Athletes
Loopy Godinez: 'This Fight Is Mine'
Heading Into UFC 287: Pereira vs Adesanya 2, Loopy Godinez Feels Better Than Ever
It’s not too much of a shocker that Loopy Godinez, the female Donald Cerrone, had no fear of jumping out of a plane for the first time recently, and in her own characteristic style, she may have been the first person to tell the whole truth behind what for most would be a frightening ordeal.
“It was amazing and intense and scary,” she said. “All the emotions that you can imagine. That's what it was. The only thing that I didn't like was when you jump and the pressure of your ears, they freaking hurt. But other than that, it's scary, yes. But then when you look around, my words were, ‘Wow. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Wow. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.’”
She laughs, embracing all the emotions that came from the jump in her native Mexico, and yeah, she’s going to do it again. I suggest that she bring her friend, UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso. Godinez laughs again.
“She's the one that brought me there.”
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Again, no surprise that two of the baddest women on the planet had this idea of a good time, and when Grasso upset Valentina Shevchenko last March, guess what, Godinez wasn’t surprised.
“I look up to her so much,” she said of the new champ. “I was watching her when she was in Invicta, and I'm so thankful to have met her a few years ago, and to see all the changes that she's been doing. And now she's a champ and she's doing amazing things. It is not a surprise for me that she's a champion. Honestly, that's not a surprise. I know how they train. I know her coach, they just have everything dialed in and, of course, she inspires me, and I look up to her and she is just a machine. It's great to have her as my friend.”
It's been a great year for Mexico when it comes to life in the UFC. Grasso won her title, Yair Rodriguez earned the interim featherweight belt and Brandon Moreno regained the men’s flyweight crown. For a nation with such a rich fighting culture in boxing, seeing MMA fighters building their legacy has to be a trip for someone like Aguascalientes’ Godinez.
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“Oh yeah, for sure,” she said. “We are so passionate and we like to scrap, we like to get in there and we don't mind getting dirty going forward. So it's great. And every time I trained there with Alexa, I see so many new girls there. I'm just happy. It's not like the woman is in the kitchen and the men go to work. It's not like that. It's changing and it makes me so happy because when I was there, it was weird to see females playing outside or playing soccer; that was the men's sport, a woman is not supposed to do that. But now it's different and it's great.”
Loopy Godinez Locks In First-Round Arm Bar | UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Rodriguez
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Loopy Godinez Locks In First-Round Arm Bar | UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Rodriguez
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Not that Godinez ever cared about following societal norms back home. She was more than content doing her own thing.
“When I was growing up, I never cared about that stuff because I was always a tomboy,” she said. “I was always playing with the boys, always hanging out with the boys and doing the fun stuff because I never really liked to play with dolls. As a matter of fact, I used to break them in half.”
The dolls weren’t the only casualties of Hurricane Loopy, a WWE fan who decided to act out her favorite wrestlers’ moves in the house.
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“I was the one jumping, destroying my house,” she laughs. “My poor parents, I don't know how many TVs they had to replace because I'd just break them.”
There was no training in MMA or boxing back then, but it was clear that Godinez had a fighting spirit, one she got to start utilizing when she moved with her family to Canada as a teenager. Soon, it was MMA all day, and fast forward to the present, where she’s six fights into a UFC career that began in April of 2021. By the end of that calendar year, Godinez had four trips to the Octagon under her belt, and while 2022 was a light year with just a pair of bouts, it wasn’t a lost year for the strawweight standout.
“It's not up to me, really; it's up to the UFC,” she said when asked if she wanted to fight more last year. “But, at the same time, I do need time to get better, and to change as a fighter and as an athlete. And I'm so excited to step into the cage this time because I had so much time. And honestly, I feel like I have improved a lot and my body's different and my strength is different. Everything kind of changed, and I also got older, too, so that helps mentally. And everything is just coming together. I feel better than ever.”
She’ll need to be firing on all cylinders if she wants to start 2023 with a win, as she’ll face a fighter returning to the division with one of the most deceiving records in the UFC in Cynthia Calvillo. And despite the California native’s current four-fight losing streak, Godinez knows what she’s in for in Miami.
“She's a big name and has been around for few years now. I think she's a really good fighter and I think it's going to be a really good fight. But this fight is mine.”
There’s that Godinez confidence. As for her ideal 2023 schedule from here on out…
“We could do four or five,” she said.
And jumps out of a plane?
“Well, every time I fight, I'm going back, no matter what.”
UFC 287: Pereira vs Adesanya 2 took place live from Kayesa Center in Miami, Florida on April 8, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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