Athletes
Loopy Godinez | 'I Feel Like I Have Improved'
Strawweight Loopy Godinez Believes She Has Only Gotten Better As She Prepares To Face Jessica Andrade At UFC 319: Du Plessis vs Chimaev On August 16, 2025
Loopy Godinez has been here before.
The big fight, the big name, the opportunity to move from contender into the title conversation. Yet despite competitive fights with Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern, she fell short.
This Saturday, Godinez is in Chicago, fighting a big fight against a big name, this time with an opportunity to move from the number 11 spot in the strawweight top 15 to somewhere a lot higher should she beat former champion Jessica Andrade.
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Is this the one?
“This is the one,” said Godinez without hesitation. “This is the door that I need to open.”
As mentioned earlier, the Mexican contender has been close before, but now she’s really close, and she knows what’s at stake.
“Beating her, I think that will put me up there in the rankings,” she said. “I think this is just going to open a huge other level and opportunities for myself.”
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A member of the UFC roster for over four years, the Aguascalientes has always had that “it” factor that will serve her well once she gets into the title race, and in her most recent win over Julia Polastri in March, she dialed back that tendency to fight her opponent’s fight and stuck to her strengths in the Octagon. Expect more of the same this weekend and beyond.
“I have changed my training and it’s been really strategic,” Godinez said. “I feel like I have improved the area of my brain as an athlete, evolving to where I say, ‘Okay, you need to have a lot of aggression and be cold, but, at the same time, you do need a strategy to beat your opponents.’ I cannot fight this girl how I fought the last girl and how I fought the other girl; every girl needs her own strategy. That's what I have learned this past year.”
Loopy Godinez Submits Reed To Cap Off A Dominant Performance | Noche UFC
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Loopy Godinez Submits Reed To Cap Off A Dominant Performance | Noche UFC
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The past year has also seen her return to train full-time in her adopted home country of Canada after a stint of making the trip to Mexico for camps. She couldn’t be more content with this current situation.
“I'm really happy here, close to my family, and there's nothing better than just being around your family and feeling happy,” said Godinez, who admits that in fighting and in life, everything is finally clicking.
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“I've been working really hard,” she said. “I've been training a lot, training super hard. And I realized that getting punched in the face doesn't mean you're losing; it doesn't mean anything. You have to be thinking always neutral. It doesn't matter even if I'm winning, because every round is fresh. Every minute that you are in the cage, anything can happen. So yeah, you're winning the round, but you still have to finish that round, because we all know that one punch can change all your winning minutes. I guess I'm just putting it in my brain to be focused every single second of the fight, no matter if I'm winning, losing, it doesn't matter. You stay focused and you see everything coming so you can make the best move.”
Andrade, who has won her last two fights at 115 pounds over Dern and Marina Rodriguez, isn’t someone who will be hard for Godinez to find. So she’ll see “Bate Estaca” coming, and she’s ready for it.
“It's going to be right there for me to change levels, for me to welcome her inside with some punches,” said Godinez. “I can do a lot. I can work with that very well.”
UFC 319: Du Plessis vs Chimaev took place live from United Center in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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