Filipino-American mixed martial artist Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton returns to the Octagon for the first time this year on Friday, when she takes on Irina Mazepa in the undercard of ONE: Spirit of Champions at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The last time Julaton fought, she earned a unanimous decision win over Walaa Abas Kamaly at ONE: Warrior’s Way, also at the MOA Arena, in December 2014.
Make no mistake – Julaton kept herself busy in the year between MMA fights. She fought a boxing match once — beating Yolada Segura in Mexico in March — but for the most part, she immersed herself in the culture of MMA in the hopes of becoming a complete fighter once she returned to the Octagon.
She is confident that the work she put in all year has paid off, and that she can show it on Friday night in front of her hometown fans.
“My first three (MMA) fights, for anyone watching it, you can go ahead and just delete that image, because that’s not me,” Julaton said Tuesday, ahead of an open workout.
“I feel like I was more of a boxer stepping into the cage, vs. now – I feel like I’m more of an MMA fighter stepping into the cage,” she revealed.
“So yeah. Watch it all you want, the first three fights. It’s not happening this Friday.”
‘For the better’
Julaton is not worried about the long breaks between her MMA fights, and even believes that the layoff is “probably for the better.”
“I really gotta focus,” she said. “You gotta imagine, I’m used to going to a boxing gym and you understand the culture. I had to change my whole environment (when I got into MMA).”
“I’m going to a wrestling room with mats on the floor, mats on the wall, and I’m going against athletes who understand grappling, who understanding wrestling,” she added. “It’s not like I was going into kindergarten wrestling.”
“I’m doing my kindergarten wrestling against wrestlers who have been wrestling since they were a kid. So it’s not like I’m in MMA school where everyone is learning the same things… Everything that I’m learning, I have to apply it right away.”
After a decade in boxing, Julaton had to learn all over again, and the process was not an easy one.
“I spent over 10 years in boxing, and there, I learned to live and die with my fists. In MMA, I kinda have to let that go, so your ego has to go down a bit,” she revealed.
“I feel like (the year off) was good, so I can really understand.”
Boxing tendencies
Julaton does admit that it took “a while” before she was able to fully overcome her boxing tendencies and transition into really thinking like an MMA fighter.
“It was just about changing my view point,” she said. “Just changing my eyes from, ‘Okay, I’m here, I’m like, this person is kicking, but they can’t handle a punch, they don’t know a jab.'”
“Now, it’s like, okay, if they’re gonna kick, I can use my boxing to set up a takedown. So like, my strategy is different,” she added.
Julaton collected a 2-1 win-loss record in her first three fights, but said multiple times during Tuesday’s interview that she has completely changed since then and is now more of an MMA fighter than a boxer.
“It took some time,” she said of her progress. “I think it wasn’t until this camp – and it was a really long camp, about 16 weeks, not the normal eight weeks. We started putting everything all together.”
She gives tremendous credit to her trainer, Ricky Lundell, a many-time world champion, who patiently worked with her all throughout the year and turned her into a more well-rounded fighter.
“He wanted me to really focus on wrestling for the first part of the year, and then after that, he wanted me to start transitioning into everything else. So he wanted me to start really early, without even realizing that we were gonna be on this card,” Julaton said.
By the time Julaton started sparring, she had understood the differences in how her body works when she’s boxing and when she’s doing MMA. “Your heart rate is a little bit different,” she said. “Your blood flow is different, your lungs burn a little bit differently.”
“It’s just been a work in progress,” Julaton admitted. “I’m just glad that we took a year to really understand what we need to.”
Courtesy of: ABS CBN News