"I haven't seen Cyborg make it out of the 1st round in her last few fights, so it's not like we have a whole lot to dissect... Seems to me when she's hitting these girls, they go out pretty quick. The first good shot or two that she hits them with, they usually go... Cyborg is one that can go from 0-100 in a second, which is fine because she's usually the more skilled and the stronger of the two when she's in there with these girls. The fact that she's relaxed and seeing a lot more has helped add to her game and it's going to show when she crosses over to the UFC," stated Jason Parillo, world-class boxing coach of Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, who talked about her long-awaited arrival to the UFC. Check it out!
PC: You have been enjoying a lot of success with your fighters. We will start with Cris Cyborg. She is coming off of a knockout win. I'm sure you were pleased with how the fight played out?
JP: Yeah, I haven't seen Cyborg make it out of the 1st round in her last few fights, so it's not like we have a whole lot to dissect, you know what I mean?
PC: For sure.
JP: Seems to me when she's hitting these girls, they go out pretty quick. The first good shot or two that she hits them with, they usually go. She looked good. Daria grabbed on to that single leg and held on for dear life. That was the toughest part of the fight was trying to get her to let go. I think fear helped her hold on to that leg more than strength. She ended up getting rolled as soon as they separated there. I think she looked good. Believe it or not, I think Cyborg has definitely calmed down a lot more. She's gotten a lot more experience over her last 5 or 6 fights and she's really coming into her own. She hasn't been involved in a fight where it's been overly competitive in quite some time. Marloes Coenen, when she won the title, I think Marloes took her to the 3rd or 4th round and that was 3 years ago. She had some decent moments in the fight, but for the most part, Cris was pretty much dominant.
PC: You mentioned her being a lot more calm and she has shown patience and she's setting up things more. How do you keep those aspects of her striking intact while not taking away from who she is and that is an aggressive fighter that likes to come forward and throw heat?
JP: Yeah, just try to let her keep her aggressiveness, but just do it using a little more thinking and being more relaxed. It's a big part of coming from being a boxer. In boxing, it takes a long time to settle down when you're exchanging punches with people. I don't think in MMA, I don't think a whole lot of MMA fighters put a lot of training into the boxing aspect of it. I think it's very valuable and important to the fight game in MMA. There are more punches thrown than anything. And with Cris, like with all of my fighters, we work as much of the mind aspect of it as we do the physical aspect of it and just trying to calm her down. Cyborg is one that can go from 0-100 in a second, which is fine because she's usually the more skilled and the stronger of the two when she's in there with these girls. The fact that she's relaxed and seeing a lot more has helped add to her game and it's going to show when she crosses over to the UFC, that's for sure.
PC: She's obviously wanted to fight the top female fighters in the UFC for quite some time now. By her not getting those fights with females like Ronda Rousey, has it been tough keeping her motivated or is that not a factor with her?
JP: That's Cris; training is her life. There has been some hiccups because she's gotta deal with the social media aspects and the attacks that she has had over the years from the company and Ronda and all that stuff, but it keeps her motivated because she knows she's the best female fighter on the planet and she proves it in her fights. She just hasn't been able to prove it on the biggest stage that there is. And I think that is motivation in itself. She knows she's the best and I don't think she's going to stop until all eyes see it.
PC: I know you've felt for a long time that you have the athlete and the strategy to beat Ronda Rousey. Was it bittersweet to see Holly Holm be the one to take that 0 off of her record?
JP: Of course, like you said, it's bittersweet. We were excited when Holly won that fight just because when anybody is trying to be the immortal when they haven't proven it long enough and they are already running their mouth and they are getting thisÂ…not false attention. I get it, Ronda is a great athlete and a great competitor and all of that, but when someone like Cris has been in the game many years before and plans on probably being here many years afterwards and she's proven to be the most dominant female fighter not just in her division, but in all of women's MMA, it's nice to see a little exposure in someone who has been inflated in a sense.
PC: Mixed Martial Arts has been, and from what you are saying, will be a passion for Cyborg for years to come. That being said, I'm sure that's also another level of frustration to see the praise and the hype that Ronda has received when she's already kind of planning her exit strategy out of the sport.
JP: Yeah, of course, and it is frustrating. And like I've told Cris many times before, just keep doing your thing. What's going to happen is one of these girls, Ronda or whoever decides to exit, if Cris continues to be Cris and continues what she's been doing, she's going to make noise for a long time. She's only 30 years old; it's not like she's an old lady. She's got plenty of years and females seem to peak a little bit later anyway. She's going to be making that noise and at some point, maybe if a girl like Ronda decides to make an exit plan and they see the noise that Cris is making, that may entice them to comeback themselves. You gotta remember, all fighters think that they want to stop fighting and then all of a sudden, they go a year or two without fighting and they not getting the same attention they used to get and their bills start adding up and they get used to living a lifestyle and spending money the way they spent it. They realize that whole acting world and that whole movie world doesn't end up coming as fast as they would have liked and they realize they should have stuck to what pretty much made them famous and that's fighting. So as much as people say they wanna leave, as you probably know Percy, you've seen a lot of people leave and they always seem to come back.
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR MUCH MORE WITH JASON PARILLO
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]