Aspen Ladd says Saturday night at UFC DC wasn’t the first time her coaches have chewed her out during a fight.
Washington, D.C. — Aspen Ladd was in a very close fight with Yana Kunitskaya at UFC DC on Saturday night. Right up until the third, when between rounds, her coach gave her a little motivation.
Motivation is one way to put it. “My coach lit me up,” she admitted to reporters including Cageside Press following the bout at the Capital One Arena. “It was the third round of a very close fight. Like ‘you better frickin finish’ or come out hot basically. Come out, [step] on the gas. And I listened.”
That was the clean version of what was said, mind you. And listen she did. Ladd, who bounced back from her first career loss Saturday, put away Kunitskaya with a barrage of elbows and punches, improving to 9-1 in the process.
It’s not the first time she’s been on the receiving end of that sort of motivation. “If I was a little bit slow, as I was, and it’s going into the third round of a close fight, you’ll probably hear that every single time,” Ladd said.
Maybe even a little worse than Saturday. “I’ve been chewed out pretty good before. That one wasn’t… I mean, it was decent,” she added when asked about how Saturday’s pep talk compared to previous ones.
In any case, some tough talk got the desired result. Ladd is back in the win column, in her third fight of 2019. That’s a pace, she told Cageside Press, that she enjoys.
“Extremely. I think like three, four fights a year is great. Perfect,” she said. “It gives you time in between. I don’t get out of the gym and take a five year break. I go back, I get better, and I work on things. We work on it for just pure enjoyment. You’re not really preparing for an opponent, or dieting, or whatever. I’m getting better. So go back, get better, eventually get another name, and get back to it.”
Watch the full UFC DC post-fight press scrum with Aspen Ladd above!
