Canadian women’s flyweight Jasmine Jasudavicius is 2-0 in 2023 and coming off a dominant win over Miranda Maverick that briefly had her ranked in the top 15.
Now, Jasudavicius looks to add a third win against her biggest name yet, Tracy Cortez, at Noche UFC in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend.
It’s nearly impossible not to talk about this opportunity for the Southern-Ontario native without looking back to that last fight, at UFC 289 in Vancouver. Canadians swept the board that night, the first UFC event in the country since 2019.
“Man that was incredible. I can’t even put it into words,” Jasudavicius (9-2) told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “It was like the perfect situation, the perfect story. You could feel the energy as soon as you got into the fighter hotel. All the pieces fell into place and it was an amazing entire trip.”
As for that flirtation with the rankings, it wasn’t too much of a tease for Jasudavicius. “No, I don’t even notice that stuff at all. I’ve got a fight coming up, I’m not like ‘aww I’m not in that,'” she stated. “I don’t really care.”
Of late, Jasudavicius has employed a #stayvicious hashtag on social media, which leads to questions about adopting a nickname. To date, the 34-year old has not employed one, but that could soon change.
“You know what, everyone is kind of talking about a fight name for me, and I feel like something will just keep catching,” she noted. “Vicious kind of is coming along, but we’ll see, I don’t know. I think that’s the best part about a fight name, is that it just comes organically.”
Jasmine “Vicious” Jasudavicius certainly has a nice ring to it, in any case. As for Jasudavicius’ favorite nickname in fighting, that goes to Dustin “Diamond” Poirier. “I like that. Pressure makes diamonds — I like that nickname.”
Noche UFC arrives this Saturday, with the card taking several hits in the weeks ahead of the event. No fewer than eight fighters have pulled out from the card for a multitude of reasons, but Jasudavicius isn’t dwelling on the possibility of her own fight with Cortez falling through.
“It’s kind of always in the back of your head. Injuries happen, everyone’s training hard. Injuries happen, things happen, but I don’t know, I’m not like overly worried about it. If she pulls out, chances are somebody will jump in.”
When it comes to Tracy Cortez, Jasudavicius believes that “she’s a solid chick, well-coached.” Ultimately, however, Jasmine and her team have focused on her own abilities. “We’re preparing just like every other fight. We’re sharpening all my tools, and just going in there with the game plan to beat her up.”
With Cortez out just over a year, there’s a question as to how much emphasis can be put on her last performance. Not to mention, as Jasudavicius herself pointed out, “she only fights really once a year.”
For this fight camp, Jasmine Jasudavicius opted to prepare entirely at home — a change in approach, after cross-training in the U.S. for previous fights. That goes back to that “perfect situation” in Vancouver in June, which appears to have sparked a resurgence in Canadian MMA.
“After the UFC came to Vancouver, I feel like it really surged the MMA [scene] in Canada,” Jasudavicius told us. “Since after that fight I’ve had tons of people one, either pulling up their socks if they were kind of on the fence, dedicated. So they’re more in the gym, they’re more consistent, everything like that. And then two, people that are just within my community, say within two, three hours drive kind of like reaching out, and like ‘hey I can help you out with this, you’re welcome to come spar here.”
Seeing that sort of response, “I feel like Canada’s really banded together,” she continued. “I have amazing training partners, it’s very nice to be at home and be able to be comfortable at home, sleeping in my own bed but still get that hard work from people that I don’t really know, and I get those nerves and everything.” With that in mind, “it just made sense” to have her fight camp at home.
And should the UFC return, say to Toronto, which is among the rumored locations for the next Canadian stop? “I think if they come to Toronto, it would be nuts!”
Watch our full interview with Noche UFC flyweight Jasmine Jasudavicius above.
