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at any aldana oh my gosh okay so you went from a main event against Raquel Pennington May 20th in the UFC Apex two now you are fighting for the world title June 10th in Vancouver at UFC 289 against Amanda Nunes I need to know how is this news delivered to you imagine that I was close in comfort for the fight against Raquel Pennington for May 20. I was just finishing my training session like wrestling training session it was a hard training I I was exhausted and I I saw my phone and I gotta make minor call missing and I just returned the call to him and he was okay so we’re calling you because things are like this Juliana is in your she’s out of the fight with Amanda and we want to offer you the fight against some of the ninjas on June 10th so are you in right away talk to my coach oh yes we’re in and he said okay so we need you to get to New York on Friday to promote the fight and to go to the press conference so get ready so please change from one day to another and one day it was meaning a band with again the next day I was fighting for a world title so things has been very exciting in the gym we’re happy for the opportunity and we’re here there’s a lot of success in your gym as well which we’ll get into but you know I interviewed Amanda Nunes just a few weeks ago and she told me that she originally thought you would be her opponent and she was kind of surprised that the matchup with Juliana was made for you I mean how long have you been expecting that phone call actually since long time since 2019 when I fought Caitlin beta I was ready to fight Amanda and but things are going this way for a reason and I have earned a lot of experiences then so I always have in mind Amanda Nunez so I always been training just to to be ready for her training for whatever the Call Comes and I think it came in the right time and you were able to say yes because you’ve always been training to be ready yeah for sure but when you you were essentially almost at the end of camp for Raquel Pennington so how much adjustment can be made how do you ensure you’re not over trained when you get into the fight but you are of course prepared for a very different opponent in a very different setting it was great we thought that it was great because we have six more weeks to get ready your now your we were training hard you were ready for fight rounds and now you’re training Amanda and we have six more weeks for that so this is perfect for us we get to relax a little bit but not too much and just to accomplish with with all these um media and all this work for for the promotion and get just get right away to to get ready and we’re pretty motivated and excited for this was there anything in your prep for Raquel that would be similar for how you would approach facing Amanda I I think that the advantage here is that my coach always trains me to be ready for any fight style he always puts me against different challenges in the game so you’re training with this guy there is much higher than you and with this guy that is shorter than you and with this guy that is bigger than you and this guy is wrestling and this guy makes different striking so he told me to be an Adaptive so I I adapt myself and I I can resolve problems with any fight style so I think that’s advantage that we have your gym is obviously on a hot streak Alexa Grosso who is very very close to you as well as your teammate be Valentina chefchenko and we could see the preparation for certain things that Valentina did and the footage that was released and how she executed that in the fight to become the champion against someone that many consider the greatest at 125 ever for you and your preparation for Amanda I would assume the confidence has to be the same there yeah for sure we are very comfortable with the our coach because he’s very smart he’s uh we always called him like he he’s a crazy genius he’s so obsessed with getting better and to have the perfect game plan and he’s always obsessed to Bringing new things to the gym and just he’s always thinking about how he can get better and you cannot Capital confidence with that because you when you have your coach being that into the things into the fights into our challenges we know we’re getting there with the best team with the best training plan with the best population so very good was it extra inspiring for you to see Alexa accomplish what she did for sure for sure this is uh I have so much motivation for that because so her dealing with all this stuff that was around the fight all the media all the pressure everything was against her and she dealed with it very good and she performed she made the best perform ever she she was shining that night and and I’m I’m so I’m so glad she did it and of course that gives me so much more the motivation for my fight did she have any advice for you as you entered you know this Main Event Challenger this title Challenger position yeah she was very happy for me when she arrived to Guadalajara after her fight she was just Landing she went to my home she showed me her belt and she the first thing she said was you’re next yeah yeah of course but when we got the news that we’re influencing Amanda she was so happy for me and she she just said go for it just go for it we’re here for you we work so hard for it just just go there just go there and make your thing and and we’re always pushing each