Athletes
Jaqueline Amorim Tired Of Seeing Red
Brazilian Strawweight Discusses Camp Change, Focus On Details
Back in October, Jaqueline Amorim rolled into Abu Dhabi on a high, riding a four-fight winning streak into her UFC 321 matchup with returning Japanese veteran Mizuki.
After dropping her promotional debut, the Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, who earned podium finishes at both the Mundials and No-Gi World Championships during her time competing on the mats, had maintained her 100-percent finishing rate with stoppage wins over Montserrat Ruiz, Cory McKenna, Vanessa Demopolous, and Polyana Viana, setting herself up on the doorstep of the Top 15 in the strawweight division. With another victory, there was a strong possibility that Amorim would earn a place in the rankings, or at the very least assure herself an opportunity to fight someone with a number next to their name the next time out, but Mizuki had other plans.
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“I don’t like to lose, nobody does —it sucks — but I think sometimes you need it; it motivates me more to open my eyes to things I need to grow my game as an MMA fighter,” Amorim said. “I think it helped me a lot to come back to the gym, come back to the drawing board, and really work on my craft; things that I thought I knew, but need to develop more to be a better fighter, better at imposing my game.”
For the dangerous finisher, it was a reminder of a lesson countless jiu-jitsu standouts have been forced to —pardon the pun —grapple with when making the transition to MMA, which is that shifting sports means starting over as a white belt, and just as it took a great deal of time and effort to earn a black belt in jiu-jitsu, it does in MMA too.
Jaqueline Amorim Fight Week Interview | UFC Macau
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Jaqueline Amorim Fight Week Interview | UFC Macau
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“That’s what I tell my coach!” Amorim said with a laugh. “(I tell him) ‘In MMA, I feel like I’m a blue belt!’ I haven’t reached my black belt level yet, but that’s why we’re working. It’s just step-by-step.”
In the wake of her loss to Mizuki last October, Amorim took more time off than normal in order to deal with some lingering injuries and analyze her training situation. During that time, she opted to switch gyms, shifting from American Top Team to working with Roger Krahl and Troy Worthen at MMA Science Academy in Sunrise, Florida.
For Amorim, the decision centered on getting more individual attention and greater attention to detail, which she felt were necessary to help her advance her game.
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“I always wanted a camp that was smaller, that way it can be more focused on you,” Amorim said. “I know it sounds selfish, but I believe when you compete at the highest level, you need to be, you need that kind of attention.
“I felt like I needed something more specific for me, the areas where I need to grow, and I think Coach Roger and Troy have been doing an amazing job with me on the areas that I need to develop. They’re putting in the work, and it’s really nice to know you have a team who is there with you every day — that believes you can get better, that believes you can be a champion; I think that makes a lot of difference. That’s the main reason that I changed is I wanted a more personal, more caring camp this time.
“At ATT, I did grow a lot,” continued Amorim, making sure to give credit to her former team. “I spent three years or so there, and in the beginning, it was amazing: amazing gym, big, a lot of different bodies, different athletes that helped me a lot, but I felt like I reached a point of my career where I wanted something more specific.”
And that’s exactly what she feels she got from her new team, which has her itching to get back into the Octagon this weekend.
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“On this camp, I feel like we’re more focused on the details instead of just push and push and push,” she explained. “We trained smarter this time, instead of harder. I still trained hard, but smarter on the things I actually need to improve on. There were more details, like ‘let’s work on your strikes that help with your jiu jitsu transitions, that will also help with your takedowns.’
“I think that was the most different — the details,” Amorim added. “I’m very excited to show (how much I’ve improved) because I finally understand ‘this is the camp I wanna do, this is the athlete that I wanna be.’ This was a big difference for me.”
The standout grappler is also excited by the old-school clash of styles at play between her and Loma Lookboonmee.
“It’s exciting because she’s a Muay Thai world champion and I’m sure she wants to keep the fight on the feet; that’s where she feels comfortable,” Amorim said. “My game is the ground game, so it’s a different style, and it’s no secret what we want to do in this fight.
“I do believe that just like me, she has been rounding out her game really well, and I’m not expecting it to be an easy fight. I believe she has been training since she was a kid, and she’s also coming from a loss, so I think we’re both so hungry to get in the win column that we’re gonna give our best to get the win, impose their game.”
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Like Amorim, Lookboonmee had also won four straight contests heading into her most recent appearance, with her run of success earning her a place in the lower third of the strawweight rankings. But after dropping a unanimous decision to rookie standout Alexia Thainara last September, the UFC’s first and only fighter from Thailand slipped from the Top 15 and returns this weekend with designs on working her way back.
But not if Amorim has anything to say about it.
“Of course, I’m gonna try to impose my grappling over her striking and finish the fight, but we’re prepared for anything,” she said with a smile. “I know she’s not gotta be an easy fight, but we’re ready.”
More than anything, after enjoying an extended run of success that had her on the cusp of breaking into the rankings and a longer-than-normal layoff between bout, Amorim is ready to get back into the win column so that she no longer gets a sour taste in her mouth whenever she looks up her record online.
“It’s gonna feel amazing!” she said when asked about leaving Macau with a victory. “I can’t wait to get back in the win column. I don’t like this red thing at the top of my Tapology!”
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