Lina Lansberg is a veteran of eight UFC fights, her first of which came in a main event against Cris Cyborg. 10-5 in her MMA career, the former world Muay Thai champion is ranked #11 in the women’s bantamweight division. Sweden’s ‘Elbow Queen’ is one of the most recognisable faces on the European MMA scene, having competed 11 times in Europe in her 15 MMA bouts. MMASucka spoke to Lansberg about how she is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is affecting her training.
Lina Lansberg – ‘It’s so Frustrating’
As we know all too well, the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down the majority of major sporting events across the world. Many countries are on lockdown and a number of gyms have closed for safety reasons. Here begs the question, how are fighters managing to keep up with training?
When this question was put to Lansberg, she described it as ‘so frustrating‘ when her daily routine is affected. ‘I really need to feel that I’m getting better each and every day‘. Clearly, training for any fighter isn’t going to be going as smoothly as normal and it appears to be affecting Lansberg. The good thing for Lansberg, however, is that she has former UFC fighter, Akira Corassani in her life. Corassani is a veteran of 19 professional MMA bouts and has a wealth of knowledge.
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Lansberg stated that she is ‘really happy to have Akira Corassani as my partner. He is the best always but right now I am blessed to be able to train with him‘.
Lansberg’s native home of Sweden isn’t in complete lockdown yet. ‘As I understand it, Sweden has understood that at least 70% of the population will get it sooner or later. That’s just what happens when a new virus appears and no one is immune yet. Sweden just tries to slow the process to not affect health care too much. As bad as it is, people need to get infected to be immune and be able to manage corona outbreaks in the future.‘
Training
Lina Lansberg did state that she is able to ‘do some training in smaller groups’. This is understandable because having a gym full of athletes is neither smart nor clever. She also said that she was doing ‘striking only to avoid people sweating and breathing on each other. (We’re also training) outdoors‘. It is refreshing to see that Lina Lansberg is able to still train, amid all of the chaos that is coming with the coronavirus pandemic.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – JUNE 01: Lina Lansberg of Sweden warms up backstage during the UFC Fight Night event at Ericsson Globe on June 1, 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Postponements?
As we know, UFC president, Dana White has been working at getting UFC 249 to actually go ahead. Three UFC cards have been cancelled and one took place behind closed doors because of the virus. When asked if she thinks events should be cancelled or postponed, Lina Lansberg had a very simple answer:
‘Yes I do. Sport is sport and the safety of people always goes first’. The feeling amongst many fans is the same as Lansberg’s views. Although we all miss watching and covering MMA and fighters are missing competing, the safety of people should come first.
When can we expect to see Lina Lansberg back in action?
The ‘Elbow Queen’ has been out of action since her loss to Sara McMann in January of this year. Prior to this, however, she was on a tear, winning three of her last four. We saw her dominate Gina Mazany, dominate former Invicta champion, Tonya Evinger in her home of Sweden and then hand TUF 28 winner, Macy Chiasson her first professional loss. Lansberg hopes to be back in action: ‘As soon as possible. I can’t wait! I’ll do everything I can to be ready as an opportunity occurs’.
We certainly look forward to the return of the ‘Elbow Queen’.