other and obviously it pays off in the gym but you know Mexico is having quite a movement in the UFC right now we’ve got Brandon Moreno Yaya Rodriguez of course Alexa and now you’re challenging Amanda what is it about Mexican fighters in MMA that is finding so much success on a high level I think seeing each other being accomplishing all them this success first Brandon and he he Shake Mexico and and we we were like oh if he did it we can make it also and we found strained seeing other people’s success and we’re not trained together we don’t train with Brandon or yair but we feel them like we were Partners we were training partners and we feel them like they are part of the team we really love each other we really support each other and I believe their success is our strength too so I think that’s this is very important for Mexico and I’m ready to give them the port well what would it say about your coaches and your gym if both you and Alexa are able to defeat the goats of your divisions well it means that we have been doing things right if you trust your team if you trust your work things can go wrong there so uh we’ve been working hard since we started we always have the UFC building mine so we first started since our first fight since the first fighting our course always told us you guys are going to be there you both girls are going to be in the UFC and you both girls are going to be Champs and where we’re like you think so no maybe yeah we know we’re not so sure about that and they say believe me you’re going to and he was so confident of that and we we trust him we love with all of our souls and heart we gave it we gave him all this trust and and he believed in us too and and we work together always as a team and we never we never thought of going anywhere training everywhere outside Mexico we always get got to marry with the idea of representing Mexico training in Mexico with Mexican coaches with our gym in Mexico and we are so happy to be in accomplishing that there’s so much to be happy and proud about there I want to talk to you about the last couple of years of your fight career you’ve had about one fight a year for the past three years so your body’s been able to rest but also the activity level isn’t necessarily as maybe as high as maybe other people in your division for you why was that where you have been at in terms of how many fights you can have a year and how do you feel like it ultimately could benefit you it was definitely not my choice if it was for me I would have been fighting a few several more times in in per year but as you are in the top of the division things get harder sometimes and you get um your your opponent’s got her injuries or there’s some mixed struggles sometimes to to get me some fights and uh my fight with your mind came off three times and then I got injured then they couldn’t find me an opponent so they got Macy who was 11 that time and I was already in the top for the division and she was the only one who took the fight and things got harder these years but definitely I love to be active and but the adventures here is I’m always training in the games and I don’t get occasions so I’m always training and and that that’s the way I stay active always training and that’s a lot of times when our athletes say that the most improvements and maybe Evolutions are made is when they don’t have a particular opponent to focus on yeah when you look back at who you were in 2019 when you thought you could maybe get the phone call to fight for the title how does that version of yourself compare to who you are now today as you prepare to face imagine I am a complete different fighter now and I have so much more confidence because I have the ball so much on all this time I have learned much more things and I’m more more skill fighter and I’m so excited to show that in this fight not just because it’s the Bell because I have a much more different fight style in this time and I have a more fluid and more confident and I actually I’m glad the phone call came this time and not in 2019 I feel more red than ever this time confidence is key especially when you are facing Amanda Nunes many consider her the greatest Combat Sports athlete of all time in terms of females and one of the greatest of all time regardless of gender so when you step into this position there is a lot to worry about there’s media there’s tons of obligations that are being asked of you how much does that confidence help you and the fact that you can also ask your teammate Alexa Grosso what that experience was like for her and how she best balanced it or what she would have done differently definitely a Monday is one of the greatest she is the greatest she has accomplished everything that a woman can do in this Sport and I respect her a lot and I’m honored to share the doctor with her and this is a great uh a big challenge for me she’s this is the biggest challenge for me ever if it wasn’t for the title if it just was another fight with Amanda not the title in the line it still will be one of the biggest fights ever but in in this point I feel very happy that it came in this time because I’m I feel so ready for that and I’m just enjoying the moment I enjoying the media I’m doing all these things that I have to do to deal with and just the pressure I’m happy with the pressure I like the pressure now and um just the motivation is bigger than the pressure what are the keys