Larkyn Dasch – “I’d like to show people that I’m not just the Hooters girl”
Larkyn Dasch has had quite the week. From going to a relatively unknown professional mixed martial artist with an 0-1 record, to the talk of the town after a photo was posted online of her signing her Bellator 222 fight contract while working at Hooters.
https://www.facebook.com/MyMMANews/photos/pb.279891985513407.-2207520000.1559892116./1297857953716800/?type=3&eid=ARCxLuls58HvdWE5t-Vro91lG35aTTqoY3VTYelZErx6oQ6RcOLm2g1R_b5dAyO3-PkmVcx4Fh4nK8pY
The Detroit, Michigan native now finds herself fighting at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Not only is she fighting on the biggest stage in the world, she’s coming in against a tough and highly promoted challenge in Valerie Loureda. She says that she was training and was on weight, so it was a ‘no brainer.’
“I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Dasch told MyMMANews.com today at the Bellator 222 media day at MSG. “I think once I get into the arena, with all the people, I think then it will hit me then. Wow! Like I’m actually here. But it really hasn’t hit me. It’s just another fight. But I try to treat every fight like that, just another opponent, just another fight, just gonna do the same thing I always do. Just come back with a win.”
Dasch addressed the fight announcement and how it all came to be.
“I guess my manager had put thought into it. I didn’t have any thought in it. I just had to get the contract signed. I was working doubles. I was at Hooters. I was like ‘sure, come here I’ll sign it.’ So, I signed it there. I guess, I didn’t expect it to be a lot of hype. I just… I didn’t think that that was going to happen.”
Since then, Dasch has seen in an increase in social media followings.
“I’ve had a lot of people reaching out to me, on different, Facebook, Snapchat, stuff like that. And, a lot of interviews. It’s awesome to have support. I think that if I can pull off this win like I expect to, then the support will grow a lot more. I’d like to show people that I’m not just the Hooters girl. I’ve been doing MMA for five years now. The Hooters thing is something I love to do on the side, just because I love to waitress. I think if I could make $200,000 a year, and I would still waitress. It’s fun. You get to talk to people, especially if you are training all day, and everything is ‘kill mode’, high intensity. It’s nice to be able to relax and talk to people and enjoy some time and get paid for it.”
When asked about her opponent, Dasch didn’t really know much about her, but was confident in her skills.
“My coaches watched extensive video. I don’t normally do a lot of research on my opponent. I had never heard of her, but I guess she has a lot of following, and hype, which that’s awesome, especially being younger. I think she doesn’t have as much experience as I do in the cage. This will be my 11th time in the cage. And obviously she hasn’t seen a war in her professional career. My last fight in April was all three rounds, battle, battle, battle. It was a really good opponent. And I think that is the one thing I have to take going into this fight, is that I went through a war for my first pro fight. I remember exactly what it was like… two months ago, to go through a war.”
