Mallory Martin Discusses Hannah Cifers bout at UFC Fight Night
Mallory Martin competes against Hannah Cifers at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs Rakic. It goes Saturday, August 29th at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martin understands what her opponent brings to the table and is optimally prepared for this moment.
“She’s fought top, tough competitors. She’s fought some big names. So that’s obviously a plus. I think I’m gonna have ana advantage in just fight IQ. I expect she’s gonna come out fast. She kind of slows down in the later rounds so I expect her to kind of blitz forward, come out fast, and then kind of die-off. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to go out there, play my game, and do as I’m trained. So I’m excited.”
The last fight for Mallory Martin was a UFC loss. She was defeated by Virna Jandiroba via second-round rear-naked choke in December of last year. Martin learned about being more patient and more calculated with her aggression/ implementation of her strategy. She faced a lot of adversity but sees that experience as translating to long term gains.
This fight presents a chance for Martin to earn her first UFC win. The thought is a compelling one but Martin is looking to handle it with the same magnitude of seriousness that she’s shown to every career bout.
“I think after the fight after I win I’ll be like ‘oh shit, that’s cool’. Right now it’s nothing more than just a fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s for the UFC. It doesn’t matter if it was for Invicta. It’s still a fight. That’s how I kind of look at it going forward. So that I’m not making it a bigger deal than it is if that makes any sense.”
Mallory Martin
MMA training with the backdrop of a global pandemic has altered training for many but has largely not changed preparation methodology for Mallory Martin.
“For the most part, it’s been about the same. My gym they’ve made different accommodations for us. Where I do my strength and conditioning, Lando’s, they opened back up. So fighters are able to get in there and the training, we used to have it just like a whole team training. They’ve split it in two. Any fighter who’s 180 and below, they train at one o’clock now. Then the heavyweights, 185 and above, and the females train at two.”
Martin prefers the set up like this actually and values the individual attention that comes with it. It’s a great confluence of individual growth and building great relationships with the other martial artists among the team. “We have a huge girls team there. So right now it’s me, Shana (Dobson)… And then Montana (De La Rosa), she fights the week after me. So us three are in camp.”
Martin has also worked with Cynthia Calvillo at AKA in the past. She goes back and forth between California as well Colorado, working with AKA when in California and Elevation Fight Team while in Colorado.
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs Rakic
It marks almost exactly one year later in the UFC Apex for Mallory Martin after her Contender Series bout last year. Martin got a unanimous decision win over Micol di Segni on August 20th, 2019 her upcoming Cifers fight is August 29th.
“It’s cool. I didn’t really think about that until I think like a couple of days ago. Yeah, I think it’s cool you know. It didn’t really discourage me not getting the contract. Because I knew that’s where I belonged and I knew it was just a matter of time. When it came, it came, and now I’m here. Now I’m ready to perform, be ready for a full camp. Have a good performance and put on a good show.”