when You Face someone like Amanda who is good everywhere to ensuring that you are successful in as many of the exchanges wherever they take place just to stay confident about what we have been training for just the all these hard work and just to bring that Mexican heart that Mexican hit to the Octagon that night and to stay focused and just to go with with the flow and and I have nothing to lose it’s very true this one is scheduled for five rounds you were preparing for five rounds how much are you looking forward to that to being able to see those later rounds with Amanda I think we are ready for that with we always train the game to deal with adversity and I have had 40 minutes sparing rounds like no rest it’s it’s crazy that we take it to the Limit but in a smart way so so we’re not um over training just I don’t know my coach is very smart for that but he pushes over the limit but in the way that we stay healthy and to be mentally prepared for whatever happens in the fight and for the war scenarios in the fight so that gives me a lot of confident when you look at your two tool belts of physical gifts and skills that you have what do you think will be the most important one the Mexican heart definitely the Mexican heart and just to know not go backwards just always going forward just always looking to fight just to um be really present be present because you know there’s when you’re there sometimes it gets blurry like you’re overwhelmed and there’s a lot of people the lights the opponent the event itself the the challenge the belt and everything you can get overwhelmed just to to stay very focus and just do to be there and if I’m there because I’m I’m ready to be there the UFC is trusting me to take this fight in short notice because they they think I’m capable too and I do believe that so just to be myself and and enjoy the moment there’s a lot of people who believe that you are capable of achieving the belt and winning this fight was there anything that you could take from Juliana Pena and when she defeated Amanda Juliana in both fights that was a very interesting fight and I can see a lot of what happened in that fight for both and and I can see what in which areas Juliana was success and which ones were not and I seen that I can be able to adapt my plan my game plan to to being successful with Amanda when you saw that fight take place and it actually happened live in front of you I mean were you were your wheels kind of spinning like okay if I approach it this way or if I get the next shot I mean were you already thinking about that I was inspiring with Amanda when I saw that fight and and I was oh maybe I can do that I will be able to do that and I and if she does like that I can do this and you always imagine all kinds of ways if I can go and and and I believe I have a great chance to to win this fight how do you imagine June 10th and UFC 289’s Main Event ah it’s gonna be awesome I think I believe we’re going to see more Mexicans with that because it’s far away it’s in Canada I believe it’s not a Mexican place it’s it’s hard to to think that Mexicans will fly to Canada to see me fight but I think we’re going to see a lot of Mexicans there and a lot of support there and I think that I really enjoy to be with the audience I really I really do uh when they when they asked me to fight in the Apex in Las Vegas I I told to make can it be with people in there can it be in there in and how we have to make in the episode it’s okay but I really enjoy being with the art inside it fulfills me with the energy of the people so I’m really excited for that we are so excited to see this one what would mean more to you to become the world champion for the first time or to defeat the greatest of all time to defeat the greatest of all time definitely to build it’s just a representation of what all the hard work has been you know all this time it represents all my journey it is it’s just a plus but um obviously to defeat Amanda it will be the greatest thing that I have accomplished in my life is a great biggest challenge ever I respect her a lot I mean she she’s been here for a long time she’s been fighting the best of the best she has nothing to prove and she’s still here because she loves to do this and because she is so good that and I’m glad to to come here and to show that I can be a worthy opener for her absolutely you know as you sort of talk about this fight you get this little smile on your face as you’re envisioning certain things I can just tell how do you spend the next weeks and days in the lead up to UFC 289 well just training and training hard and and also enjoying the the journey and enjoying the all my preparation for this um just not get too overwhelmed too stressful because I feel myself like I’m in the right level for it I don’t have to overdo things I’m just just to keep going with what I have been doing all this time and just been ready to to give them another birth patient on myself because if I’m not there bring an Amanda my best person I’m being disrespectful to her so I want to give her the best opponent that she has ever had and just to give the audience and the UFC one of the greatest fights ever we certainly can’t wait to watch we think this has been a long time coming for you to get this title shot at any best of luck to you thank you so much for your time enjoy every second of it we can’t wait to see you in Vancouver thank you very much