(Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Injuries keep fighters out of action, however for UFC women’s bantamweight Sarah Moras (4-1) that wasn’t the case for the most part. It’s been just over a year since we’ve seen the Kelowna, B.C. native inside the Octagon.
“I had a back injury going into my last fight, so that was bugging me for a few months afterwards,” Moras told MMASucka.com. “But by the beginning of this year, I’ve been waiting for a fight.”
It took a bit of coaxing to get the UFC’s attention, which included a tweet stating she’s training her ass off and forums like The MMA Community pushing to get her a fight.
I'm training my ass off! Please get me a fight @seanshelby pic.twitter.com/NdNvl6kGPm
— sarah moras (@sarahcheesecake) April 19, 2015
Even after the social media push, it took a month for the fight to be announced. There was no reasoning from the UFC’s end, as to why it took so long for them to find her a fight.
“I have absolutely no idea. I think, maybe something to do with the Reebok deal and not wanting… I don’t know.
“They just kept apologizing and saying, next week. And then the next week they’d say sorry next week we’ll have something for you. For like five months. We called every single week basically.”
The women’s 135-pound division isn’t the most stacked in the organization. Other than champion Ronda Rousey, Cat Zingano, Miesha Tate and TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena, the division isn’t overly promoted. This is something that gets on Moras’ nerves.
“It sucks, especially when I know that there are other females looking for fights. I don’t really get the point of it, I don’t know why they think that there has to be some certain match-ups, when there are only 25 or so of us in the weight class. After a few fights we will have all fought each other anyways, so I don’t get the point of having the perfect match-ups. Just get us some fights.”
On July 15, Moras will step back inside the Octagon against the number 13 ranked Jessica Andrade (12-4.) This is a fight that Team Toshido wanted for Moras and even after she found out that it was happening, she didn’t believe it.
“We actually asked for this fight, along with many other people we asked for, this was one of the fights we asked for. So I’m actually glad that this happened. Even after, I was waiting for it to get announced, because I hadn’t gotten a fight contract yet, so I was still on edge about it actually happening.”
Andrade is 3-2 in the UFC, but is coming off a loss to Marion Reneau. This dropped the Brazilian out of the top-10 rankings, which is where Moras wants to be. Another reason she wants to get her hands on the 23-year-old, is because she holds a victory over her friend and old training partner Rosi Sexton.
“I think she’s a tough fight. I’ve been wanting to fight someone top-10, I think she’s top-13, so it’s pretty close. Before her last fight she was in the top-10 and she’s also fought Rosi Sexton who I trained with for a year and lived with out in England when I made my pro debut, so I kind of want to fight her because of that.”
Following Moras’ last outing, she stated that she wanted to see if her grappling was better than her opponent Alexis Dufresne’s — it proved to be. She will not say what she wants to prove in this outing, but she does expect Andrade to be ‘super aggressive.’
“I expect her to be super aggressive. We’re all talented fighter’s at this level, so it’s gonna be a fight. Obviously I see it going to the ground, that’s where I like to be — that’s where I can hit someone and they can’t really hit me. I’m ready for it wherever it goes and I’m just looking forward to getting in there and getting the win.”
Despite only having a 4-1 record, “Cheesecake” has been a professional fighter since 2010. There have been some layoffs here and there, which make every single outing feel like her debut all over again.
“It feels like every fight is my first fight, or like my UFC debut or whatever. Even before that it was a year before my last fight that I had fought when I was in the house and I got three fights in five and a half weeks there. But before that it was another year before that fight and I had three fights that year, but before that it was two years before that fight. So it feels like every fight I’ve got ring rust and I’m just trying to get over the nerves and everything that goes along with fighting, although I don’t know if the nerves ever really go away.”
We are midway through 2015 and if things go the way they have the past five years, this will be Moras’ lone fight of the year. However, that isn’t what she wants if things go her way, in fact she wants to fight more than one more time.
“Hopefully a couple of times.”
The people who get the fights they want seem to be the one’s with the loud mouths, ie. Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor. Moras has a few people she’d like to punch in the face, but calling people out seems rather ‘douchey’ to her.
“There’s quite a few people that I’d like to fight. I have a feeling I’m going to fight most of them anyways. It’s not really my style to like call people out. I think it’s sort of comes across as douchey a lot of the times. I just want to fight and I want to put on a good fight. I don’t get it when people talk a bunch of sh*t.”
Moras takes on Andrade on July 15 in San Diego, California at UFC Fight Night 71.
Check out the full interview with Sarah Moras on last week’s episode of Sucka Radio HERE.
