Fighting Alliance Championship veteran “The Ruthless” Elle Wagman will be fighting for the first time since her move to the famed American Top Team gym in Miami, Florida. “The Ruthless” faces Kara Vislosky this coming Friday, a mere three months after her first-round submission win against Cristina Crist at FAC 12. She sat down with MMA Sucka’s Nate Freeman to discuss the move, the fight, and more.
Elle Wagman enjoying life in Florida at ATT
Despite making the big jump from former gym Glory MMA to American Top Team, “The Ruthless” says there’s absolutely zero bad blood between the gym and herself. She cites needing a change in scenery as one of the biggest factors for the move, but also acknowledges that it was necessary for it to happen in order for her and her fiancé to grow as fighters.
Wagman and her fiancé, UFC fighter Grant Dawson, moved to the Sunshine State together away from their long-time home of Missouri and she has so far enjoyed the variety of coaches and fighters to train with. For this camp, she has Thiago Alves working at the helm and acting as her striking coach. Most of all, “The Ruthless” is excited to be able to train with more fighters in her weight class.
“I’m on cloud nine. I’ve never consistently had atomweights to train with!” she said before specifically calling out the likes of former Invicta FC and current ONE Championship fighter Alyse Anderson and Combate Global’s Kayla “K-Rock” Hracho as big helps during her training camp.
“The Ruthless” loves the change in scenery that she’s found in Florida and admits that it has eased her mental prep going into Friday’s fight – “I’m 100%. I’m in Florida now! I walk outside and there are palm trees and it’s 80 degrees. I haven’t been in this great of a mood in a long time.”
Domination is key to Wagman’s next dub
On facing Kara Vislosky, Wagman feels extremely confident that she will be able to dominate the fight. Considering that she will be coming into the fight on a clean 4-0 record against her opponent’s 1-2, it is not too surprising to see the atomweight’s belief in her abilities.
Citing Vislosky’s previous fight against Amanda Lovato – against whom Vislosky lost but Wagman won during her FAC debut back in 2020 – “The Ruthless” sees no problem coming to her. Instead, she plans to use her upcoming fight as a showcase of her growth as a fighter.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to have a solid striking performance,” she said, “a really good opportunity to try some new things and show that I’m not just a one-trick pony.”
Catch FAC 14 this Friday, May 20, at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on UFC Fight Pass. Watch the rest of the interview here:
