“She’s been brought in to lose!”
There’s no shortage of confidence in Aisling Daly ahead of a first UFC bout in her home city.
Daly takes on Brazilian strawweight Ericka Almeida on the undercard of UFC Dublin this weekend and Ais the Bash laughed off Almeida’s claims that she would tap Daly in the first round.
“I think it’s comical,” Daly said. “I’ve never been submitted in my career and I don’t know what makes her think that her Jiu Jitsu is going to be at that level where she can tap me.
“I honestly don’t care what she thinks about the fight. What? Is she going to pull guard on me like she did against Juliana de Lima? That’s ideal for me to have somebody pull guard but I don’t care about her. I’m not focused on her at all. I’m just focused on my skills throughout this whole camp and I’ve just improved so much skillwise.
“My Jiu Jitsu has taken a massive jump… Everything has taken a massive jump and I almost feel like a different person than I’ve felt in any other fight before.”
Daly hasn’t fought in Dublin in almost two years with her two UFC bouts taking place in Las Vegas and Canada but the SBG strawweight doesn’t feel any pressure at the prospect of competing in front of an expectant hometown crowd.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” Daly insisted. “I just have excitement.
“To me, it’s a privilege to fight here. I know I keep saying the same thing all the time but when I started competing, there was no UFC women’s division. I was just floating around thinking ‘I love this sport, I want to compete but where am I going to end up with this.’
“This is a dream come true for me to a certain point. Obviously I want that UFC belt but this is such a big milestone on the way. It’s like ‘you have a fight… in the UFC women’s division… in your hometown.’
“Every day I wake up and when I’m getting ready for training, I think ‘woah!'”
The UFC’s strawweight division is the promotion’s youngest and with such few fighters currently competing, a title shot is never more than a fight away for anyone in the top 15. Daly is well aware that an impressive performance against Almeida could set up a shot at Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
“Let’s be honest. The strawweight division is all over the place. There’s not really anybody up there and they’re kind of clutching at straws for title contenders.
“Depending on how dominantly I beat Ericka, I could be one fight away [from a title shot]. I could go out and knock her out in one round and [everyone would think] ‘what the fuck? We need to get her in the mix!’
“It could be anywhere between one more fight, two more fights or three more fights depending on what way the division is going.”
Daly’s head coach John Kavanagh and training partner Paddy Holohan have remained very vocal on the step-up that Daly has made in this fight camp and she agrees that she’s broken through to a whole new level.
“I just feel amazing,” Daly said. “I know my coach has been posting [about me] on social media and in interviews. I’m outworking everybody. There’s nobody in that gym working harder than me, there’s nobody more positive. This is all me. Saturday is all me!
“Ericka… Who is she? She’s nothing! She’s been brought in to lose, that’s how I feel.”
