Watch the Noche UFC: Pre-Fight Panel live on Thursday at 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT featuring main card fighters Alexa Grasso, …
[Music] thank you okay welcome everyone and thank you for joining us today for the Noche UFC Grasso versus kenko 2 q a panel takes place this Saturday September 16th at the T-Mobile Arena here in Las Vegas tickets are still available and you can get them at the T-Mobile box office now um no one needs an introduction here but we’re gonna introduce them anyways we have the champ Alexa [Applause] we have the rising star Tracy Cortez the young Phenom Raul Rosa Junior The Golden Boy Danielle the Uber and one of the greatest of all time Valentino savchenko all right let’s get started with these questions uh let’s start with the champion first Alexa raso how you feeling this weekend how’s everything going how’s the Las Vegas been treating you well it’s been an amazing week I truly love to fight in Las Vegas and thank you everyone for your support and you’re gonna enjoy the fight thank you [Music] so this is a huge event what does it mean to you to be the first Mexican UFC champion and to be able to defend your title on such an important day for Mexican fans it means a lot you know Mexico is growing so fast in the sport and as you can notice we are living the heart in every fight I think this is an important question for everyone so Tracy Cortez you’re a Mexican American how important it is for you to fight on this day as well oh it’s an honor it’s an honor to be here and represent you know not just Latinos but Mexicans out here and I’m excited how about for you Raul how you feeling on this card no it’s another two you know um like we said Mexico has like is in good hands so is and same question for you Daniel how you feeling about fighting on this card um as everybody’s saying it’s an honor fighting in in Mexican Independence Day I’m excited to put in a show for you guys see yeah and Valentina you spent plenty of time in Latin America you know what does this mean to you to be a part of this card as well they um preparations Valentina it’s been six years since you’ve been coming off a loss how re-motivated are you heading into this fight my motivation come from every single uh thing what I do in the life every single person motivate me every single uh event motivates me martial arts it’s my passion martial arts it’s everything what I do already for 30 years what I practice in martial arts that’s why it’s kind of for me be the champion it’s my nature that’s why I go in with all my power with all my desire for this belt wow Alexa so Teddy Atlas says when you win the title you become 30 better how did winning the belt and gaining the number one pound-for-pound spot impact your confidence coming into this fight well yes um every single site I’m evolving I’m improving I’m learning a lot and as you can notice you know every single side I’m a different nothing I I every time show different weapons and this time it’s gonna be better than the last time all right Raul this one’s for you you’re coming off your first loss you’re a pro your pro MMA Premiere but many people say you learn the most from your losses what were some of the main things you learned and how much better are you now um there was a lot of things I took from my last fight and I’m just excited to go in Saturday and show all the corrections that were made from the last one and I’m glad that it is on a special day you know so Saturday night we’re gonna sign let’s go let’s go all right Danielle this is your first time on a UFC main card and it’s for such an important exciting event how much does being on this card mean to you and your focus going into this fight you know I feel that uh fighting in this car it means a lot for me because as you say it’s my first main main card uh fight I want to prove that I belong to these these big fights so sorry now I’m planning on putting on a war hope Christians is is playing the same man yeah you know I’m just ready to to perform yeah what do you think of your opponent I think that yeah he’s a well-rounded guy but you know like everybody in the ufcs will run at this point so you know I feel that eventually he’s gonna try to take the fight to the ground but where is in the ground or on top you know it doesn’t matter I’m ready to fight ready anywhere huh yeah all right Tracy it’s been some time since we’ve seen you able to perform uh what have you been working on during your time away and what kind of performance will you give the fans this Saturday uh I’ve been I’ve been working on everything mostly I want to say just sharpening up my wrestling you know keeping it keeping it sharp and then uh my striking I’ve been working a lot with my striking I went over to Brazil for a while I I trained with the Pitbull Brothers wow yeah and I I just grew you know got out of my my comfort zone I wanted to evolve not just as um as a person but as an athlete um I just felt like it was time and I’ve been I’ve been really trying to evolve overall excellent how is that relationship with the the Pitbull Brothers team and your team in Arizona correct yes yeah how’s that been going you guys grapple over there grapple over here and go striking over there yeah you know I’ve I’ve known uh Patricio for quite a time now