Felice Herrig is returning from a long layoff but is not feeling the pressure.
It has been nearly two years since UFC strawweight Felice Herrig last fought in the Octagon. She has been dealing with injuries and recovery but is finally ready to get back in action. She will be taking on Karolina Kowalkiewicz at tonight’s UFC Vegas 56.
The road back to health and athleticism has not been an easy trip for Herrig. She sat down recently with Kevin Iole from Yahoo Sports to discuss her comeback.
“I tore my ACL and meniscus,” she explained. “It’s not like you can kind of train a little, you can’t like train at all and then feeling like it’s never getting better. Like, you’re doing everything, you’re supposed to be progressing. I felt like, every time I would progress, then I would take like 10 steps back because it will get worse. So that’s mentally hard. They say that it’s not if you can physically overcome an ACL surgery, it’s if you can mentally override ACL surgery.”
Her last three fights all ended in losses, however, the four before that were all wins. The beginning of her recent slump was a bout against Kowalkiewicz and now she will be looking to turn it back around against the same opponent. The ups and downs are part of the game and Herrig knows this. After her last loss, she recalled hearing hater calling for her retirement, but Herrig is not ready for that yet. She is coming into this next bout without feeling that pressure.
“But I don’t have that desperation anymore,” she explained. “Like, I have to win, I have to win. No, if I get cut from the UFC I get cut from the UFC. I’m also a great boxer, you know, I can go, I could still fight if I wanted to, you know, other promotions would be willing to take me on, if that’s what I chose to do. But I feel like everything comes down to my performance. If I perform the way I have been performing in training, I will win this fight.”
Do you think Felice Herrig can get back in the win column at UFC Vegas 56?