Cat Zingano: 'There's no quit in me'
Emotions on fight day can swing wildly for competitors. There is nervous and eager anticipation, uncertainty to outright fear, and often also happiness and excitement.
Perhaps Cat Zingano felt many of these and other emotions mixing inside her as she walked to the Octagon in 2013 to fight in UFC for the first time. She cried, smiled, clapped her hands and then climbed into the cage.
Zingano went on to win that match but did not fight again for nearly a year and a half after sustaining serious knee injuries, then suffering a much more crippling blow: Her husband and coach Mauricio committed suicide in January 2014.
When Zingano finally returned to competition, against top prospect Amanda Nunes last fall, she started out slowly and looked to be near defeat in the first round. Nunes dominated and hurt Zingano early, appearing to be on her way to finishing the No. 1 bantamweight contender.
"Extreme relief," she revealed to FOX Sports ahead of her Saturday night UFC 184 bantamweight title fight against champion Ronda Rousey in Los Angeles. "I had to fight so much more than Nunes. I had to fight doubt, I had to fight change. There was so much more going in to that fight than me versus her. It was me versus myself, me versus circumstances, me versus life handing me cards and then fighting through it. I had to pick up from where I left off. I had to trust myself again."
From having to trust herself to provide for her son and herself on her own to having to trust her surgically repaired knee, Zingano says the mental aspect to her comeback was even more trying than the physical.
"It was more challenging, psychologically," she said. "How I hurt my knee was doing something so minimal, that it was a little worrisome. To try that motion and others again, after the injury and after surgery, made you worry a bit."
Of course, Zingano forced herself to push past the uncertainty of her knee injury and somehow kept moving forward after the loss of her husband and the father to her son. Not fighting again wasn't an option.
Someday Zingano will end her professional fight career, but she was intent on not letting it end just yet amid setbacks and tragedy, paralyzing as they may feel at times.
"I don't want to be stopped," the 32-year-old said. "With everything that has happened, I could have it crush me, do nothing with my life and with the situation, and almost take it in vain. Or I could have it feed me, fuel me, and turn something so difficult into something amazing. I could try to inspire myself, inspire my son and inspire people to hopefully lead lives they are proud of.
"There's moments where things are harder than others, and there are obviously questions, but when it comes down to it, there is no quit in me. I couldn't entertain the thought."
Zingano has employed a similar approach in the ring to the one she used in life — she never lets up or stops fighting, no matter how badly she's being beaten at first. And, so far, she’s always found a way to win — largely through a commitment to meeting her own expectations.
"With a lot of things in life, it's hard to do the right thing,” she said. “And, I'm absolutely not a perfect person. But, as far as setting goals and meeting them, I have a pretty good history of integrity."
Because of all the adversity she's battled outside of the cage, and because she's come from behind so dramatically in her first two UFC bouts, Zingano has developed a reputation as being a fighter who overcomes slow starts and figures out how to win on the fly, amid chaos.
Zingano is proud her ability to battle back in the cage, but she’s predicting a faster start against Rousey.
"This fight is a little different," she said. "I feel like I have things together more than the past two fights. I'm more confident and in a better situation. There's been a lot of progression that has gone on. I feel like I am able to tap in to who I was leading into becoming.
"Obviously, there have been ups and downs and issues, but I've also been able to get back into a rhythm and figure things out. I've improved. I'm just getting into that place, in terms of fighting, that place of domination."
But like Zingano, Rousey has yet to lose in MMA. Only one woman, Tate, has gone past the first round, and Rousey's last opponent didn’t make it past 16 seconds. Zingano sees what the rest of the world sees in the champion, but believes she can best Rousey's intensity and every other characteristic once they lock up.
"I just see a game, aggressive fighter [in Rousey]," Zingano said. "I just want to be plus-one, plus-one hundred on everything she is going to do. I don't want to give her a chance. My plan is to be in her face. I want to be spitting out her blood."
