Melissa Amaya Calls Upcoming Opponent Valesca Machado "Dangerous Everywhere"
Melissa Amaya is keeping it respectful before meeting Valesca Machado in the cage on Saturday.
A potential UFC debut bout is undoubtedly stressful, but Melissa Amaya seems to have her nerves in total control.
La Mamba Shows Admiration Toward Her Upcoming Opponent
Amaya (8-0-0) will be facing Valesca Machado (16-4-0) in The Ultimate Fighter 34 Finale for UFC Vegas 121. Speaking to media outlets during media day, she quite candidly showed her admiration for her upcoming opponent.
“Tina Black has been training and fighting since before MMA was even a thought in my head.” The fighter admitted.
“She is dangerous everywhere. She’s a veteran of the sport”.
Despite this, her approach is not driven by fear.
“It’s going to be a tough fight, but I am excited to test myself against her," she stated.
It's no surprise that she is accustomed to fighting tough battles and coming back even stronger each time. Truly, it only took La Mamba 8 fights to stand on the edge of securing her spot in the UFC. Now, even before this pivotal fight, she wants to surprise people.
“Hopefully I get to surprise people too. I’ve surprised people since the first fight on The Ultimate Fighter. Everybody thought I was just a grappler, and I out-striked a striker. Hopefully I can come with some surprises.”
However, in her personal life, she was pleasantly surprised too, seeing her current workplace supporting her through her MMA journey.
TUF 34 Finalist Speaks About Her Clinic–Cage Balance
It may come as a surprise, but the deadly ‘Mamba’ is also a nurse outside the cage. She opened up about her life as a full-time nurse at a dental clinic and is still actively paving her road to the UFC.
“They’ve been extremely flexible with this,” she noted, showing her gratitude towards the people in her clinic. She hilariously admitted to explicitly mentioning that she’d need “a random week off three times a year.” While interviewing. She hadn’t even fought once before that.
“And they still hired me. So I was like, ‘Okay, this is insane. This is unheard of.’ They’re super-supportive. Actually, the surgeon I work for, he’s going to be coming and watching me.”
When asked if she’d continue with her nursing profession even after being a professional fighter, she was affirmative.
“I absolutely love nursing. It is my way of being of service in this world,” she stated. “If I can do that together, that will be great. But I am willing to put it on the back burner for a second, but I’ll definitely always be nursing."
