Flyweight Vega Arteaga heads to Japan for this weekend’s Bellator x RIZIN card at the Saitama Super Arena — a location she’d always hoped to fight in some day, though she wasn’t sure the opportunity would ever come.
“Yes and no,” Arteaga (7-5) told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview, asked whether she knew she’d be destined to fight in Japan at some point in her career. “I was like, ‘oh that would be so cool if I was to fight in Japan one day,’ and then the opportunity came to me— I was like ‘okay, this is great, this is real. Now let’s go!’ So I’m excited to go out there. Not only to go to Japan, but to compete in Japan.”
Japanese fans are a vastly different crowd in comparison to some of the more rowdy fight fans globally. Respectful of the athletes, and with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the martial arts, including the ground game. There’s no “you’re gonna die!” chants in Japan.
“I feel like they’re probably going to love me out there, but who knows,” Arteaga told us. Used to heading into enemy territory, however, Arteaga doesn’t expect to be bothered either way.
A former title challenger, Arteaga saw a two-fight win streak snapped in her last outing when she dropped a decision against Hawaii’s Sumiko Inaba.
“It’s so cliche to say you learn from your losses, but at the same time I feel like cliche things have truth behind them, and that’s what it is,” Arteaga said when asked what she had taken away from that fight. “I had to learn, it just didn’t go my way, that’s okay, and what do I need to do to improve as an athlete and as an individual.”
“And so I definitely have been training hard, but that’s never stopped me before. I’m training hard, consistently, and that night just wasn’t my night. I have to learn how to lose with grace, and that’s what it is. I’m like ‘hey, this sucks’ but now I gotta move on and pick up the pieces. I’m ready, I’m excited, I’m ready to go out there and fight Kana [Watanabe]. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Losing with grace is something Arteaga has grown into over the years. “Yes, and I think that’s also what a champion is. You have things, somethings they’re not easy, you have to overcome adversity, you have to learn to adapt and to respond to those emotions, and the situation. Every fight I’ve always matured and grown as an athlete, as like ‘hey, this is what it is,’ and now how do you move on in it? Not necessarily dwell on it.”
Losses, after all, “are part of the sport. And you’ve got to learn that. The mindset,” she added.
Against Watanabe, ranked #3 in the division, “I see myself coming out victorious,” said Arteaga. “I see myself being me, and going in there, putting the pressure on, using my strengths. I’ve also built off of my weaknesses. I consider myself a well-rounded fighter, I’ve prepared for everything, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t aggressive, because that’s just my type of fighting style.”
“I see me being victorious, but going in there and showing that I belong in the top 5.”
As for that ranking — Arteaga currently holds the #7 spot in the weight class — “rankings matter but they also don’t matter,” Arteaga suggested “It’s really tough. I feel like this win will put me closer to where I need to be, and that’s one step closer to the title shot considering she is ranked above me.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator x RIZIN flyweight Veta Arteaga above. The event takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan on July 29, 2023 (July 30 locally).
