Athletes
Miranda Maverick | All The Feels
Streaking Flyweight Prospect Details Gamut Of Emotions Leading Her Into Fight With Jamey-Lyn Horth Saturday Night In Tampa
Miranda Maverick is feeling myriad things heading into her fight with Jamey-Lyn Horth this weekend in Tampa, Florida, with confident, exhausted, frustrated, and excited in a four-way tie for the lead.
The confidence and exhaustion come from the same place, rooted in a 12-week camp and six-month stretch since her last fight where she’s been in the gym constantly, helping different training partners get ready to go into battle before shifting her focus to her own upcoming fight.
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“It’s been very intense for this camp, and it’s been a lot of building on old stuff,” began Maverick, reflecting on the gains she’s felt throughout what she called “one of (her) longest and hardest camps to date” in an Instagram post a handful of days before setting off for Florida. “I always build between fights and improve between fights, but this one has been kind of like a stamp.
“I don’t know why, but it’s one of those things where it has felt like I’m inching, I’m inching, and then there is a jump, and this one has been that jump in everything.”
The 27-year-old has long been viewed as a potential contender in the flyweight division; a powerful, athletic competitor that started early, fought a tough slate on her way to the UFC, and has continued down the same path since debuting in the Octagon with a stoppage win over Liana Jojua at UFC 254 a little over four years ago.
Consecutive losses to Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield, the first of which was by split decision and hotly debated, prompted some to rein in their projections and expectations for Maverick, but she’s responded with five wins in her last six outings, and carries a three-fight winning streak into Saturday’s preliminary card showdown with Horth.
Her run of quality results and steady gains coincides with her decision to move to Colorado and begin working with her head coach, Eliot Marshall, and take full advantage of the plethora of high-level training partners that populate the region, which have been massive positives as she’s continued working to push forward in the division.
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“It’s made a huge difference,” Maverick said when asked about the consistent work she logs with former UFC champs Rose Namajunas and Raquel Pennington, as well as Oktagon MMA titleholder Mallory Martin. “I moved out to Colorado for a reason and it has made a huge difference for me, and having female training partners has been a big key to that too.
“I hear people say, ‘You don’t need females; guys push you more.’ In some ways, yes, but not in others. I need females so that I feel confident in myself. I can beat the guys, but I always feel like they’re going easy on me, and even if they’re not, I always think they are because 90 percent of them are. I did a round with Brandon Royval and I was like, ‘Hell yeah! I did a couple good things!’ and then once we get to the ground and I’m on top and he flips me over in half a second, I’m like, ‘How did this happen? Oh right, it’s a guy!’
“I take the little victories, which are important for my own growth, but going with other (women) and seeing how good they do based on — I know training is different and the math doesn’t work, but going into a round and doing well with Rose and Raquel and all the people that I see doing well in their fights, knowing where they’re at in the world standings, how I do against them, I’m like, ‘I need to get my head out of my a** and show how good I am when I go into the fights, not be worried about losing.’
“And Eliot is an amazing coach for me,” she added with a laugh, making sure to acknowledge her head coach as well. “My dad used to be like, ‘Why do you even need a coach in the corner?’ and then when Eliot came around, he was like, ‘Oh, this is a coach I can see helping you in your corner.’”
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The duo have certainly clicked, with Maverick’s work ethic and coachability meshing well with Marshall’s focused, detail-oriented approach, and results of that connection have been extremely apparent over the ascending flyweight’s last three fights.
After dropping a decision to Jasmine Jasudavicius at UFC 289 in Vancouver in a fight where she was inadvertently poked in the eye and had trouble seeing for the majority of the contest, Maverick hustled right back into action, stepping in on short-notice and collecting a third-round armbar win over Priscila Cachoeira six weeks later in Salt Lake City.
She followed that up in February with a unanimous decision win over Andrea Lee, and pushed her winning streak to three in July with a dominant decision win over Dione Barbosa in a bout that serves as one of the benchmarks for where the frustration she’s carrying at the moment originates.
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“Tracy never wants to fight unless she’s feeling perfectly up to it and it’s the perfect fight to her,” she said of Tracy Cortez, whom she was scheduled to fight both in July and this weekend.
