Cat Zingano Believes She’s Much Better Than What UFC 184 Showed
Recent UFC women’s bantamweight title contender Cat Zingano received a ton of criticism for her brash strategy against Ronda Rousey in the main event of February 28’s UFC 184, where an early flying knee attempt resulted in “Rowdy” submitting her in just 14 seconds.
There were certainly a ton of fans and media who suggested that “Alpha” could have taken a more measured approach to attacking the dominant and undefeated champion; but appearing in her first interview since the fight on today’s (Mon., April 6, 2015) The MMA Hour, Zingano isn’t one of them. She still wouldn’t change a thing about how she approached the fight, regardless of the result:
“I wouldn’t change a thing about my approach,” Zingano said. “Had it been a couple inches in the other direction, it could have gone a completely different way.”
Indeed it could have, and it’s been repeatedly speculated that Zingano was looking to shake off the reputation of being a slow starter, something that arose from her two previous bouts against Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes. Zingano finished both fights after losing in the early going, so she admitted she was trying something different at UFC 184, and it ultimately lead to her undoing:
“That was probably my biggest mistake. Really thinking about doing it for other people vs. doing it for myself. As long as I stay true to myself in this sport and in my career, I am unstoppable. I felt like it was an unfair definition of me, I don’t think I’m a slow starter. For some reason, I let it get to me, so I was like, ‘okay, watch this.’ That kind of slapped me in the face. I was just, in retrospect its something I want to have a lot more control over and not let it get to my head.”
It seems like Zingano knows what she did wrong in getting ahead of herself and trying to prove to fans that she can win right out of the gate. That’s probably not the best course of action against a fighter like Rousey, who, with her Olympic-level judo background, can reverse her opponent’s momentum so quickly and turn it into a fight-ending hold at the drop of a hat.
Zingano knows that we obviously didn’t get to see her best performance on that evening, and it would probably play out differently were they to fight again:
“I think we know, our coaches knows, she knows, and the promotion knows 999 times out of a thousand that wouldn’t happen again. I think that sets us up for a really good fight, should they give us a rematch sometime soon. I’ll do whatever it takes to get to that point. It’s not a fluke, Ronda is very good and she caught that arm and that’s what happened. But, I’m a better athlete than what that showed of me and I want to fix it.”
In a division that is truly lacking top-flight title contenders, Zingano could definitely have her rematch with Rousey after one or two more high-quality wins. Does she deserve it?
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
