Falaniko Vitale wants to turn his nightmares into dreams.

If it means leaving his family behind for the next two months to undergo a fighting transformation, so be it.

In an effort to regain the mixed martial arts championship he lost in July, Vitale will leave Ho-nolulu for Washington state tonight. He will train at the American Martial Arts Center (AMC) in Kirkland, Wash., for the next seven weeks.

"I just feel like it's something I have to do," said Vitale, a Waipahu High graduate who now resides in 'Ewa. "If you win all the time, you get too comfortable. Maybe that's what happened to me. You have to evolve in this sport if you want to get better and I'm looking at this as my turn to evolve."

Vitale's nightmare loss came via second-round knockout to Iowa's Robbie Lawler, and it cost him the Icon Sport middleweight (185 pounds) championship on July 24 at the Blaisdell Arena.

Before he can get a rematch with Lawler, Vitale must fight Atlanta's Jason "Mayhem" Miller on Oct. 28 at the Blaisdell Arena. Vitale is 20-4; Miller is 13-4.

"I still want to prove to everybody that I can beat Lawler," said Vitale, 30. "But I'm focusing on Miller right now. That's why I'm going to Washington."

Vitale said he actually thought about retiring from the sport in the days after his loss to Lawler.

"I really didn't know what I wanted to do," he said. "But my family and friends and guys I train with all motivated me to keep going. And then when this opportunity came up, I felt like I had to at least give it another try."

The AMC school is run by Matt Hume, a well-known instructor in the sport. Icon Sport president T. Jay Thompson encouraged Vitale to move to Washington after the loss to Lawler.

"Matt Hume creates champions," Thompson said. "Niko might be the best athlete I've ever seen in MMA, and there's no reason why he shouldn't be a world champion."

Hume was in attendance at the Blaisdell when Lawler defeated Vitale. Fighters from Hume's school went 4-0 on the undercard that night.

"I see an unpolished gem in Falaniko," Hume said. "He has as much potential and raw talent as I've ever seen. My job is to train him physically, technically and tactically ... but more, to make him believe in himself."

Vitale said he has not watched the video of his loss to Lawler, but it bothered him enough to accept Hume's invitation to train in Washington.

"I made a mistake; I got caught," Vitale said of his knockout loss. "I can't help but think that if I had more serious training, maybe I wouldn't have got caught. People tell me I was winning the fight and I just got caught. I don't know about the what-ifs, but I just don't want it to happen again."

Vitale normally trains at the 808 Fight Factory in Waipahu, but he said there is a shortage of quality training partners in Hawai'i.

"I don't want to take anything away from the gyms in Hawai'i, but I'm expecting to get a lot more intense training up (in Washington)," Vitale said. "There's more resources there; there's a lot more good fighters at my weight who I can train with."

Perhaps the only drawback will be Vitale's solo presence in Washington. His wife and two daughters will remain in Hawai'i.

"I'm already getting nightmares about being away from my family," he said. "But my wife has to stay here and work and she's going to take care of the kids, so that's motivating me even more to go and do my job."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.