BEC RAWLINGS
“It takes a lot of stress off you,”
Rawlings said. “I’ll be in my hometown,
so I’ll be able to go home when I need
to, I’ll be able to cook-up in my own
kitchen for my weight cut, I’ll have my
car available to me, I’ll have my own
gym where I can go to get workouts in
during fight week. It makes it a lot easier
in that sense. It’s really cool to be able to
fight in your hometown, and I haven’t
really fought that much in Australia
in a long time except for Adelaide. It
was really cool to be able to fight in
Adelaide, so I think it’s gonna be even
better to fight in Brisbane.”
With Rawlings being based out of
Brisbane, fighting in her hometown
on a UFC card was an opportunity that
she was hoping would come her way.
Rawlings hasn’t fought in Brisbane since
2012, where she won her fight in under
a minute. Rawlings, having a big support
base in Brisbane, is certainly going to
mean that she is likely to have a vocal
crowd in her corner for her return to
the Octagon, and that’s something she’s
more than happy with.
“I had so many people hit me up
for pre-sale tickets because they were
so worried they were gonna miss out
on getting a ticket,” Rawlings said.
“It’s pretty cool to see the support.
A lot of people when I fought in
Adelaide were fans and people that
I didn’t really know, so it’s cool to
have a lot of close friends and family
that are gonna be there and I know
they’re not gonna miss it because they
annoyed the crap out of me making
sure they got tickets [laughs].”
For the most part, when a fighter is
competing on international soil, they
do everything they can to better prepare
themselves for the locale, and to ensure
things like long flights don’t affect
their preparation. Rawlings is going
about things a little differently to how
others might by leaving Australia to
train abroad at Alliance MMA and then
coming back to Australia for the fight.
It’s a different way of doing things, but
for Rawlings, it’s deemed necessary.
“I love Australia and if I could put
together a nice fight camp in Australia
and know I’ve gotten the best training
possible, then I’d stay there, but atthis point there’s just not the training
level that I need,” Rawlings said.
“Alliance [MMA] is an amazing gym. I
feel like this is my second home, I feel
like this is my family out here. It’s one
of the best gyms in the world. I’ve
travelled around and I’ve tried out
a few gyms here and there but I feel
that I just belong at Alliance. That’s
why I make the trip, I spend the
money and I spent the time out here,
because it’s worth it.”
Travelling halfway around the
world and then back again before
a fight may seem like a counter-
productive measure. For Rawlings,
though, it’s something that she has
grown accustomed to with her fight
career, and really, she wouldn’t have
it any other way. For her, it’s about
getting the best preparation and not
reading into what other people say
leading up to a fight.
“I don’t really get affected by jet-lag
too much now because I travel so much,
so I’ll be coming back for the fight
around the 12th of March,” Rawlings
said. “That’s about a week or so out
just to get ready for the weight cut and
stuff. Once the training’s done there’s
a certain point of the camp that you’re
just tapering down and you don’t need
to be training as hard, so that’s when
I’ll be travelling back to Australia to get
ready to make weight and fight.“I WAS EXCITED ABOUT
OUR MATCHUP THE FIRST
TIME WE GOT MATCHED.
I WAS BUMMED WHEN
SHE PULLED OUT WITH AN
INJURY. IT’S COOL WE GOT
REMATCHED AND WE GET
TO GO IN THERE.”fightaustralia.com.au FIGHT AUSTRALIA | 35