Aspen Ladd “Fight Frequently and Fight at a Healthy Weight” in PFL
Aspen Ladd collides with Olena Kolesnyk at PFL 2: 2023 Regular Season on April 7th.
Ladd appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to touch on the comfortability at 145 pounds with possible super fight options at lightweight, the machinations of this matchup, and so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Aspen Ladd
Compounded comfortability from this being Ladd’s sophomore bout with Professional Fighters League as she enters her first PFL regular season
“Absolutely. It’s definitely a new thing for me and I’m very excited about it. I’m extremely grateful that I’ve already fought for them once last year. Just so I have an idea of how things are and how things work with obviously the PFL. I was there for their biggest card of the year, I was on it. I got to see the end result of everything and now the beginning in April.”
Ladd’s thoughts on the resume and stylistic attributes of Olena Kolesnyk
“Yeah no, I hope for all the success with the transition (from lightweight to featherweight) obviously. But she’s definitely been with the PFL for a while. So she has quite a bit of experience. She’s done the tournament format, so she has that under her belt. Yeah, there’s certain things she does well and other things where she doesn’t seem as comfortable with. But as far as opponents go, I think she presents some interesting things. But she’s a good one.”
PFL 2: 2023 Regular Season
The efforts PFL is making in giving a platform to high level women’s featherweights this season
“It’s hugely important. So obviously there’s a couple other promotions that do it. Bellator has got a 145, UFC has it but they’re not really putting any attention towards it. I think the fact that the PFL is really prioritizing and creating a solid division, they’re going to have a lot more girls coming up. There’s a lot of big ’35ers that are just on the cusp. So it provides another option and honestly, my personal experience in the PFL so far has been incredible.”
“They treat all their fighters great. From the lowest level coming in to their champions, everybody’s given respect. Everybody is treated well within the promotion. So it’s just a really, really good thing that they’re doing in general and the ’45 fighters agree.”
PFL
The spotlight on 145 pounders, possible superfight division options at lightweight, and if Ladd entered into the PFL fold at the perfect time
“Absolutely. It was really just, it seemed like everything lined up perfectly. Because right when I was coming to the PFL obviously there was a 155 division. It’s like oh here’s 155, I’ll walk in and fight at that. But right at the time when everything went down, they were trying to start a 145 or I think they had the idea to start a 145 division. So everything played out perfectly as far as that went.”
“Yeah, the potential for superfights. Obviously I don’t know what weight they’d be at because the super fights, the big ones you got Larissa (Pacheco) and you have Kayla (Harrison). That can be at any weight, ’45, ’50, or ’55. It’s very exciting. There’s just so many more opportunities to fight. Fight frequently and fight at a healthy weight.”
