Newark, NJ – UFC strawweight Virna Jandiroba scored the biggest win of her career when she defeated Marina Rodriguez at UFC 288 on Saturday night.
“I believe I had a lot of very important wins, but ranking-wise, worldwide-wise, there is no denying this is the biggest one,” Jandiroba told Cageside Press among other media through a translator at her post-fight scrum on Saturday.
Jandiroba (19-3) had to overcome not only Rodriguez’s game, but her own in a way. In her past fights Jandiroba has been known to take a round off if she’s likely up 2-0.
“As good as Marina is, and she is awesome, my biggest fear and the biggest thing that I had to overcome there was to make sure that I wouldn’t self-sabotage myself in the third round,” she said.
“It’s just like, ‘you already won two, don’t f*ck it up, just do it properly’.”
It’s a mistake that Jandiroba said she’s made before. For her it’s not just her opponent in the cage with her.
“I’m usually fighting my opponent (and) about three other people in my head. They’re pretty tough,” she said.
Without a callout or any solid plans for herself moving forward Jandiroba did offer to step into a title shot with champion Zhang Weili who currently has no opponent set up. It would be a massive opportunity for the Brazilian.
“If they need someone for Weili I don’t have anything better to do so I’m up for it. Only got seven days (medical suspension) from the commission so I’ll be good to go very quickly,” she said.
“Weili is so talented and she seems so strong. She competed against a lot of grapplers, but we all have our unique styles and if I fight her I would have to be like water. Find the small holes in her game, find my way in, and go for there.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Virna Jandiroba above.
