Randa Markos to Aisling Daly: "Keep underestimating me"
Following her loss to Jessica Penne at The Ultimate Fighter Finale in December, Randa Markos was happy to take some time off to train and get better so when she returned to the Octagon, a win would be nearly guaranteed.
Markos was one of the breakout stars from season 20 of the reality show after she took out top-three ranked strawweight Tecia Torres in her first fight before submitting Felice Herrig to make it to the semifinals.
At the finale, Markos lost a close, split decision to fellow cast mate Jessica Penne while also earning $50,000 for her part in the "Fight of the Night". It still didn't soften the blow of a loss and Markos wasted no time getting back in the gym so she could improve upon her mistakes.
"I wanted time to get better so I was hoping they wouldn't rush me into anything right away," Markos told FOX Sports. "I knew from my last fight I had a lot to improve on so I took the time to just get better."
Markos had no problem with the additional time off until she started seeing all of her former roommates from "The Ultimate Fighter" get booked into matchups and it left her seething with desire to return to action as well.
Her frustration dissipated when she got a call to step in and fight fellow "Ultimate Fighter" alum Aisling Daly at UFC 186 in Montreal. Now Markos gets to fight sooner rather than later and compete in her adopted home country of Canada.
"Seeing everyone else get fights and I didn't have one, that got a little frustrating," Markos said. "It sucks I got this on such short notice, but I'm ready. I've been in the gym since my last fight just because I was so disappointed in myself."
Markos got very familiar with Daly from being on the show with her but more importantly actually training together everyday under coach Anthony Pettis.
As soon as the fight was made, Daly wasted no time speaking her peace about working with Markos on the show while stating that if training together was any indication, she's more than confident she'll be walking out of the arena in Montreal with the win.
"To be honest, in training, I was just better than her at every range. So I know I have that going for me going into the fight. She's tough. She has good heart, but you'll never beat the Irish on heart," Daly said at a UFC press conference in Ireland just after the fight was made.
Markos doesn't take kindly to the notion that she was somehow outmatched when she was training with Daly on the show, much less that their fight at UFC 186 will somehow be determined by what happened on the mats back in Las Vegas 10 months ago.
At the same time, there's a part of her that hopes Daly does believe that she got the best of their exchanges on the show because Markos plans on surprising the Irish fighter in a big way when they step into the Octagon together.
"Let her think that I was the same person as I was in training. Let her think that she beat me during training. Training is training. Fighting is another thing," Markos said. "If you saw my last fight, my standup has improved quite a bit and since then I've been trying to improve in all aspects of my training.
"Let her think that I'm still the same person. Let her think that I'm not that good. Keep underestimating me."
If nothing else, Daly's words will serve as good motivation for Markos, who admits she's an even better fighter when she gets emotionally charged before competing. The last person to really get under Markos' skin was Felice Herrig before they fought on "The Ultimate Fighter".
Markos finished her less than three minutes into the first round by submission.
"I know how hard I work. I know what I've been through. For somebody to say 'oh she's not a tough opponent', that just fuels me," Markos said. "It really makes me pissed off and I want to prove myself. It bothers me a lot when people underestimate me. It just makes me want to work harder."
