As has become the norm for Lupita Godinez, she’s making a quick turnaround to fight at UFC Vegas 73 this weekend.
“Loopy” Godinez, in that sense, has more than lived up to her name. Soon after joining the UFC in 2021, the Mexican strawweight, fighting out of Canada, captured the modern-day UFC records for fastest turnaround, and shortest span between three fights.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Godinez answered another call from the UFC, offering the ex-LFA strawweight champ a fight with her Invicta FC counterpart, Emily Ducote.
“I had just finished training. strength and conditioning. And I seen the message. I didn’t even tell anybody, and then my head was saying no, but my hand was already typing yes, and sent it,” Godinez (9-3) recalled during Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 73 media day.
Godinez then informed her coach that she’d taken another short-notice fight. It doesn’t seem as if the news came as much of a shock. “He knows me.”
And so Loopy Godinez put plans on staging her next fight camp alongside Alexa Grasso on hold. “I wasn’t planning on fighting too soon, because my next camp, I wanted to do it in Mexico with Team Grasso,” Godinez noted. “So I was like, ‘okay, Lupita, let’s do a full camp with a new team and a new coach and everything, and go from there.’ But this opportunity came, and I love fighting, and I was training already, so hard.”
Lupita had actually been hoping for a short-notice fight in Vancouver, at UFC 289 on June 10. A dual citizen of Canada and Mexico, that would have had her fighting at home in British Columbia. Instead, she heads into action a few weeks early in a fight against an opponent she’s called for in the past.
“I’m excited for this match-up,” said Godinez. “I did ask for her before, but she was already matched or I was already matched. It didn’t happen for whatever reason. So as soon as they gave me her name, I was already familiar with her, and I was like ‘yeah. let’s do it.'”
At 3-1 in her last four fights and coming off a win over Cynthia Calvillo, Godinez could inch closer to a ranking with a win on Saturday.
Watch the full UFC Vegas 73 media day appearance by Lupita Godinez above.
