Athletes
Carli Judice | Stay ‘Crispy’
Rising Flyweight Has Found Her Form In The Octagon, And Plans To Climb The Division, Step-By-Step, Just By Being Herself.
Carli Judice is hitting her best form and is excited to keep things rolling as she looks to continue her rise up the women’s flyweight division.
Former Contender Series graduate Judice is set for action at UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Rodrigues on Saturday night as she looks to build on her three-fight win streak.
Judice sat down with UFC.com ahead of her upcoming fight with Jeisla Chaves and spoke of her contentment and gratitude.
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“Every time it's so exciting, and it's so surreal that this is my life and that this is where I am in the UFC, and that I've earned all of this, and I get to do it with people I love alongside me. I'm grateful for the life that I get to live and the things that I get to do, and the opportunities that I get.”
Carli Judice: 'I Need To Keep Living Up To My Nickname' | UFC Sacramento
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Carli Judice: 'I Need To Keep Living Up To My Nickname' | UFC Sacramento
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Judice’s path into the UFC was an unusual one. She actually lost out on Dana White’s Contender Series as Ernesta Karackaite edged her out via split decision. However, Judice’s performance in defeat earned her a contract offer from White as she made it to the big time, despite her defeat.
Her first fight in the UFC was equally frustrating, as she lost another split decision, this time to Gabriella Fernandes. But, once again, the cloud had a silver lining, with the award of a Fight of the Night bonus cushioning the blow of defeat. Since those two defeats, Judice has been in outstanding form, winning successive fights against Yuneisy Duben, Nicolle Caliari, and Juliana Miller, taking her into this weekend’s event in top shape.
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It’s been quite the run for Judice, who got her Contender Series shot in only her fourth pro fight and took advantage of her opportunity to earn her spot on the big stage at an unusually early stage in her career.
“Yeah, it's crazy to look back on,” she said. “I was only three pro fights in when I got the Contender Series call, and now I'm almost five fights in UFC, three wins in a row, and it's crazy. It's crazy to look back on.
“It's hard to take a second and look back and tell myself how proud I am of myself. But when I do get to do that, it really feels like a soft spot in me. It means so much that I was able to accomplish things that I did with my coaches, [who] helped me get there and everything. So yeah, life is so different. It's crazy that I get these opportunities, and hopefully I continue to build on my career and my skills and be at the top one day.”
Saturday night sees Judice take on undefeated Brazilian Jeisla Chaves. The presence of a zero in her opponent’s loss column doesn’t concern Judice, however. She’s learned from her own experience that records alone aren’t a reliable guide.
“As far as her being undefeated, I've gotten a lot of questions about that,” she said. “I’m not really worried about that. I know better than to base people off of records. Yuneisy Duben, when I fought her, she was 6-0, coming off a huge Contender Series knockout, the biggest hype ever around her. That never scared me for one second. Same thing with this girl. 8-0. It doesn't matter.
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“I'm 6-2. I lost my first two fights in the Contender Series and the UFC, so I know better than to judge records. It's all about who's going to show up on fight night, and who has the skill, not who has a better record.”
Judice and Chaves have Duben as a common opponent. But while Judice scored a first-round head-kick KO, Chaves went all the way to the scorecards to earn a unanimous decision. Judice admitted she wasn’t too enamored with what she saw from Chaves in that bout, and that, coupled with her own decisive win over Duben, only gives her more confidence heading into this weekend’s bout.
“Her match against Duben didn't really impress me much,” she said. “There wasn't anything that she did that outdid Duben, and I was able to handle Duben in the way that I did. So I'm excited.
“Nothing scares me about that. Watching that fight when I did, I remember watching it, and then a few weeks later, we got the call to fight her, and I remember watching that fight, and I wasn't worried about it. Obviously, this is fighting. Anything can happen. You’ve got to be ready, got to prepare for everything, no matter what I think. But I'm definitely excited for this matchup.”
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Judice is rightly proud of the journey she’s had so far, but there’s still more headroom to go before she reaches her ceiling in this sport. And the native of Lafayette, Louisiana, said that she wants to continue improving, fight to fight, until she’s at the top of the division.
“I need to keep being clean and crispy. I need to keep living up to my nickname,” she said.“I'm sure they want to see knockouts, but I need to work my way up the ladder. I'm not rushing it – I'm still young in my career [and] I still have so much to learn as far as experiencing cage time. So, I'll take it slow if the UFC wants it. If they want to give me ranked opponents, I'll take that, also. So whatever route they want to take. But I'm definitely not like, ‘Give me top five now!’ I'll build my career slowly if that means I get to stay longer in the end, and really build that experience and the pressure, and all of that.
“I want to make sure I'm ready for the moment when it comes. But I do believe that I am top five, world champion material. But you know, the longer it takes to get there, the more work that I get, and the more skills that I can build for when that moment comes.”
Judice hopes that moment will come early against Chaves in Sacramento on Saturday night, with “Crispy” looking to further enhance her record with a swift victory against the unbeaten Brazilian to nudge her further up the women’s flyweight ladder.
“In a perfect world, I would love it to be a quick finish,” she said.
“But I know I do best when I'm calm, and I'm patient. Just like in the fight in New Orleans, I was calm. I waited for the moment, and when it arose, I executed. So, perfect world, I just execute. I execute being crispy. I execute our game plan. I execute having fun, and just doing everything we've worked on, and living in the moment because I love to be in that cage when I'm not overthinking.
“So, as long as I'm not overthinking, it's going to be a bad night for whoever's in front of me.”
UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Rodrigues took place live from Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California on August 22, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!