and I’ve been when he does come to fight ready he’s just he’s he’s such a good teacher and he’s always giving me these new tools to work and to uh practice so I could you know get better and um yeah it kind of just hit me where I was ready to try something new get out of my element and I shot him a message and he told me to he said come on by so went over to Brazil stayed over there for a while came back told my coaches hey I’m ready to come back now it’s time yeah those are great bangers to train with over there right yeah um let’s talk about your fight on paper this fight looks like a battle of two high-level Grapplers how do you see your grappling skills stacking up against Jasmine’s um I’m I’m very confident in my wrestling uh I’m very confident on my ground uh I believe it is pretty difficult to take me down and if you do it’s going to be hard to keep me down but it’s going to be a good fight all right for the champ Alexa a lot of people say that in a rematch the person who lost the first fight has the advantage because they know what they need to work on when you revisit the first fight what sort of opportunities for improvements do you see well I did a lot of adjustments for this second side we already shared the Octagon 20 minutes together we always we also felt what we can bring to the table and you know I love striking fights honestly I do I I’ll do everything to keep the file on my feet and you know I was doing pretty well the first round was amazing and I was I was doing pretty well so I’m gonna bring everyone an amazing fight this this Saturday night so you’re working you’re working your sprawl and brawl you want to keep this fight on your feet show your boxing offshore you’re striking off yeah always you know that’s a Mexican warranty Valentina for you you were championed for many years what did you learn about yourself after losing the title and how will that benefit you in this fight you know it’s kind of like um I don’t have to learn anything because of the lost or something like that Alexa she’s uh you’re saying like you was doing pretty well but I say not enough for the victory it’s kind of like good point because um if you could see the fight it was all four rounds like winning the fight for my side before they of course what happened in the fight but um it’s kind of like uh the moment when it put you um worked double hard work uh like remember what you did like at the very very beginning and it’s kind of like yes everyone’s speaking about the lost or something like that but I wanna remind to everyone 17 time world Muay Thai Champion seven title defense and you cannot re get rid of this it’s gonna stay in you forever it’s gonna like you can be better you can be like what you adjustment whatever where you wanna do but the power but the confidence and experience it’s still here and it’s gonna like explode on Saturday Alexa do do you agree with that assessment do you think what do you think about the score card what was the score card leading up to your fight what did you think about the scorecard well well I don’t know round one was my second second round you know even like being in my Thai Champion I thought you wanted to be on striking with me but you decided to go to the ground so it’s fine I mean fourth round I made a lot of adjustments and I think it was two too for me it was 2-2 2-2 all right Valentine I have another question what do you think about this new bout here and um you know what does it mean to you if you take this home I think it’s gorgeous first of all and I come in for that belt [Music] all right uh Raul this is the longest time between fights you’ve had since you went pro how much of that helped you improve and are you going to keep taking more time off between fights to focus on yourself are you gonna do quick turnarounds um yeah it’s the longest I’ve taken off um I used to fight month back to back because I was trying to break break records and that’s still the plan um but yeah I don’t think I can stay out too long because I miss all my people putting on the show for y’all so after Saturday night we’re gonna come back and you already know we’re going for that belt yeah Raul you you seem you seem more comfortable and comfortable or do you feel Comfort because you’ve been in the Octagon a couple times yeah every time I come more experience I feel more comfortable so I’m just excited to keep putting on shows for all my people I appreciate them and I we put on all the words despite them so I just can’t wait to execute ague [Music] all right Danielle this could be a breakout performance for you what can you tell the fans to expect from you this Saturday night you know uh I feel that I’m a well-round fighter and I’m ready to put in a show for you guys I’m always training hard my boxing my striking wrestling like all the areas of MMA so with this fighting Saturday what I try to show to everybody in here is that I’m here you know I’m not really brilliant fighter and you know I’m just keep coming up and with this fight as you say this is like the breakpoint you know like this is where it all starts for me I’m coming to this fight with this approach and yeah I’m ready to show to everybody what I’m talking about all right okay for Tracy being one of the most popular fighters on this card sorry about