There is a saying in life that when opportunity knocks at your door, you have to take advantage of that and this is what Alice Yauger plans to do tonight when she meets Rebecca Ruth for the women’s flyweight title in the co-main event of Shamrock FC: FUEL.
Yauger (2-3) is a former boxer that made the transition into MMA in 2013 and after starting her pro MMA career with back to back defeats, she is 2-1 in her last three fights and she is ready to take advantage of the opportunity Shamrock FC CEO Jesse Finney is offering her.
“Time to go for it. At first, I did not understand to much because I have a 2-3 record, but my losses were against real quality opponents,” Yauger told The MMA Report. “I was just like, I was given this opportunity. I am going to go for it and prove I am better than my record is.”
With Yauger being a boxer that made the transition to MMA, how is training different now than when she was a boxer? Simply put, she is smarter now and only spars two times a week.
“I train smarter now. When I boxed, I was in my early twenties. I sparred a lot with head gear,” she explained. “I had an old school boxing trainer at the time and when you prepared for the fight, you sparred every single day. That is not good for the head and not good for the body. I would run several miles a day. I would wake up and run 8-10 miles every single day. Then I would end up spending four hours in the gym at night. I would completely over peak. I would hit my peak and go over it. Then I would pretty much be done come fight night. As I have become older and started fighting again, I became smarter about my training.”
Her opponent tonight will step into the cage with back to back wins and is undefeated in the Shamrock FC cage. Her only career defeat came last year at RFA 19 against Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger. Yauger knows Ruth is tough and will bring the fight to her.
“She is an extremely tough fighter. She throws a lot of punches. She takes it and keeps going. She is a scary fighter since I could hit her with a sack of bricks and she will still come. That is what I have to look out for against her and she is extremely tough.”
Yauger has a prediction on the fight tonight and while she is not predicting how she will win, her prediction is that this will be the fight of the night at Shamrock FC: FUEL.
I love getting the fight of the night. I can not predict what is going to happen. Especially with MMA and the four ounce gloves. All of the different tools that you have in your toolbox. Anything can happen. Absolutely anything can happen. I mean, Ronda Rousey came up with some weird armbar within 14 seconds that she had not done before. Anything can happen. I do not like to predict what is going to happen in the fight or how it’s going to end. I do know Rebecca is a tough fighter and we both are strikers. It’s definitely going to be fight of the night.
Shamrock FC: FUEL will come from the River City Casino in St. Louis, Missouri tonight and the event will be available on the Shamrock FC website for a price of $12.99.