A lot has changed in regards to Jasmine Jasudavicius’ trip to Denver, Colorado as part of UFC on ESPN 59 this weekend.
Teammate Mike Malott is off the card. Her opponent has changed, from Viviane Araujo to Fatima Kline. Yet when we spoke to Jasudavicius several weeks back, she was stoked for the trip. It’s doubtful that has changed.
“I’m excited for it. I hear Denver’s super beautiful, and I’ve never been there. So I’m looking forward to checking it out,” Jasudavicius (10-3) told Cageside Press. “We’re going to go out like two weeks early to get used to the altitude and all that kind of stuff. I’m sure we’ll get in some hikes up in the mountains and all that. Looking forward to it for sure.”
Jasudavicius even ordered an elevation tent to prepare for fighting at altitude in Denver. “I haven’t yet slept in one, so we’ll see how it is.”
Her last fight, against Priscila Cachoeira at UFC 297 in Toronto, saw the bout bumped up an entire weight class due to her opponent struggling with weight. Jasudavicius proceeded to lay a beatdown on the Brazilian that at times felt as if she was a particularly nasty loan shark owed a very sizeable sum of money. In the end, she came away with a submission win, her first in the UFC. Cachoeira, if nothing else, proved she was tough, living up to her “Zombie Girl” nickname.
“That was wild. That was unbelievable. There was like a point in that fight where I was like, ‘this chick is the Zombie Girl,'” recalled Jasudavicius. “The first time, I did try to finish her, I actually tried to finish that choke. And then she kind of stopped moving a little bit, so then I’m like ‘oh it must not be in that much, she must be giving the thumb’s up to the ref.’ And then I readjusted, and was like ‘I guess I’ve just got to beat her up more and wear her down until the sub is there.'”
The sub came in the third, and Jasmine Jasudavicius couldn’t have been happier. “Finally getting that first finish in the UFC, getting that bonus, it was sick. Now I’m addicted, I want more.”
With teammate Aaron Jeffery fighting in Belfast for Bellator earlier this year, Jasudavicius decided to spend some time in the area. That led her to Dublin, where she did some training at SBG Ireland, excited to find some good coaching and female training partners. That in turn led her to make a return trip. “The coaching staff was very receptive to me, which I’m super thankful about, they helped me so much. Like I said, there was a ton of girls in the room, and it was really cool seeing Conor in the room, watching him, how he does it, how he trains. It’s very inspiring for me to see what he’s done in this sport, to be on the mats with him and to be able to that see it’s obtainable- very, very, very inspiring.”
Conor McGregor being the biggest star MMA has ever produced, there’s little doubt he’s inspiring to any number of fighters. Jasudavicius even got to catch UFC 300 with him at the Black Forge Inn, McGregor’s Dublin pub. A stroke of luck, as the Irish star is a busy man.
“He’s in there training, and then he’s out of there,” Jasudavicius said of the whirlwind that surrounds McGregor. “There are people always trying to take pictures with him, coming to the gym. I get why he has his own gym and why he just brings people there, brings the coaches there. It makes sense. He’s a superstar, right?”
Watch our full interview with UFC Denver’s Jasmine Jasudavicius above.