that and being undefeated in the UFC how much pressure if any do you feel going into the Saturday night I didn’t know that thing I’m reading off here man you’re pretty popular it says being one of the most popular fighters on this card and being undefeated in the UFC how much pressure [Music] [Applause] you know just how much pressure do you feel all right there’s a spotlight’s on you you’re you’re a rising star right now A lot of people are watching sure man I love what I do I’m a performer I love being he shows there’s nothing but love man it’s it’s a great feeling wow that’s a that’s a great way to to look at it right I have a question about the main event how do you see this Main Event playing now and who would you rather fight for the belt uh respectfully respectfully yo I I Alexa has all my support I’m going for Alexa I stick with rasa and um I think it’ll be an honor here in the future you know uh put on a short show and fight for the belt one day wow that would be a huge huge Main Event yeah all right I’m gonna ask a question this is from uh it looks like Ethan Ethan Ocho this is for Raul is your approach to the fights different moving forward and do you want to run it back with Christian in the future um for sure the approach is probably going to be different you know um I’m just looking to put on the show this time Pace myself and yeah for sure everybody wants to run their laws back but I’m just focused on my journey if Christian Rodriguez keeps winning and we’re meant to meet each other in the future then we’re going to share the Octagon again excellent excellent for Valentina we have uh a question from Blue poet three now that Nunez has retired and the 135 belt is again up for grabs after this fight if you win any thoughts about jumping up a weight class and be a double champ uh you know it’s kind of like for me um I’m focused right now only on one day it’s Saturday and for me there is no Sunday it’s kind of like everything what I think about like getting ready it’s only September 16th but uh if I decide to move up I don’t want people uh think this has happened because uh Amanda is not there because um my intention was fight her it was number one it was only one reason why I would move up because of Trilogy with Amanda and now once uh she is not there it’s kind of like losing a little bit the point but um still not discarding the opportunity okay uh Alexa this is from you from a from a fan as well for you it says from and manutra I’m not too sure at menu tree how did it feel beating Valentina after so many years where people couldn’t um well I trained so hard since I moved to 125 um always the goal of course I’ve seen her career like for so long she’s someone that has to uh done so much for this bird like so when I was in 125 always liked the focus when she was a champion I was like I want to go for the video I would love to be a UFC champion so it was amazing honestly it was amazing to have this this win to to be able to get developed for Mexico and and to beat her in the fashion like a submission some you worked on I mean it’s something else you guys you guys working on may want to share with us or something we can look out for I I always work everything you know of course you guys know I truly love striking fights but I’m ready for everything I’ve been building with my grappling and my and my Jiu-Jitsu I like everything everything I’ve been doing so anything can happen it’s a fight but I’m ready for for everything and to give you an amazing fight excellent we have another one from Robbie ACM how do you feel your Victory impacted the development of women’s MMA in Mexico that’s for you Alexa oh so the development in Mexican for ladies in MMA your win it’s growing so fast I’m super happy that now in tournaments I remember when I used to compete there was just one or two girls just white belts and now I I see the tournaments and there are blue belts purple belts a lot of girls you know even little girls competing so I think it’s growing so much and I think it’s important for all the parents to allow their kids to defend them to learn how to how to be strong excellent excellent I think we’re gonna have some fans from some questions from the media do we have some media questions here we’re here we’re back all right take it away it’s kind of a journal question for everyone I’ll start with Alexa and kind of work our way down when they announce this card the Assumption was pretty much all of you would probably be on this card but now that it is fight week this is the first event that fans can attend and see you so how has the fan reception been and what has fight leak been with all of these Mexicans here to see you guys compete oh it’s amazing I mean it’s not just me we’re all a lot of Mexicans in this car so it’s beautiful to watch all these people that have had a time to come to travel to be here to support us it feels amazing thank you [Applause] media like I actually have a question for you girl oh my goodness obviously for years it was Fighters like you Diego Nick and Nate Kane like you were the Mexican Fighters that we all tuned into you made your pro debut in 2002. Roe was born in 2004. thank you for pointing that out so what’s it like to see crop of fighters in a whole fight week just centered around Mexican MMA it’s