Las Vegas, NV — After stumbling out of the gate against Sam Hughes in her promotional debut, Jaqueline Amorim picked up her first UFC win, and finish, at UFC Vegas 78 on Saturday.
Strawweight Amorim (7-1) pounded out Montserrat Ruiz in the third round of a fight she had absolutely dominated to that point, using superb grappling to put the fight out of reach before putting her opponent away.
“Today I finally got to show what I’m capable of inside the octagon,” Amorim told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight, backstage at the UFC Apex. “It’s just like, I have no words, just got a lot of feelings right now.”
Amorim knew there were things she needed to address after her loss to Hughes back in April. Plenty of areas where she could grow.
“Yes. After my UFC debut, I knew I had a lot of mistakes, so I came back to my team to correct some mistakes. I wanted to be dominant today, so I stepped inside the octagon with my mind, like— I wanted to be able to show dominance and that’s exactly what I did. I’m just happy.”
Fight camp leading into UFC Vegas 78 was not without its own obstacles, she later revealed.
“During this camp, I had a lot of tough moments that I was not believing in myself. I spent a week off of this fight camp, I was just so frustrated,” Amorim explained. “I had some injuries in the camp. There were days where I would just cry, the training wasn’t going well, I was down on myself, but thankfully I have a great team behind me. I put my mind in place, trust in the process, believe in myself. I just stepped into the octagon with my mind like, to show what I’m capable of.”
Moving forward, Amorim has a return date in mind. The UFC is rumored to head back to Brazil in November, and Amorim would like to be a part of that card.
“I know they’ll have UFC Brazil in November, so thank God I didn’t have any injuries. So if the UFC wants, I’ll be ready to fight in UFC Brazil in November. That’s one of my dreams, since I signed with the UFC, so if the UFC wants, I’ll be ready November to fight in the UFC in Brazil,” she stated. “I’ll be ready to fight in front of my fans, my family, my dad. Yeah.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 78 post-fight press conference with Jaqueline Amorim above.
