Elise Reed does not have any regrets about her UFC debut.
Reed (4-1) returns for her second UFC appearance this weekend at UFC London. She faces a returning Cory McKenna in front of her home crowd.
Reed also returns to her normal weight class – strawweight. In her UFC debut, she fought up a weight class against Sijara Eubanks, who has fought at bantamweight several times. Reed’s UFC debut did not go as planned as she was thoroughly dominated and eventually finished in the first round.
Reed didn’t have any regret about taking the Eubanks fight.
“Ah, so I lost once in my amateur career, and I remember being really hard on myself, really upset, frustrated. You can get in a place where it’s not the best mentally like I wanted to give up pretty much when I lost during my amateur career,” Reed told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview. “This fight [with Eubanks], as much as it is probably a meme somewhere. I know that I was tagged on Reddit a few times. For one, I had no idea how it looked. I felt fine. I had broken my face in another fight and didn’t even know it.”
“It’s a weird thing. I mean, I think it’s probably the craziest thing I’ve done martial arts-wise. There’s a reason why nobody else accepted that fight on three weeks’ notice. And I can tell you right now to put in perspective; I am sitting heavier right now than I did when I stepped into the cage with Sijara. So, I will never be a 125er; I wouldn’t say I regret anything. Because at this point now, there’s very little that I should be afraid of in the cage.”
Reed added, “She said after the fight that she’s walking around at 141, that is 20 plus pounds on me in the cage. I was against the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt ranked bantamweight. I mean, like, what else does anybody have? So, my coach and I were talking about it. He’s like, ‘you got some brass balls.'”
The former CFFC strawweight champion is looking to reintroduce herself to the UFC audience this weekend.
“I probably won and lost some fans with the Sijara fight. But I think this will be a fight where I can really showcase what I am and why I’m in the UFC. I’m excited. I really am excited. I’ve been working on strength conditioning and getting myself to where I’m a solid 115. Because, as you know, I was a 105 fighter for a long time. So, I’m excited. I’m excited to showcase the skills that I can bring to the 115 division,” Reed said.
Watch the rest of our interview with Elise Reed above. Reed vs. McKenna goes down tomorrow at UFC London on ESPN +.
