Bellator 146:Julia "The Jewel" Budd, The Future of Bellator Women's MMA (Interview/Article).

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Bellator 146: Julia "The Jewel" Budd, the future of Bellator Women's MMA.
11/18/2015


Julia "The Jewel" Budd (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)

As this weekend’s thrilling bantamweight title fight between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm indicated, these are certainly intriguing times for Women’s MMA. That being said, the UFC women's bantamweight division isn’t the only weight class which is becoming increasingly more interesting by the minute as Cris “Cyborg” Justino spars with Joe Rogan on Twitter (alluding to possibly not fighting for the UFC over his comments) and Miesha Tate finding herself engulfed in a quagmire of sorts with the UFC brass and perhaps contemplating a move up in weight if her future one day involves Bellator. As these issues work their way out in the public eye, over across the way at Bellator 146 on Friday night a consensus top 3 women’s featherweight will be quietly making her return to MMA after nearly a 9 month long absence: Julia “The Jewel” Bud (7-2).

For Bud, she will be rolling into Friday’s contest against Brazilian opponent Roberta Paim Rovel (4-0) with the momentum of a 5 fight win streak. Her last loss: a 2011 Strikeforce Challengers loss to Ronda Rousey by armbar. For Bud, its the two losses in her career to Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes in 2011 which she attributes to making her a better and tougher overall fighter today:

“I learned so much from them. You learn the most from your losses. I feel like what I take away from the Amanda Nunes loss and my Ronda [Rousey] fight, I feel like it has just made me into a better, stronger, tougher fighter now. I’ve definitely taken the positive from it as well as the negative. I never forget that feeling though.”

“I think I’m definitely a more well-rounded Mixed Martial Artist due to that [Rousey] fight. I think that a lot of the time there is so much hype around her skills that you almost forget what your skills are because your too busy worried about defending the arm bar. I think what I learned a lot from that fight was just making sure what my game and what my goal is and doing that regardless of what the other person’s skills might be. I’m going to fight my fight regardless of them being anything.”

Photo Credit: Bellator MMA
Never one to shy away from competition, Friday’s bout against Rovel will mark Budd’s second fight into her three fight Bellator contract, and you get the sense one day she would like to avenge that Rousey loss. When questioned about her willingness to also one day fight Miesha Tate or Cyborg if the circumstances fell into place somehow in Bellator, she didn’t hesitate:

On Cyborg- “I think I would be ready to go if that fight was to ever happen. I’ve been keeping my eyes set to the girls that are signed to the division in my circle. But, I would be down for it if it were to ever come to fruition for sure.”

On Miesha Tate:- “Of course, anyone. I’ve never turned down fights. I’ve never been one to shy away from competition so I wouldn’t start now. I’ve been totally focused on who I have ahead of me, but for sure I would be down for anyone they [Bellator] brought in.”

For Budd, her confidence is rooted in her intense year round training regimen which consists of training 2 to 3 times per day where she does a mix of grappling, Jiu jitsu, MMA, kickboxing, muay thai, pad work, sparring, and cardio. The evolution of Budd’s training over time from the start of her MMA career to today she notes is an important distinction:

“I think the difference from the beginning of my career until now is that I stay in shape all year round. Then, when I go into training camp it isn’t such a shock to my body. Before, when I first started fighting I would go through extreme 8 week training camps and then not do anything for a month and a half and then try to get back into shape and lose weight. I think that was detrimental in the long run because it was such a shock to my body that I spend most of my time trying to get into shape. Since 2012, I have just trained regularly and then now when I am doing 2 a days or 3 a days its not hard on my body at all. The training camps are tough, but they’re definitely a lot easier than I used to have.”

Photo Credit: Bellator MMA
Still, for Budd, she knows she has a propensity to overtrain as a fighter and often times her coach (who has been with her in both her Muay Thai and MMA career) will step in and tell her when he feels she needs to take a step away from the gym and take some time off for recovery.

When asked about what compelled her to want to sign with Bellator, Budd acknowledged Bellator CEO Scott Coker played a large determining factor:

“It feels like Strikforce part II. I think that him [Scott Coker] being in charge, he has always had a commitment to the women’s fighting. Long before the UFC was even willing to have a women’s division, he [Coker] was willing to put us out there and develop stars of us. I feel blessed to be fighting for him, and Bellator is such a huge organization. I feel lucky to be a part of it, and I want to prove I belong at the top as one of their champions and promote them.”

Although the Bellator women's featherweight division appears rather sparse on talent at the moment outside of herself and Marlos Coenen, Budd expects that to change soon:

“I think it’s going to get a lot more promotion coming up. I know that my goal is to fight for the title, and that they have also talked about having a title belt for the featherweight division. So yea, I’ve got to solidify that on Friday and get another win under my belt or that doesn’t happen. In the big picture of what this fight means for me, yea that fight solidifies my fight with most likely Marlos [Coenen] and for the title.”

Leading up to Friday’s fight against Rovel, Budd hasn’t allowed her mind to wonder beyond the current challenge at hand. She knows the linchpin to her aspirations of becoming the new face of Bellator Women’s MMA all hinge on getting her hand raised in victory in Thackerville, Oklahoma.

“I think that her strengths are her jiu jitsu and maybe her aggressiveness. She comes forward and is aggressive. I think that is her strength. I think that basically my plan is to put the pressure on her and just keep the pressure on her the whole time and use my athleticism and angles and my striking. You know, beat her at every at every aspect.”

Photo Credit: Bellator MMA
What Budd hopes to accomplish next with a victory is to get right back in the gym training and preparing to fight for the Bellator Women’s Featherweight World Title:

“I’d love to get right back into it. This training camp has gone so well. That’s all God willing Friday night no injuries and everything happens accordingly then I will be right back into it. I want to fight a lot. I want to fight at least 3 times, and I want to fight for that title. I want to stay on the upward angle that I have been going.”

Interesting fighter fact: "I don’t have any sponsors. I never started fighting for the money. It’s like a nice bonus now that I am getting paid, but I’ve got it pretty good. My coach and I have an awesome group of fighters here. I’ve been training here since 2004, and I have everything here at my fingertips. It’s pretty awesome."

Best of Luck Julia at Bellator 146 and thank you for your time.
 

ECC170

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Jan 23, 2015
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Shes a fkn savage..Good write up homie..keep them coming...youd be a good source for getting these fighters over here for Q and A's...