Fighthype.com recently caught up with Elite XC female sensation Shayna Baszler to discuss her ShoXC win over Jan Finney last Saturday, the growth of women's mixed martial arts, the possibility of women fighting in the UFC as well as a future fight with Gina Carano. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on your ShoXC win over Jan Finney.
SB: Thank you!
PC: How do you feel about your performance?
SB: I'm pretty happy with it. Of course there are a couple of things, like in every fight, where you feel you could've done this or that, but I'm pretty happy with it. I did exactly what we trained and everything went well.
PC: ShoXC looks like a great place to showcase new talent. How was it for you to be on the premier show?
SB: It was really great. I actually mentioned it back stage because I come from Bodog. I don't know if you follow Bodog, but for the TV show, it's like a closed set taping and I was like, "Man, it's been a long time since I fought in front of a live crowd." You know, you have your audience at Bodog, but it's the rest of the fighters that are there. It's been a while since I've fought in front of average people.
PC: I'm sure that was an adrenaline rush for you?
SB: Yeah!
PC: You've already fought 3 times this year. Will we see you fight again or is it break time for you?
SB: It's possible that I could have another fight this year, but I'm taking August off for some family things and stuff. But I wouldn't rule out fighting again this year.
PC: Is your contract with EliteXC?
SB: Yeah, it's EliteXC.
PC: Looking at your record, kimuras and armbars seem to be your weapon of choice. For fans that have never seen you fight, could you explain you're fighting style?
SB: This is so cliché, but I have to say I'm well rounded. I'm not afraid to stand. I love to stand. I'm not afraid of the ground, but one thing I will say is that I'm always looking for a finish. In my fight in California, they had like 10 seconds left in the 1st round, but it doesn't matter. I'm always looking for the finish. I could have the fight won in the 3rd round and that doesn't matter; I'm still looking for the finish. I think that makes it worth fighting. I'm always looking for the finish and the finishes I've had have been unorthodox. You could never stop watching because you don't know what you will get.
PC: I watched your fight against Roxanne Modafferi and I've never seen a kimura from that position. Is that something you work on or are you simply just taking what is given to you?
SB: You know what's funny about that is I done it once before in training, but it's not something that I work on all the time. I hit that with Roxanne and I hit it my fight after that in Minnesota from that same position and Josh Barnett named it 'The Shwing.'
PC: Who are some of the people that you train with in preparation for your fights?
SB: I train here in South Dakota at Action Mixed Martial Arts with my instructors and training partners here and then I train with Josh Barnett for this fight. I went out to California a little early. I also go to Minneapolis to train at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy at Greg Nelson's gym.
PC: Gina Carano is one of the more noticeable figures in women's MMA. Is she in your sights and what do you think of her as a fighter?
SB: For anyone that follows women's MMA, they can look at my record and see that I have a reputation for fighting the best girls in the world. As far as her being in my sights, Elite XC and a lot of other people feel that she's the top girl and I just want to fight the top girl. It's not like I'm sitting here saying I want to fight Gina for whatever reason, I just want to fight the top girl. So if EliteXC says they have one of the top girls, I'd love to fight her. As a fighter, I think she has incredible standup and I think she's a great fighter. I think just like everybody else though, she has holes in her game. I think if she fights the right person, with the right gameplan, she is as vulnerable as anybody else. I wouldn't be any more or less scared to fight her than when I fought Tara Larosa or Roxanne or whoever.
PC: If you were to get this fight, Gina is a big, strong girl. How would you deal with her size? Where would you like the fight to take place?
SB: I guess I would train with guys to learn to deal with her size. Her size would only be a real issue with me in the beginning of the fight. Like Jan, I had to make the adjustment with her muscling me around. Once I made that adjustment, I was fine. So I don't see her size being a huge issue. I wouldn't mind standing with her. I don't know if she has enough footage on me to see a lot of my standup. There's a lot more footage on her than there is of me, but of course that's where she feels comfortable. The difference between the two of us is that I really feel comfortable on the ground. The obvious thing would be that I would love to take her down. I don't know, I think I would really have to mix it up with her. Stand when she thinks she's going down and down when she wants to stand.
PC: Women's MMA is getting more popular now. They even have a reality show -Fight Girls. What do you think of the growth of the sport?
SB: I really think the sky is the limit. MMA as a whole is getting really huge. I think alongside that, women's MMA can only get even bigger. People like to draw comparisons with the WNBA or other women's sports but the difference is, in MMA, I can do everything that a guy can do. In the WNBA, you're not going to see girls run down the court and do really awesome slam dunks, but in MMA, I can do an armbar that looks just like his. I can kick her in the head just like that guy can kick him in the head. So we can do exactly the same thing as the guys. I think it's a little more exciting women's fights are always exciting. I don't really know why that is
PC:
because you can never put two women in a room together and they get along.
SB: (laughing) you're right! Something like that. I really think we go out there already with something to prove. Not only in the fight, but to show everyone that we belong too. Plus women are lighter and lightweight fights always seem more exciting than heavyweights.
PC: When you meet guys, what do you think is the biggest misconception when you tell them you're a fighter?
SB: That I have a short fuse and if they piss me off, I'm going to go crazy or something like that. That's probably the number one thing. I don't really even like to tell people that I fight until they get to know me a little better. The first thing they say is, "You what! I better not make you mad!"
PC: Do you have family that object to you fighting or do you get a lot of support?
SB: For the most part, I get a lot of support. My parents are supportive. I have an aunt and uncle that are real supportive. My grandpa is still kind of old fashioned to where he would like to see me finish school and get a normal life. He's a little more supportive, especially now with USA wrestling recognizing grappling as a form of wrestling and that whole deal, you know? He's getting a little bit better, but he does still kind of don't agree with it.
PC: Do you ever see the UFC picking up women's fighting?
SB: Honestly, I think Dana White would do something like that because I think Dana is controlled by the dollar bill. If it's something that he sees can make him money, I think he'll do it. Whether that's in a year, 5 years or 10 years, I really don't even know and really I don't even care because we have promotions like EliteXC and Bodog that treat us really well. I don't think it's something that people could ignore.
PC: What made you go with EliteXC as your promotional organization?
SB: They contacted my manager. Originally I was scheduled to fight on Bodog the same day (July 27th), but Bodog moved their entire card to August. They had something that didn't work out or whatever and they pushed the entire card to August. Well, I can't do August because everything I have going on; why I took August off. A lot of August was based on the fact that I would be fighting this date, so I would be able to take August off. I was thinking, "Man I need to find a way to make a car payment." Stuff like that, so my manager started to do some asking around. He had been working with another fighter that was on the EliteXC show and they kind of threw my name out there and it worked out.
PC: Well, it's been a pleasure speaking with you Shayna. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
SB: Can I thank some people?
PC: Sure!
SB: I want to thank my teammates and my training partners back home in South Dakota. I want to thank Josh Barnett. He really helped me out for this fight. Of course, Soldier Fight Gear, Sinful and Onthemat.com.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]