Emily Ducote discusses her UFC Vegas 81 win over Ashley Yoder
Emily Ducote is back in the win column after a great performance at UFC Vegas 81.
Ducote first came into the UFC as a big signing after fighting for the flyweight title in Bellator and then winning the Invicta FC strawweight championship with a highlight reel knockout.
In her first UFC outing, Ducote looked great with a win over veteran and former title challenger Jessica Penne. That win would immediately put Ducote in official UFC strawweight rankings.
Interview with Emily Ducote below:
After being ranked, Ducote faced some great competition in her next two fights as she fought veteran Angela Hill and tough up-and-comer Loopy Godinez. In both of those fights, Ducote would wind up on the losing end of unanimous decisions.
While she was 1-2 in her first three UFC fights, Ducote never felt the pressure of needing a win in her final fight on her UFC contract. Instead, she knew deep down that she’s going to be in the UFC for a long time and just kept focusing on improving and correcting mistakes.
As always, Ducote travels to train in different places as a way of getting new looks and learning new things throughout her career.
This time, prior to UFC Vegas 81, Ducote sometime in Las Vegas training at the UFC Performance Institute and the world renown gym Xtreme Couture.
Both gyms were great with the UFC P.I. having all of the newest and best equipment around and Xtreme Couture a group of great women for Ducote to get rounds in with ahead of the fight.
That will to keep getter better really played out well for Ducote in her UFC Vegas 81 fight with Ashley Yoder, who is another veteran, who was returning to the octagon for the first time in two years.
Ducote was able to read all of Yoder’s moves and was able to land heavily strikes continuously throughout the course of their 15 minute contest.
Yoder was expected to have the better grappling, but Ducote constantly stuffed takedown attempts and then would batter Yoder with some shots in the process.
The win was clear cut in favor of Ducote and while the win felt great, the fact that her family and friends were attendance met the world to her as they had a great celebration after the fight.
Following her win, Ducote spoke with MyMMANews to discuss her preparation for the fight, her great performance, having her family at the fight and what’s next for her as she heads into 2024.
You can watch her full interview in the video above.
A full list of results from UFC Vegas 81 are listed below:
Edson Barboza defeated Sodiq Yusuff via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-46, 48-46)
Viviane Araujo defeated Jennifer Maia via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jonathan Martinez defeated Adrian Yanez via TKO (leg kicks) – Round 2, 2:26
Michel Pereira defeated Andre Petroski via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:06
Christian Rodriguez defeated Cameron Saaiman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Darren Elkins defeated T.J. Brown via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 2:23
Tainara Lisboa defeated Ravena Oliveira via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Terrance McKinney defeated Brendon Marotte via TKO (knee and punches) – Round 1, 0:20
Melissa Dixon defeated Irina Alekseeva via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Chris Gutierrez defeated Alatengheili via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Emily Ducote defeated Ashley Yoder via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
