Miranda Maverick weighed in at an even 126 pounds on Friday night ahead of her bout with Gillian Roberts on Saturday, completing what had been a grueling process to cut weight ahead of UFC 260.
Now that she's made weight, the 23-year-old is ready to continue what has been a strong start to her career, currently holding an 8-2 record.
"I'm feeling pretty good actually, considering right now this morning I was pretty hard cut," Maverick told Pete Hoffman on The Fight Fan. "Harder than I might have ever had leading up to a fight at 125. A few things weren't going my way. My metabolism hadn't really recuperated from back-to-back weight cuts, and on top of that I cut quite a bit of weight...a lot of things were fighting against me but I made weight."
Maverick, one of the most promising young fighters around, is hoping to use Saturday's fight as another springboard in her ascent up the flyweight ranks, but it wasn't an easy path to get to the scale on Friday.
"It wasn't easy, but that's how you gotta do it," Maverick said. "Hopped in a sauna three different times and did three different wraps. It wasn't any fun...but I'm actually feeling like I can rule the world right now."
Now that the difficult weight management is out of the way, Maverick can focus solely on the fight, which is part of Saturday's main card.
"I did the exact same I would always do, and the body wasn't acting the same as it normally would…but the important part is making the weight and getting refueled," Maverick said. "It's not an easy part of the game, it's the worst part, and I'm going to make Gillian pay for every ounce I had to cut."
Maverick's difficult weight loss efforts brings back recent memories of Julija Stoliarenko, who recently had her fight canceled after she fainted twice at the weigh-in before her fight just last weekend. The incident was eye-opening for some, but for other fighters like Maverick, it's as much of a part of the sport as the octagon itself.
"The scary stuff that everybody saw on the scale, people don't realize how normal that is," Maverick said. "It just happened to be in public and people got to see it…that happens all the tie on the backstage. It's happening all the time every fight, but nobody says anything because they know it's normal. If somebody falls, it's like 'help them back up, let's do it again.'"
Listen to Maverick's full interview with Hoffman and the full episode of The Fight Fan below!
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