Cynthia Calvillo is not concerned about facing a striker, and is ready to deal with whatever plays out against Marina Rodriguez at UFC DC.
Washington, D.C. — While plenty of attention was paid to who Cynthia Calvillo (8-1) isn’t fighting this weekend — namely Paige VanZant — it’s important to remember that she has a very tough fight lined up against Marina Rodriguez in the UFC DC co-main event.
Welcome to Fight Week. Despite PVZ being nowhere near Washington, she was the name on everyone’s lips when it came to Calvillo. The pair are former roommates, former teammates, and Calvillo does not think highly of ’12 Gauge.’
So be it. The real focus should be on Marina Rodriguez, who has questioned whether Calvillo will want to engage with her Saturday.
“She’s not the first striker I’ve fought,” Calvillo told media outlets including Cageside Press at the UFC DC media day when the question arose. “The first one that I fought was Joanne Calderwood, and that was my last co-main event show. Actually most of the fight was standing. Not much of it was takedowns.”
Of course, you know what you get with any Team Alpha Male alum such as Calvillo. Her wrestling will be on point. But as she put it, “we’re just going to deal with how the fight plays out.”
To that point, Calvillo had yet to see her opponent. By Friday morning that had changed. Calvillo missed weight for Saturday’s scrap, by a full 4.5lbs. She gave up 30% of her purse, and the fight will go forward.
A day earlier, however, nothing seemed amiss. Calvillo addressed heading to Thailand to train with Master Thong, a coach and would-be corner who couldn’t make the trip to D.C. this week.
“He’s got his own gym over there in Bangkok. I was trying to bring him out here to be with me in my corner,” Calvillo said. “But unfortunately he didn’t get his visa approved. He’ll be there in spirit, who knows, maybe they’ll let him face time in the corner.”
“Thailand was a great experience,” she continued. “Originally it was only supposed to be about two weeks, and then it turned into nine weeks, because I really enjoyed the fight camp.”
The plenitude of training partners, and a strong coaching team, appealed to Calvillo. “Everything just kind of got put together, fell into place, and it was a good fight camp.”
Watch the full UFC DC media day press scrum with Cynthia Calvillo above!
