“I really didn’t know what to expect. So much has changed since my last fight,” Cat Zingano said following a mostly dominant decision win over Gabby Holloway at Bellator 245.
Calling the fight a big one for Zingano might be an understatement. She’d been out over a year. Joining a new promotion, with heavy expectations placed upon her. “Alpha” looked strong in the fight, however, against a fighter who just would not be put away.
Still, Zingano (11-4) was not overly thrilled with her performance in the cage at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on Friday night. “I can see where I can do better, where I’m capable of doing better,” said Zingano. There were positional battles, places and positions she got stuck, noted Cat, where she can improve.
“It’s definitely not a perfect performance. I have a ton of things that I can do better. And I will,” Zingano promised.
Yet while it wasn’t the greatest performance of her life, it still paid off. “It’s only up from here,” she suggested. Now it’s a matter of taking the win home and improving on it.
Part of that is mental. Zingano has been through a lot — an extended layoff, the loss of her husband — over the years. “This is part of my therapy, this is part of how I get through my day-to-day and all the things that have happened,” she explained.
“I want to see things that scare the crap out of me, and then stomp them. It’s my way of coping with things that I have,” she continued, adding that fighting keeps her connected to things that are important to her.
Following her win at Bellator 245, Zingano expressed disappointment at not being able to finish the fight. But with some time to reflect, she agreed that perhaps it’s for the best.
“Now, I’m sitting here, I understand my cardio, I understand going against somebody who is dead set against you getting the completion. There’s a lot to be said about these five minute rounds, getting a minute in between, getting a pep talk and going back in,” she told Cageside Press. “I’m glad I got all fifteen minutes, I guess including the breaks I got seventeen.” All that meant that Zingano “got to shake off things, get the nerves, get hit, do some hitting, and come out with my hand raised.”
After her own win earlier in the night, fellow UFC alum Leslie Smith suggested a fight between the two would make sense. Zingano agrees. “Definitely. I’ve been watching her, and I know she’s been watching me for many years,” she said, noting that the pair had a number of commonalities. “I think it’d be really interesting to get in there against each other, and kind of figure out how that one would go.”