Earlier in the year, Cortez was pulled from the contest and aligned opposite Namajunas in a main card clash in Denver when the former strawweight titleholder’s original opponent, Barber, was forced to withdraw. Maverick ended up facing Barbosa and winning, and she was rebooked with Cortez for this weekend, only for the Fight Ready representative to withdraw for undisclosed reasons, leaving Maverick in the familiar position of having to wait for a new opponent and miss out on an opportunity to fight forward in the division.
“I laughed when I got the phone call,” she said in regards to learning Cortez had withdrawn. “The only reason it was so frustrating last time is because she got a ‘better opportunity.’ I was gonna fight her, have my opportunity to move up, but they pull her for a main event, and I’m sitting back here like (holds up hands in disbelief).”
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While the educated and articulate talent was quick to acknowledge the entertainment side of the industry and its importance, her overall frustrations run deeper than just these twin missed opportunities to share the Octagon with Cortez.
“I don’t understand how fighters don’t fight more when they’re not hurt. ‘Are you trying to make money or not?’” Maverick began. “You look at my record and a lot of girls that have been in the sport twice as long as me have similar records, have fought just as many times, and I don’t understand that at all. It’s crazy to me. If I’m still fighting at 35, I want to have 50 fights on my record; I wanna be Roxy Modafferi.
“(I always want to move forward), but honestly I feel like it has been steps back. I win fights, but nobody will fight me. I’ve been in the Top 15 since my second fight in the UFC; second fight and I’ve been bouncing around from 14 to 17, and I can’t get a ranked opponent.
She admitted that she kicked off her camp believing there was an 80-percent chance Cortez would withdraw for one reason or another, and that the process of finding a replacement — again — created added, unnecessary stress in the late stages of her camp.
After a few names were presented, but bouts never materialized, Maverick said she reached a point where she no longer cared about who stood across from her; only that she got the opportunity to compete this weekend.
“The Jamey-Lyn Horth thing took a while,” she said, smiling. “Eventually I was like, ‘I’ll fight anybody. Give me somebody December 14 — I don’t want to change the date; I’ll fight. I don’t care who you put in front of me. A win is a win, pay is pay.’
“They told me two other names and I was like, ‘I really don’t care. You could put anyone in front of me.’ Jamey got back to them first, and I went and messaged her on Instagram the next day, (saying), ‘Thanks so much for taking the fight. I appreciate you. Let’s put on a show’ and she replied in kind.”
It’s a quick turnaround for the 34-year-old from Squamish, British Columbia, as Horth opened last month’s fight card in Edmonton with a hard-fought split decision win over Ivana Petrovic, moving to 2-1 inside the Octagon in the process.
While it’s not the ranked opponent she was initially booked against and has long coveted, Maverick isn’t taking the Canadian lightly, and has set her focus on using this her opportunity in Tampa on Saturday night to make a statement, and hopefully collect her first Performance of the Night bonus.
“I’m excited; I’ll put on a show regardless of who is standing across from me,” she offered. “I’m not underestimating Jamey — anything can happen in a fight. I do feel like I’m more dominant and skilled in every way, but again, anything can happen, so I’m prepared for my hardest fight.
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“For me, there is a bonus in mind,” added Maverick, who has earned three of her seven UFC victories by stoppage. “I haven’t gotten a bonus yet. Every time I have an amazing performance, it feels like the whole card is filled with amazing performances, so I’m hoping this time I put a stamp on it and say, ‘Don’t give me another unranked opponent. I don’t deserve another unranked opponent. Why am I not in the Top 10 already?’”
Those are questions Maverick was hoping she wouldn’t still be asking at the end of 2024, but things didn’t work out the way she had hoped.
Now, her focus is trained on Horth this weekend in Tampa and using her time on the mic following her victory to take aim at some of the names positioned in front of her in the division.
“Give me some fighters! Let the girls that don’t want to fight fall out of the rankings and let’s go,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know who we’re gonna pick next, but I’m gonna call out somebody outright this time because just calling out the Top 15 or two or three girls isn’t working lately.”
A fourth straight win and a targeted call-out? Sounds like a sure-fire way to get things moving the way she wants heading into next year.
“That’s the hope,” Maverick said. “(Win this fight, figure out who is next) and then use 2025 as the year to move up.”
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