Miranda Maverick Is Determined To Make A Statement

Eventually, an opponent was found, with Brazil’s Contender Series graduate Dione Barbosa stepping in to face Maverick on Saturday at the UFC APEX. It means Maverick gets to fight, but in a bout that doesn’t carry the same divisional upside that her planned bout with Cortez would have offered.

“There was a whole wave of emotions,” Maverick admitted.

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“I was pretty irritated, especially when I was told there wasn't going to be another Top 15 opponent. I feel like I've been sitting at the 14/15 spot my entire career in the UFC, pretty much, and it was kind of my opportunity to break past that and move up the ladder and now I'm gonna have to wait at least one more fight to do that. 

“But I'm ready to fight, I'm gonna get paid the same either way, hopefully get a bonus, and show why I deserve to be past the Top 15 at this point.“

The frustration is clearly still there with Maverick, but she’s now looking to turn it into a decisive, definitive performance against Barbosa to make an undeniable case for a bout with highly ranked opposition next time out.

“I try to go in there with ferocity, no matter which opponent I have. I try to go in there and get the finish. At the end of the day, a finish (and) a good performance means maybe I get a bonus, so there's always great motivation there.

“But, for this one, it's like, ‘Man, I do want to prove a point.’ I want to show that this is basically beneath me. I want to go in there and fight this person and show how easy it is.”

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A late change in opponent can throw a fighter’s preparations out of the window, but Maverick said she will have no such issues, as her fight camps focus primarily on sharpening her own skills, rather than counteracting those of her opponents.

“I think the helpful part is I never really train to fight an opponent, I train to be a better version of myself,” she explained.

“I'm always training to fight the best person in the world which, right now, there's Alexa (Grasso), there's Valentina (Shevchenko), they're all up there at the top. And so, when I train, I watch them fight. I watch other people that inspire me to fight, and I work on my own strengths, and I work on my own weaknesses. 

“So, no matter who they put in front of me, there's only a couple things throughout camp that would have changed, anyway. So there wasn't really much that changed between Tracy and Dione. The biggest thing for me was there was a lot of question marks of who I'd be fighting there for a minute.

“I kept doing the exact same thing I was doing (and) made sure that I was focusing on myself, like I said, moving my feet, staying out of the way. Same game plan, though, literally the same game plan. 

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“Obviously Barbosa has that judo background, she has decent grappling, she has decent striking, but I feel better in every area. It was mainly just focused on me having a good pace, having my cardio good, ready to do anything for up to three rounds, if I have to.”

Now, after a build-up to her fight date that saw uncertainty and confusion, Maverick heads into the business end of fight week with a singular focus, and a clear desire to show that there are levels to the UFC women’s flyweight division, and that she belongs at the sharp end.

“I’m one of those people that watches the predictions and everything else and I find it almost laughable,” she said.

“Like when people are like, ‘Oh, Miranda’s a striker, Miranda does this, Miranda does that,’ and I’m like, ‘Man, these people never watch all the fights. They never put it together wholeheartedly. So I feel kind of bad for all the people betting out there, no matter who it is. 

"But I think I'm a big favorite in this fight and I think it’s rightfully so, and I'm ready for anything that Dione has to throw at me, and I think I'll beat her, no matter where it goes.”