out there and systematically destroy the kid.

Q You're currently the No. 8-ranked featherweight in the world. What will you need to do to reach your goal of becoming No. 1?

A The thing about being No. 1 and being No. 8 is there really isn't that much difference physically or talentwise. It's almost all 100 percent mental at that point. Can you perform when the lights are off? That's something that I struggled with at 155 pounds. I wasn't peaking right, and I wasn't dieting right. Now that I have all the best coaches and I'm doing all the right stuff, now I'm ready to make that run to No. 1.