it’s actually amazing you know though I’m I’m born in America I’m a Mexican-American I remember gathering around the TV to see Julio Cesar Chavez fight I saw all the great warriors fight and um to see it come to this point I knew it was a matter of time before Mexico would Embrace mixed martial artists and it was a matter of time before all these Fighters would develop their skills and show that that Mexican heart would stand out and I’m really happy to be here today and see the Next Generation uh you know do their thing question over here for Tracy Tracy you’ve had on your Twitter you know the Tracy Cortez era for a long time we haven’t seen you fight in a minute how much are you looking forward to reminding the fans who you are and who you want to be in this division you know I originally I was scheduled to fight when was it coach March I believe March or April and then I got injured and I had surgery and all that other stuff but um I’m you know I’m here to make my mark now I’m I’m healthy I feel strong I’m well recovered and hopefully after this one if all goes well and no injuries are are uh that show up after the fight I’m I’ll be ready for the next one then I have two for Raul Raul obviously a lot of people talk about it youngest guy on the UFC roster if they bring in a 16 year old to Contender series are you going to be a little salty about it no um records are meant to be broken so you know I would it would be an honor for me to be there and you know cheer him on I want somebody to break my record you know I want people to keep coming and breaking the records that I’m gonna put on the company and yeah that’s that’s it now obviously younger in your career looking to bounce back what are you hoping the fans get to see on Saturday night from you um just a war you know Mexican style I got to put on the show for all my people and for me and I gotta prove to myself that I am who I say I am Alexa in Espanol go with us Alexa is hey Alexa being the first Champion the first Mexican champion in the UFC and also being the first main card um Main Event in this Independence Mexican and Penn State event can you talk about that um [Music] [Music] look at all the Champions at one point we actually had three Champions something that we never expected before um this shows and we’re so grateful to UFC for this opportunity and look at everything that has happened so far as a result of everything we’ve done can you talk about the belt as well made in the colors and so different patterns and colors and Mexican style representation [Music] it’s a beautiful artwork every single pattern there is everything’s handmade there’s a meaning to every single pattern and color and represents our such a rich culture something that we’re very proud of a question for both Alexa and Tracy you know both of you guys kind of got your starting Invicta a little bit I just want to know well first of all like you know what your experience was like starting there but now when you reflect on things and look back on when you were an Invicta do you could you ever ever imagine you’d be in a spot like you are right now here together on this stage um honestly it’s kind of mind-blowing you know it’s and I’m extremely grateful and Looking Back Now where I think we we both started you know and seeing all of our accomplishments it’s it’s you’re able to believe you know as as an individual that it is possible seeing someone where you were once at rise to such a beautiful level you know that we all work so hard for and it’s inspiring well Invicta was amazing you know it’s one of the biggest platforms for women’s and it was beautiful my experience there was amazing I I don’t know remember it’s beautiful you know that’s a an amazing place to be so it was always a dream to be in the UFC like you always watch you know Ronda and Holly and all these big stars like it was a dream and and when it happened it was it was amazing so I’m doing everything in my in my hands to be the best every day every week in the gym and training and every single fight and Alexa I mean did becoming Champion kind of happen at the pace you expected do you think it would take a little bit quicker or maybe longer or is this like the perfect time you would have imagined when you thought about it uh well you always have plans and lives life is kind of tricky you know but I think it was the perfect timing you know I’m gonna um I’m over mature right now and I don’t know I think it it was a perfect timing for me best luck about you thanks I believe we have one more question my questions for Tracy um I just wanted your thoughts on Aaron blanchfield and her run in the UFC since year her only loss just what are my thoughts on her yeah I think she’s being incredible she’s doing amazing um proud of her and I know there’s going to be a time where we cross paths and when that time comes I’ll be ready thank you all right everyone that will do it thank you everyone for your questions and joining us here today let’s hear it for our Noche UFC athletes be sure to join us tomorrow for Noche UFC’s ceremonial weigh-ins at the Toshiba Plaza in front of the T-Mobile Arena will be there at 2PM once again tickets for Noche UFC Grasso versus ochenko two are still available and you get them at the T-Mobile box office now thank you guys all