Amanda Ribas will only believe she’s actually fighting Saturday night at UFC 285 when Viviane Araujo is standing across the cage from her inside Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Ribas, a 29-year-old talent from Varginha, Brazil, said on this week’s Trocacao Franca podcast that getting matches cancelled at the last minute has been an issue throughout her career. Tracy Cortez was scheduled to take on Ribas this December. However, Cortez pulled out of the card after they had both lost weight in Orlando.
“I hope the fight happens this time, because last time I did all the preparation and it didn’t happen,” Ribas said. “I just finished a training session here at the UFC PI and I’m pumped. Fight week is upon us and I cannot wait to get in the Octagon and start doing my thing and being happy .”
“That’s the fun part of all this, to get inside the octagon and put all the work to the test, because going through a camp isn’t that nice,” she added. “The fight is what I love about this, being in the center and everybody watching you, representing everything I live for.”
Ribas once caused a cancellation, too, when a positive test for COVID-19 in May 2020 forced the UFC to pull the plug on a match with Angela Hill just hours before the fight.
“I had my hair done on fight day and it was cancelled, so [I’ll only believe] when Bruce [Buffer] says my name in the cage,” Ribas said with a laugh. That’s when your heart rate starts to race and you feel butterflies in your stomach.
” I really want to fight and do the things that I have trained for. It’s a pain to go through the diet and [then] have a fight. I had that before and did great in my following fight [against Virna Jandiroba], and I hope that happens again.”
A veteran of 13 professional bouts over a span of nine years, Ribas admits she still gets nervous before fights. She said that controlling anxiety is the key to her success.
“My biggest fear is not being able to do what I trained and let things go inside the octagon,” Ribas said. It’s difficult to work out in the gym, and be able do everything. But imagine going into the gym and being incapable of doing anything. God will, I can do the things I have been trained in the octagon .”
Ribas is still planning on returning to the strawweight division down the line, but competing at flyweight and having a smoother weight cut allows her to stay busier. Viviane Araujo, her foe Saturday, is 5-3 in the octagon after dropping a decision to 125-pound contender Alexa Grasso in her most recent match.
“‘Vivi’ is very experienced, even more than Tracy, so I have to be smart about her heavy hands and her ground game,” Ribas said. “She’s very good on the ground as well. With ‘Vivi .'”
, I need to be smart about all things.
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/3/4/23621793/last-minute-cancellation-amanda-ribas-fighting-ufc-285-bruce-buffer?rand=96749
