Hilarie Rose (4-1) will face Cheyanne Buys (4-1) in a strawweight bout on August 18 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada at Dana White’s Contender Series.
Ahead of the fight, Rose explained that she has known about this Contender Series opportunity for quite some time now.“I have actually known since end of February or early March, so I have known for a really long time and I’ve had to keep it in and not share. There were some people who knew and some who didn’t so when I could officially share and announce it was really exciting and I was anticipating that day.”
Rose is on a four fight win streak since being finished in her professional debut in 2018. She trains at a couple of different gyms including USMMA, Lauzon’s MMA and Skill of Strength. The New England based fighter describes the change in her game and how she has been able to turn the corner as a mixed martial artist. “Losing that pro debut really set a fire under my ass and my goal is to make it to the UFC and eventually become a champion and be in the top 10. I think losing really lit that fire and I was dedicated and wanted to absorb and learn,” she said. “I am also a coach of young kids and being able to mentor them and show them that loss is okay and you can come back and be strong was a big thing to so I had all of them pushing me to come back and be better.”
Hilarie Rose shed some light on what her training has been like during the pandemic. Thankfully she has been able to stay active and take everything in stride. “Lucky for me I have been training at USMMA since I was 14 years old so I’ve grown up there I’ve had the same coaches from the very start,” she explained. “There’s apartments there so I live there and I’m an instructor there so I’ve had that advantage of being able to use the gym and have a small group of people that would come in, and like I said, I thought I was fighting in July so I’ve already been training hard core in small groups.”
Now, Rose will focus on the last two weeks before the most important fight of her career thus far. She’s expecting a game opponent, but a win is all that’s on her mind.
“I think that I’m definitely more fast twitch. She is very tough. She’s not afraid to throw, she knows she is gonna go in there and get hit and hit me. I am expecting that if it ends up on the ground that my grappling is going to be much better then hers.” Rose went on to predict a submission win come fight night. “I think I could definitely get a submission victory and that’s what others seem to think too. I envision my fights all the time and I can’t seem to envision how this fight is going to go but I can envision my hand being raised.”
Watch our full interview with Hilarie Rose below! Rose debuts on Dana White’s Contender Series on August 18 at the UFC Apex.
