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Talita Oliveira not above UFC jitters ahead of last-minute debut: ‘I’ll be extremely stressed’
Filed under: News, UFC, Videos
ROTTERDAM – As far as roads to the octagon go, Talita Oliveira’s was a pretty short one.
Oliveira, who stepped in for ex-champ Germaine de Randamie in a UFC Fight Night 115 meeting with Marion Reneau, enters the octagon at Ahoy Rotterdam in the Netherlands with a six-fight pro record that she started building only in 2015.
So, when the 30-year-old Brazilian got the call that she’d landed a coveted UFC spot, she reacted appropriately.
“It was pure happiness,” Oliveira told MMAjunkie through an interpreter. “Euphoria.”
Oliveira (5-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Reneau (7-3-1 MMA, 3-2-1 UFC) meet in a bantamweight main-card bout at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 115 event, which streams on UFC Fight Pass.
As ecstatic as she clearly is about it, Oliveira’s debut comes with some caveats. Not only is she filling in for a former titleholder on extremely short notice – against a much more experienced opponent in her first UFC appearance – it has prime card placement.
Taking those details into account, one can see why de Oliveira is not playing it cool ahead of her crack at the big stage.
“I’ll be extremely stressed (when I walk out),” Oliveira said. “But it’s part of our job.”
While Oliveira does have a few disadvantages compared to Reneau – namely, experience and preparation time – she does carry some assets of her own. When the two faced off this morning for cameras, for instance, it became clear who was the bigger woman. Not to mention, she’s a decade younger than 40-year-old Reneau.
Oliveira also has some momentum to keep her confident. Riding a four-fight winning streak since her sole pro MMA loss, she comes off the first-round finish of Iren Racz at a regional show in Poland.
The submission was the fourth one in Oliveira’s short career – and further validation of the jiu-jitsu chops that she believes will make a difference on Saturday.
“I know that she’s much more experienced than me in the organization,” Oliveira said. “She has many more fights than me. But I think if I do the part of my Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I’ll do well in the fight.”
For more from Oliveira, check out the video above.
And for more on UFC Fight Night 115, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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