Las Vegas, NV — Polyana Viana had plenty to celebrate at UFC 258.
The strawweight submitted Mallory Martin within a round, earning her second consecutive win. She also picked up a Performance of the Night bonus for the arm-bar finish. And then Joe Rogan brought up a years-old story of Viana beating up a would-be mugger in her native Brazil.
The story is a little dated, to be sure. Viana, who started her UFC run at 1-3, is no doubt more focused on her improved fortunes of late. But she has no issue, it seems, still being associated with the incident, which saw her lay a beatdown on a man with a fake gun. “I’m proud of that. It’s not because I’m a fighter, it’s because I’m a woman,” Viana (12-4) told Cageside Press following her win on Saturday. “I’m proud because I’ve inspired other women to take self-defense. It shows that they don’t have to just be intimidated by a man, that they can actually do something about it.”
Speaking to media outlets in a post-fight press scrum, she later added that when it comes to self-defense, one old saying holds true. “It’s better to know and not use, than to not know and have to use.”
As to the fight with Martin, Viana was expecting more fisticuffs. “I thought that there was going to be more striking. I actually expected to knock her out,” she said. “That’s what I was going for. But I knew that I it could go to the ground too, I was ready for that. I just didn’t expect to submit [her] that fast.”
Moving forward, the Brazilian is hoping to stay active in 2021. “I would like to fight two or three times to compensate for last year, I only fought once,” Viana stated.
Watch the full UFC 258 post-fight press scrum with Polyana Viana above.
