Cynthia Calvillo opens up about overcoming anxiety ahead of UFC DC
Cynthia Calvillo discusses her upcoming fight with Marina Rodriguez at UFC on ESPN 7. The event takes place Dec. 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. and will be headlined by a heavyweight showdown between Alistair Overeem and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
The 32-year-old Calvillo talks about how the foot injury that forced her out of a fight at UFC Sacramento has healed up, being a little bummed that originally scheduled opponent Claudia Gadelha was forced out of the Dec. 7 fight with an injury of her own, being impressed with Rodriguez while also believing she has yet to face a fighter with the overall skill set and athleticism Calvillo possesses, why she believes in Daniel Cormier’s famous quote that there are “levels to this s**t” in MMA, how she sees the fight playing out, being married in her “past life” at 19 years old, her thoughts on Paige VanZant having one fight left on her deal and whether or not the UFC should re-sign her, and much more.
In addition, Calvillo also discusses her recent trip to Phuket, Thailand to train with the Tiger Muai Thai team and how that experience helped her overcome a tough bout with anxiety after leaving Team Alpha Male earlier in the year.
“It’s life changing. I really do feel like it does a lot for you and it helped me out a lot,” Calvillo told MyMMANews.com of her trip to Thailand. “It was so weird, I was struggling a lot while I was out here and even with the changes that were going with my training camp and gyms and stuff, and just life. I had really bad anxiety — like really, really bad anxiety. I just couldn’t shake it. I couldn’t figure it out and I was trying different things. I was going to therapy… different types, I was seeing a counselor, a sports therapist and [doing] different things. Nothing really helped me out until I went to Thailand and I stayed over there. I just kind of forced myself to slow it down. It taught me how to really let go of a lot of things and not carry a lot of things. Just worry about the present time and it’s the only thing that’s helped me. Sometimes I think they tell you the things you should practice and how you should be, but nothing really worked like that did.
“I think sometimes I’ve always kind of struggled with anxiety, but I’ve always thought training and fighting would calm me down and keep it in tact. But once it starts going into work, like if I have issues when I’m training, then the anxiety pops up more. When I go to the gym and train, I can deal with it. But when it’s mixing up together, that’s when I was having a tough time with it this year and last year with all of the things going on with the team. It was definitely effecting me, but this trip helped me out a ton to be able to deal with those things.”
Check out the full interview with Cynthia Calvillo as she looks to make it three straight wins at UFC on ESPN 7 when she takes on Marina Rodriguez in the video above.
