"I would hate to be the one that chose not to fight her. I have a hard time believing that Elite would want to use me on any large card again even if I did fail. They gave me a little bit of enticement with the percentage of Gina's earnings as well. It would have been silly for me not to. If I had all of the money in the world and I knew I could get some other big fights, maybe I would've because I did feel disrespected and put in a really bad position," stated female mixed martial artist Kaitlin Young as she talked about her decision to still fight despite the fact that her opponent, Gina Carano, came in 4.5 pounds over the weight limit. Check out what else she had to say as she talks more about Carano, the CBS/EliteXC card, her future plans and more.
PC: How are you doing physically Kaitlin?
KY: I'm good. I have a really good shiner. It's kind of funny. I went to the mall with my boyfriend today and I didn't think much about it until he started getting dirty looks the whole time, but other than that, I'm doing pretty well.
PC: Is that odd for him?
KY: He thinks it's hilarious. It's funny because I think everybody wants to be polite and not ask about it. He gets some dirty looks.
PC: You had a very courageous performance against Gina. How do you feel you preformed?
KY: I wish it would've been better. I wish I would've executed my gameplan better and adjusted to what she was doing well. I think it was an alright performance, but I'm always going to wish I did better after my fights.
PC: I'm sure you were anticipating Gina to come in a little overweight, but were you shocked when she came in 4.5 pounds over?
KY: Kind of! I was really hoping she would make it. I was hoping who she was hanging out with at American Gladiators, being that a lot of them are into bodybuilding, that they would give her some tips and she would come in on weight. I was a little surprised. I think she's gotten a lot of flack for other situations when she didn't make it or was close to making it and maybe on it if she hadn't been wearing clothes. I was really surprised that she allowed it to happen.
PC: I know you don't want to use the weight as an excuse, but how much did her weight affect you in the cage?
KY: I don't know that it did a whole lot. I didn't feel like I was having a real hard time with her weight in the clinch or anything when we tied up, but you know, who knows? Maybe there was a little extra oomph on her hands (laughing). She had some weight behind those, but it wasn't something that was really noticeable like, "Oh, she's really heavy."
PC: She was having a lot of success with that front kick. Were any of them hurting you?
KY: They didn't hurt, but sometimes they're just frustrating. She had good timing with them and it was more frustrating than anything and I think I got frustrated and reacted and that's when she would set up her shots. I think that was a big part of her gameplan and she did a good job.
PC: You had her in a couple of bad situations on the ground. Did you think you could finish her at any point?
KY: I think I landed a couple of good knees, but her being experienced in Thai Boxing, she was able to get out of those situations. She was good about getting out of bad spots on the ground so maybe if we would've stayed there longer, but I don't know.
PC: I feel like this CBS card was kind of a gift and a curse. The gift being the exposure it gave MMA and the curse being that some of the stoppages seemed early and that seemed to be directly related to them not wanting too much blood on CBS. Would you agree with that?
KY: I think so. I think they were really reluctant to show blood and gore, which is sometimes unfortunately a side effect of our sport. I do think that had a lot to do with why some fights were stopped and why certain things were shown and not shown to the viewers at home.
PC: You had some swelling, but it didn't look like there was any structural damage or much blood. Did you want to continue fighting?
KY: I did!
PC: Are you under contract with EliteXC and if so, are you hoping they ask you back?
KY: Yeah, I am under contract with them. They mentioned maybe October or November for me to come back.
PC: All fighters hate to lose a fight and you're coming off of 2 losses in a row. What do you feel like you need to do to turn things back around?
KY: I think I really need to re-evaluate throwing my hands on both defense and offense. I don't feel like they were there as much as they should have been and honestly, I've been thinking about taking maybe some boxing fights or Thai Boxing fights. I have to continue to work hard and work on the ground.
PC: I've spoken to several female fighters that feel you are the future of the sport and they also don't believe you looked like yourself that fight. Were you nervous coming into this fight?
KY: No, I didn't really feel super nervous, but I almost feel like I was too relaxed. It was like I was trying to be too relaxed and I overcompensated. I think maybe that happened a little bit. I don't feel like I was at my best and I'm not quite sure why.
PC: For the people that don't really understand why fighters don't just turn down fights against Gina when she doesn't make weight, can you explain the way sponsorship money works?
KY: Yeah, first of all, I did have sponsorship and it was quite a bit more than I was making to fight. That makes it hard because the rule is as long as you make weight, you still get your show money, but that's not even comparable to sponsorship money.
PC: That was a lot of exposure for you as well to fight on CBS.
KY: Yeah, also the exposure. Also, I would hate to be the one that chose not to fight her. I have a hard time believing that Elite would want to use me on any large card again even if I did fail. They gave me a little bit of enticement with the percentage of Gina's earnings as well. It would have been silly for me not to. If I had all of the money in the world and I knew I could get some other big fights, maybe I would've because I did feel disrespected and put in a really bad position, but like I said, I don't think that little bit of weight made a difference.
PC: How was your conditioning for this fight and do you think if you were allowed to come out for round 3, that you had an advantage cardio-wise even though you were busted up?
KY: My cardio felt good and my conditioning felt good as well. That was something that I was hoping for was to be able to maybe use that because I did spend a lot of time on cardio and conditioning. It's hard to show that in only 6 minutes of a fight. That's a little bit more than a regular round (laughing).
PC: Would you like to see the women's fights go to 5-minute rounds?
KY: Yeah, I think it's important. I think it alters the sport with the 3 minute rounds; it takes out conditioning and I think it's a severe disadvantage to girls whose specialty is the ground.
PC: You guys went out there and banged and a lot of people feel like you guys had the fight of the night. How did it feel being a part of that type of fight?
KY: It's really nice. People have been so supportive. I know it sounds stupid, but your boyfriend and your mom have to be like, "You did a good job," but when other people say it, you take it a little more serious. It has helped me kind of get over this loss a little bit.
PC: You showed great heart Kaitlin. You definitely have nothing to be ashamed of. I wish you good luck in the future. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
KY: I want to thank my sponsors. They've been awesome and I didn't get a chance to thank them on the show at any point so huge thanks to Premier Fighter, MTX Audio and MMA Warehouse; they've really been great to me. I would recommend any fighter that gets the chance to work with them to please do; they're great!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]