Olga Rubin is getting ready to take on Julia Budd at Bellator 224 with featherweight gold up for grabs. The top of the marquee prize fight goes on the July 12th card at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Olga Rubin finds herself firing on all cylinders heading into Bellator 224 and the biggest bout of her life.
“I feel like everything is coming together at this point……Making my gameplan as cohesive as possible. So I’m really happy that things are working out.”
Rubin is riding a three-fight win streak heading into this title bid and is presently unbeaten in her Bellator journey.
Olga Rubin: The Road to Gold
Olga Rubin has some strong momentum heading into this fight. Rubin scored a victory over Cindy Dandois at Bellator 209. Dandois is a top ranked lightweight and featherweight who is usually a fixture in top five rankings for both classes. Olga Rubin represents Israel so the win took on additional importance with the W coming on home soil. It was a huge feather in Rubin’s cap but her next bout proved to be even more illuminating.
It was Rubin’s last fight with Iony Razafiarison that saw her face a last minute opponent. This was difficult for both and Rubin dug down deep in that fight to secure the win. Performances like that show a fighter’s true grit when faced with an altogether unfamiliar, tumultuous situation.
“Basically everything that built up to that fight was me preparing for Sinead [Kavanagh]…..I feel like the day of the fight I wasn’t 110 percent……This was the most hard fight of my career because I HAD to adapt after the first round. I had to make changes as we go, drop her, and get the win.”
Olga Rubin has a strong grasp of the mental game in MMA and compartmentalized this experience to benefit her in future fights. Beyond professional competition, martial arts is something that has dramatically changed Rubin’s life for the better.
Party Girl to Prospective Champion
Olga Rubin was at one point a self professed party girl but found a path through martial arts. Olga happened to tune in to an influential women’s title fight and it redirected the trajectory of her life.
“I saw a fight between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate; the first one on Strikeforce.…I was mesmerized….Changed my lifestyle, changed everything I could have done, to make sure I could be the fighter that I wanted to be.”
It offered some semblance of discipline and guidance in a life that was lacking that at the time. She also takes time to teach women’s self defense classes. All the benefits Rubin got from learning martial arts, she wants to impart on others and better their lives too.
Rubin is also a proud mom and he’s acutely aware of what his mother does. Olga Rubin’s son will be tuning in to the fight, he knows mommy is vying for a world championship, and he’s excited as well.
Bellator’s Featherweight Division
As the UFC seems to be making modest efforts to flesh out a women’s featherweight division, Bellator has done a great job spotlighting the weight class already. Names like Sinead Kavanagh and Leslie Smith bolster the division but Olga is well researched on her other contemporaries.
Olga Rubin articulated to me that she feels the next contender for Bellator’s Women’s featherweight championship would come from Arlene Blencowe vs. Amanda Bell. This will also be a feature fight at Bellator 224. So booking that next title fight is easy as all fighters will be on the same competitive timeline.
Olga is cognizant of the champion’s skill set but focuses on what Olga Rubin brings to the table as opposed to preparing specifically for Julia Budd.
“Just trying to improve my own thing…..I’m fully aware that I’m fighting such a PHYSICALLY strong and dominant OPPONENT. I am trying to be bigger ad stronger…..Not NECESSARILY working to her abilities but working on MYSELF.”
The main event title bout goes Friday, July 12th at Bellator 224. The event will be broadcast on Paramount Network with the prelims going for 6:45 PM ET and the main card at 9 PM ET.
