Cortney throws a kick in recent fight. Photo credit to UFC.com.
Cortney Casey on Liana Jojua bout and open scoring in MMA
Cortney Casey tests skills with Liana Jojua at UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Rodriguez. The flyweight fight goes down on Saturday, November 13th at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I spoke with Casey before this bout and excerpts from our chat are below.
Cortney Casey
The main bases of operation for this fight camp
“Back at the MMA Lab. I still work with my Muay Thai coaches over at Golden Era. And of course, my strength and conditioning coach Joe Cooperman over at Legendary Athletics. I work with Tim Welch over at his gym doing jiu-jitsu… I’ve got a great group of people around me. Just happy to have all the training partners and all the coaches that I need for this fight.”
This Jojua bout being canceled previously in August and if there’s any game planning utility to that
“It was more financially deflating than anything. Camps are expensive, they’re not cheap. Then you still got to pay your coaches regardless if you fight or not. It’s just more deflating when it comes to that. But as far as like training wise, I mean we’re training all the time. You just got to kind of step back from like camp training.”
Cortney Casey continued, “Then just regular maintenance training and then back into camp. So it was just long more than anything. But beneficial, for sure. Knowing who our opponent was, we’re happy that we didn’t get an opponent change. We can just move forward with camp. Took some time off and then just got right back into it.”
This matchup maintaining and now finally coming to fruition
“It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted it to. It was just the fact that it was either gonna be the same opponent or we could possibly just get a short notice fight. And with my record as it is right now, it’s not something that I wanted to have to do. Is take a short-notice fight against someone where I wouldn’t be able to prepare properly. So I was just more happy that I was able to keep the same opponent and have still a decent amount of time to train for.”
UFC
A prior bout cancelation on Halloween 2020 and the dents those can put in a fighter’s financial situation
“Yeah, you definitely just gotta take it on the chin. Again, you got to plan for those kinds of things to happen. It sucks when you don’t know when your next paycheck is gonna come. So yeah, you just really got to make smart financial decisions and things like that. Plan for the worst but hope for the best at the same time.”
If Casey is interested in fighting in a state that utilizes open scoring to understand what judges are looking for
“Yeah, I’d absolutely be interested in it. We don’t know what the judges are scoring. Obviously, they have their five points of scoring. But we don’t know what they’re really scoring on. We’re not told if it’s the striking, if it’s the cage control, if it’s the damage, if it’s the top position. We have no idea how the judges are scoring it. Lately, it seems like they don’t really know either. So it’d be nice to kind of know going into the third round where you’re sitting. But do I think the UFC is gonna adapt to that and do that? I don’t know.”
Cortney Casey continued, “I mean, they haven’t gone to Kansas from what I know. So I don’t foresee them going into Kansas anytime soon. Especially because Dana (White) has kind of been open about how he doesn’t like it. He thinks it causes boring fights and I can see where he sees that. But I think the people that are gonna have boring fights, they’re gonna do boring fights. Whether their judges are open scoring or not.”
UFC Fight Night
Years as a high-level soccer player and how the defined scoring from soccer can present question marks for MMA
“For sure. It’s easy to know when you win those games. Then going into a fight thinking that you won, coaches think you won. And then after the fight, it’s called the other way. Then all the fans are saying you won. And at the end of the day, it’s still a loss on your record. You just kind of got to deal with it.”
Casey’s son King is a soccer player now and his big goal celebration
“I love that he enjoys it. He so far has always wanted to go to practice and always go to the games. Even though he gets frustrated at times and doesn’t want to play the whole game. But for the most part, he’s having fun. He’s getting to interact with other kids and things like that. And we definitely practice the celebration of the goals. So I was happy that he did his forward roll that time. We’re still working on the airplane though. But yeah, it’s fun watching him get out there and do his thing.”
What the return timeline is looking like for her partner/ fellow UFC combatant Drakkar Klose
“Yeah, he was back. He was back for a very, very brief time and then he got injured. He actually had a fight set up for December. And I think it was like the first two weeks back and he ended up getting hurt again. So he’s out for a while with a knee injury. Required surgery and things like that. So I don’t think he’s looking to return until hopefully early next year or mid next year.”
UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Rodriguez
Avidly following the sport and what she has seen on Liana Jojua
“Stylistically, she’s a pretty game fighter. She’s fought some good girls. She’s good on the ground and her striking is a little bit different. But she’s pretty accurate with her striking as well. She’s shorter, but she’s definitely a thicker girl. So we’re just gonna kind of stick to our game plan as best as we can. And hopefully we can execute the game plan and get the job done. Definitely trying to get it finished within those three rounds. Because it doesn’t seem I have the go with the judges when it goes the distance.”
“So yeah, I mean she’s in the UFC for a reason. She wasn’t given any easy fights coming up into the UFC or anything like that. Her fight with Miranda Maverick was tough. But at the same time, she went in there and she didn’t want to quit. So you got to give her that.”
Parting thoughts for Cortney Casey
“No, not really. You asked a lot of good questions.”
