Fil-Chinese Ramona Pascual looking to bounce back in UFC Fight Night

MANILA, Philippines — It has been a little more than four months since Filipino-Chinese mixed martial arts fighter Ramona Pascual lost to Joselyn Edwards in UFC 275 in Singapore; spoiling an Asian homecoming.

Although Ramona was born in Hong Kong to Chinese-Filipino parents, she lived in Manila for quite some time before going to Great Britain's former Crown Colony then to the United States.

The loss bedeviled Ramona for a month before she put thoughts of it behind her. However, it lingers still. And now, this is a must-win fight. A loss or even an unimpressive win could possibly mean her getting cut from the world’s premier combat sports organization.

And Pascual, now at 6-4-0 and 0-2 in the UFC, knows she really has to bring it come UFC Fight Night on Sunday, November 6 (7 a.m. Manila time) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, when she takes on newcomer Tamires Vidal (6-1-0) in the opener.

“I was incredibly disappointed and upset,” Pascual recounted. “Even a whole month after the fight I was hating myself for what happened. I didn’t do enough and that was on me.”

“But it’s not very productive carrying it,” she added. “I had to watch the fight over a few times with my coaches and on my own and see what I did wrong. When you are in the cage because you are in the moment, you don’t realize what you are doing wrong. Ultimately, I could have made better decisions.”
 
“I didn’t capitalize on it after I dropped her. I thought that whoever inflicts the most damage wins the fight but it isn’t the case. I wasn’t busy enough or throwing enough quality shots. I have to understand what it means to win a fight. I have to improve my output.”
 
Now it remains to be seen of her output against Vidal, the 24-year old Brazilian who is on a five-match win streak that saw her called up to the UFC. 

“This fight could go a bunch of different ways,” pointed out Pascual of the upcoming match against the Brazilian UFC debutante.

“She could be excited and engage right away and expend a lot of energy that empties her tank. Or she could be overly tentative to gauge what I want to do. If she chooses the latter, then I could dictate the pace.”

For her camp with the Las Vegas-based Syndicate MMA, her coaches had Ramona focus on footwork, movement and polishing her strengths. And her confidence as well.

“Confidence is everything,” she stressed emphatically. “You can know all the techniques in the world but if you don’t have confidence and you cannot access those techniques then it doesn’t count for anything. It is like having money in the bank but you cannot access your money when you need it.”

“I have fought twice and have experienced 30 minutes in the UFC. I surrounded myself with the right people who can tell me what I have to hear, not what I want to hear. Now I have to go out and get that all-important win."
 
UFC Fight Night will be shown in the Philippines on the Premier Sports Channel on Skycable and Cignal as well as on the TapGo TV streaming application.