Bellator 266 flyweight Alejandra Lara always seems to be upbeat. Even in training camp, grinding away, she comes off as happy.
“I always try to enjoy what I’m doing. I think it’s not about suffering. The opposite. Right now I feel more prepared than ever, in every sense,” Lara told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of her next fight, going on to add that “I feel this is my best camp til now.”
Lara (9-4) is 2-1 across her last three fights, but will be looking to bounce back from a loss to Kana Watanabe when she enters the cage this weekend. Opposite her will be Invicta FC and TUF veteran DeAnna Bennett.
It’s a match-up Lara, a former title challenger at flyweight, is very happy with. “I think it’s great for me right now, because I feel I have the space to work with my striking, but also to defend and to go with my game,” she said. “I feel it’s a very good match, because she’s a very known, name fighter. She’s looking for that position in the top, and I’m not going to let her take it.”
People often forget just how green Lara was when she arrived in Bellator, and how quickly she shot to the top. That’s something she addressed, noting that it wasn’t just the years, but the mileage. Or lack thereof.
“It’s not just, I was young. I didn’t have that experience compared to the people I had to fight with.” Fighting in Colombia and Mexico didn’t really prepare her for entering Bellator, Lara stated. “I started, I say, with nothing. In a way, I started developing my style and knowing myself in the game [in Bellator]. Now, in every fight, you can see the difference, the advances. I feel maybe the last fight was the only one where I couldn’t show my development and improvements.”
But that said, Lara added that she’s a completely different fighter now.
Bellator 266 takes place this Saturday, September 18 at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA. Alejandra Lara vs. DeAnna Bennett goes down on the main card, airing live on Showtime in the U.S. Watch our full interview with Lara above!
For still more from Alejandra Lara, here Bellator 266 media day scrum is below!
