Marina did well in Tuffnuff, but was maybe rushed along because of her association with Honda.
She still needs some serious training, but people will still watch her fight with a losing record because of her name just like Kaitlin Young. But she won't be hitting any big pay days unless something changes.
If she is in it because she loves to fight, then the sport still has room for her. If she wants Honda money, she better get a Hollywood agent and protect her pretty face.
Yeah, she was crushing people at TUFF-N-UFF. Some serious talent at TNU and they regularly send male and female fighters to the UFC and Invicta. Everyone knew striking was her weakness, hopefully she fixes it because her ground game is legit.
TUFF-N-UFF did not rush her along due to any association. She was simply destroying their fighters and needed to move on to the pro leagues. I think the issue is that she then jumped right to the big leagues once she went pro and rode a wave of confidence to disaster.
I work with TUFF-N-UFF and was good friends with the late Barry Meyer. They try really hard not to push people too hard or too fast from everything I've seen.
I tell young fighters this all the time. MMA is a shark tank at all levels, some of the most dangerous fighters are people with an 0-0 record you know nothing about as they could have a successful career in other combat sports or have been marinating in a gym for years. That being what it is, the shark tank gets much more frightening at the advanced amateur and lower tier professional leagues. Too many fighters have a lot of success at these early stages and then jump right into the deep end of the pool only to get eaten.
Confidence is a dual edged sword and should be tempered with humility.
