Athletes
Irina Alekseeva: ‘I Want To Be An Enigma’
UFC Bantamweight Irina Alekseeva Seeks A Dominant And Fast Finish In Her UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza Bout With Melissa Dixon.
Don’t be surprised if Iriana Alekseeva steals the show from her fellow combatants on the UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza card. The 33-year-old bantamweight known as the “Russian Ronda” brings a big smile, charisma, and unwavering confidence to the Octagon.
More importantly, Alekseeva raised quite a few eyebrows with her incredible performance in her UFC debut, where she submitted Stephanie Egger with a kneebar in just over two minutes. She promptly followed that up with a Billy Strut.
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That’s quite the first impression, and Alekseeva couldn’t be more excited to be back this weekend to follow up that win with another thrilling performance.
“It’s great to be back. Absolutely f****** great,” Alekseeva told UFC.com. “I’m very happy to again say hello to everybody in the UFC. I came here to divide and conquer. I will take everybody’s heads off.”
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Even though the fight itself went great, Alekseeva had a rough fight week in the lead-up to the bout with Egger. One of the main factors was that she struggled with the weight cut and missed the bantamweight limit by four pounds.
She’s confident that she made the necessary adjustments to make sure that the weight cut won’t be a factor this time around.
“Last time I felt by myself, alone. I didn’t have anybody behind me, and I was stressed because I had more weight on me than I needed to have,” Alekseeva said. “I didn’t know anybody around here. It was very different. This time around, I had much more time to spend at home, much more time to get where I need to be, and I have a team. I’ve already been here, so it feels more familiar.”
Irina Alekseeva Locks Up Kneebar Submission in UFC Debut | UFC Fight Night: Song vs Simon
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Irina Alekseeva Locks Up Kneebar Submission in UFC Debut | UFC Fight Night: Song vs Simon
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Alekseeva believes that familiarity will make sure that she doesn’t miss weight this time around. That was a big point of emphasis heading into her bout with Melissa Dixon.
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And although that she feels more comfortable heading into this weekend, she also feels more pressure.
“It's actually even more pressure now because last time I was here, yes, I won, but I won such a fast fight and in a dominant way, so I feel like people are now putting more pressure on me because they are expecting a crazy finish just like last time. I have to prove it to myself and to everybody else that I’m not a one trick pony. I’m here to win.”
Alekseeva hopes that her fight with Egger was so quick that her skills stayed a mystery and forced Dixon to grasp at straws when devising a gameplan. Revealing small wrinkles of her game while winning fights quickly is the goal for Alekseeva.
“I want to be an enigma. I want them to not learn anything about me. I want to win this fight real quick,” Alekseeva said. “I think they’ve learned nothing about me because everything was so quick. They haven’t seen me in my standup, they haven’t seen my kicks, they haven’t seen my wrestling. Nothing. The only thing they saw is that I can make a hell of a move and win the fight that way.”
With yet another thrilling fight-finishing sequence on Alekseeva’s mind, the only thing that she believes could make this bout with Dixon more satisfying than her debut win is to be even more dominant and finish the fight even faster.
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She’ll have 130 seconds on the clock to make it happen.
If things go the way Alekseeva envisions, she’ll certainly put herself on the map as one of the most interesting prospects in the bantamweight division.
UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 14, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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