Julia Polastri Goes 'Psycho'

The path to get here wasn’t a simple one, though. After a dominant run that saw her crowned the Shooto Brazil strawweight champion, Polastri came out on the wrong side of the scorecards in her first invitation to DWCS back in 2021. Her opponent that night, Jasmine Jasudavicius, would go on to the UFC. Polastri would go back to the drawing board and back to her winning ways. 

Under the LFA banner, Polastri turned in back-to-back devastating finishes: a TKO and an arm triangle submission. Contender Series rang again. The opportunity was there—possibly for the last time—and she wasn’t about to let it slip away.

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It was a truly incredible bout while it lasted, with Polastri and her opponent, Patricia Alujas, going nearly shot-for-shot throughout the first round for a staggering 291 total strikes combined. When the horn sounded, Dana White himself was on his feet and clapping. Someone was clearly going home with a contract that night, but Polastri was down on two of the judges’ scorecards.

Seemingly sensing as much, Polastri responded in kind, body-slamming her opponent to the canvas Jessica Andrade-style and giving her four minutes of one-way traffic that culminated in a rear naked choke with less than a minute to go in the second round. White congratulated her that night as she left the Octagon, and a short while later, she was the newest member of the UFC strawweight ranks. 

All the winners on the Tuesday night institution are celebratory, but it was hard to remember one as happy as the Brazilian was that night. Even as she recalls it now, she smiles as all the good feelings seem to return to her.

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“Brilliant, you know? Like, there was a glow on me, and I was radiant. I don't know if I'm saying it right, but it was like, I felt something…around me. I was just so happy and so excited and just wanting to do this again.”

After some fits and starts and cancellations, she’ll get to do it again this Saturday when she takes on Josefine Knutsson. Another alumna of DWCS, Knutsson already has a UFC win under her belt and will be putting her undefeated record on the line. In short, two fighters in a very similar position in their careers will enter the cage looking to make a statement.

“We are doing our best and we are trying to really prove ourselves, so the fight gets more exciting. I know that we are both gonna leave everything in the Octagon, and I think that is more exciting for the people that's watching and for the boss,” she smiles. “I’m excited for this.”

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It might be a cliché these days to call a fighter “well-rounded,” but it’s hard to find a better descriptor when you’re discussing the 12-3 Polastri, a self-described striker who has nearly as many submission finishes as she does knockouts, and wields wrestling and jiu-jitsu as easily as she does her Muay Thai base. It’s this power—antithetical to her cheery disposition—that led to her nickname.