We love talking to the queen of MMA, it’s always a special treat. But would you know that there is another killer being bred by Ms. Ronda Rousey that you may not have heard of yet? Her name is Marina Shafir, and she has three first round armbar wins. Sound familiar? Yeah, we thought so. Currently she’s fighting at 150 pounds looking to move down to 145 right before, or when, she turns pro.
Michael Mardones caught up with the UFC women’s bantamweight champion to pick her brain about her up and coming training partner, the differences in their coming up through the sport, and of course; the one looming cloud (especially at the weight class of Marina) Cyborg Santos.
“It’s so much more helpful for me to train when I have someone else’s motivation to feed off of, and she’s got that newfound enthusiasm. All of that optimism reminds me why I’m here.”
Would there be anything you would’ve done different that you are helping her with?
“So much energy spent on making $8 an hour. Edmond didn’t want to work with me, but I had to prove myself to him. So now Marina came with to the whole world title training for her fight, so she pretty much had the highest quality of training for an amateur which is awesome. She’s lucky to have those kind of opportunities.”
On Cyborg?
“Me and Marina giggle…”
Watch for much more with the insightful Ronda post Tuff-n-Uff.
