Few, if any, watch the UFC 207 main event with more interest that Cat Zingano. After all, Zingano beat Amanda Nunes at UFC 178 and lost to Ronda Rousey the next fight. Zingano lost the first round vs. Nunes, and then won the next two.
“That whole first round, I just got my head caved in,” said Zingano to Jonathan Snowden for B/R . “I was dizzy; I couldn’t be in light for a month. I put on like 30 pounds because my pituitary gland got knocked around and my hormones were all screwed up. I had never been hit like that in a fight.”
So Zingano was profoundly impressed with the #AndStill champion, and then she was not impressed.
Amanda was great, she went out there and beat her decisively, quickly, Zingano to Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. Immediately when the fight was stopped I was like, damn, good show. Props. And then, within two minutes, my entire impression and everything changed. Because as soon as they handed Amanda the microphone she just started going off, and being completely disrespectful and being an a**hole, being like, ‘forget Ronda, forget Ronda.’
It’s like, first of all, if there was no Ronda there would be no Amanda. No one would know who the hell you are, and we wouldn’t be here today. And on top of that, Ronda as an athlete, she found a way. She found a way to get us in, and it was by being an a**hole. And it was by being entertaining, whether it was positive or negative, she gave everybody what they wanted to see, which was either to hate to love her, or love to hate her. She gave that to people.
When Nunes tweeted this post fight, Zingano was really not impressed.
— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) December 31, 2016
I'm not petitioning a rematch yet @Amanda_Leoa I'll earn it. You're disrespectful of @RondaRousey & I detest you being ungrateful @ufc
— Alpha Cat Zingano (@CatZingano) January 5, 2017
There is trash talk to hype fight, which is very nearly mandatory in this sport. And then there is the rare heartfelt trash talk. Zingano says this is the latter.
I’m not trying to hype a fight,” she insisted. “I’m not trying to get my title shot right away, I want to earn it. I have gotten what I needed to out of my losses, which was that I hate to fucking lose. I didn’t lose to get a title shot. I didn’t lose to boast of how good I am. I lost so I could learn what I needed to learn, and make the changes necessary to get to where I am today.”
