The undefeated Venezuelan Piera ‘La Fiera’ Rodríguez will make her long-awaited debut in the UFC on March 9when he faces Kai Hansen at UFC 273. Prior to her premiere in the UFC octagon, the Venezuelan spoke exclusively for the podcast KO a la Carrera de Diario ASconducted by Álvaro Carrera and Andrés Lichtveld.
2020, a difficult year
Every success story has difficulties, and Piera Rodríguez’s is no different. After competing in Panama and Spain, she won all of her fights by finish, the Venezuelan stopped her professional activity due to the pandemicHowever, the isolation made her take advantage of the time and work harder.
“In 2020 I was having a hard time, I got injured, I had five fights cancelled, I prepared five times and I couldn’t fight. It was amazing how bad things were going in my lifeRodríguez explained. “People known to covid died, I didn’t know what to do with my career.” “I was locked up, in Spain, we couldn’t leave home and I kept training. My escape route was to train, to drain and be stronger. I had two dumbbells and some rubber bands, which my coach lent me. I got like a bull, super strong, locked up in those four walls.”
World champion in LFA
The opportunity finally came to fight again, this time in the United States, for an important company, considered the previous step to the UFC. “They told me that there was a possibility of fighting in LFA, and I told them that I was going to fight anyway, buy my ticket and go to the United States so as not to risk the fightRodríguez said. “When I got there I had nowhere to sleep, I stayed in the gym, it was crazy.”
“When I am a week away from the fight, they inform me that my rival was injured, another fight canceled. I wanted to die, I was in the United States with the money counted, sleeping in the gym, I had to fight immediately“. There was a light at the end of the tunnel for the Venezuelan, since she would have the opportunity to fight for the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) world championship, against an experienced opponent, such as the Ukrainian Svetlana Gotsyk.
“Days later my manager tells me that there is a girl willing to fight, but that she was very tough, so if she accepted the fight, it would be for the title“Rodríguez explained. “Well, come on, against a girl who tripled my number of fights, but I wasn’t going to throw away everything I’d done to be there. I would fight her or whoever, if it was for a championship even more”. Rodríguez took the victory by technical knockout in the fifth round, to proclaim herself the strawweight world champion. The Venezuelan was already at the gates of the UFC.
Impress Dana White in the Contender Series
At the end of 2021, Rodríguez received the opportunity to fight in the Dana White Contender Series, knowing that with a convincing victory against the president of the UFC, he could receive the dream contract with the promotion, which he obtained after defeating the Brazilian Valesca Machado by unanimous decision. “When Dana called me and I was in the chair waiting for the result, I wanted to scream, cry, laugh, there were so many emotions at the same time“confessed the Venezuelan. “It was something very nice, a roller coaster, I didn’t know if I was going to make it, I had nerves, anxiety and it ended up being an incredible moment in my career.”
“I realized that it was the best thing that could have happened, I gained an incredible experience in the Contender Series that prepared me a lot for this upcoming debut.. It is not the same Piera that would have entered the UFC directly after winning the LFA title, this one that she will enter after living the experience of the Contender Series “.
With an eye on Kai Hansen and UFC 273
Piera Rodríguez will fulfill her dream of debuting in the UFC, although it will not be just any event, since she will be competing in a numbered one, full of figures and fights with the best ranked, without a doubt the most striking card of the year to date. “I still can’t believe that my debut is on such a big and important card, wow, I’m not going to enter any event, but one that many people will be watching“Rodríguez affirmed. “It is very exciting, I will be able to feel the stands again, I have time without fighting with the public over covid issues.”
“I never prepare for the next fight, I always do it to be the best, the top and to be champion one day. Now it’s time with Kai Hansen. I come with the mentality of being the best, she is the next rival and she is very good, but my goal is me, what am I going to do to improve“.
From the lowest in Venezuela to the UFC
Already inside the UFC and living in her own flesh the experience of competing at the highest level, Piera Rodríguez remembers her beginnings and the conditions in which she began to train, in Zulia State, Venezuela. “They invited me to do boxing, it caught my attention as a hobby to train and sweat, but I didn’t see it as a career“, explained the Venezuelan. “I started doing it and I started to like it because it was my way of draining my stress, I forgot all the problems, I came out discharged, like new.”
Even in the worst conditions to prepare, you can evolve as long as you have the will to improve and learn. “I started training boxing in a gym that didn’t even have bathrooms., I was going to relieve myself in the bush, our bags and gloves were torn, we fought with torn gloves, lint got into our eyes. I started at the bottom of the sport.”
“If you are humble and understand that you can learn from anyone, whatever, that you can capture ideas and growno matter where you come from or how difficult life is, you go on and on until eventually things happen, it’s a matter of perseverance,” Rodríguez explained. “There are people who have more talent than me for this, they put on the gloves for the first time and they are machines, not me, nor I knew how to move, my teacher laughed at me, he told me that I didn’t even know how to dance, because I had no rhythm, now look, I’m going to debut in the UFC“.
