Tampa — Many fighters would take it as a source of pride to be the first to defeat an unbeaten opponent, but not UFC Tampa’s Piera Rodriguez. Certainly not in the case of Josefine Knutsson.
“I don’t feel any kind of pleasure by taking anybody’s record down, and less with this fight because she’s my friend,” Rodriguez (10-2) told Cageside Press and other media outlets backstage at the Amalie Arena in Tampa following the fight. Piera claimed a decision win in a bloody, active affair on the night’s preliminary card. “For the people that don’t know, I worked with Josefine like two years ago. I went to her gym because I didn’t have a visa to come to the U.S. So I’m very, very grateful to Josefine and her team, because they let me sleep in the gym. They gave me a room there.”
“It was actually hard for me to take the undefeated record from her, but I know how this business is, and it was her or me. I was two losses down, so I couldn’t go home with a loss again,” added Rodriguez, now 3-2 in the UFC.
What Piera Rodriguez does take pleasure in is representing her home country of Venezuela. Several hours prior to her fight, Rodriguez had posted a message to her fans back home, thanking them for their support.
“It’s very special for me to represent Venezuela, because we’ve been going through a lot, and I feel we need some help from the other countries, we need some help from the world. At least from other countries to see what is happening in my country. It’s important for me. So every time I can put my flag on and I can lift it up, it’s a very special moment for me.”
Watch the full UFC Tampa post-fight press conference with Piera Rodriguez above.
