Loma Lookboonmee takes on a challenge bigger than any singular opponent that could stand across the cage from her when she steps in there for battle. The Bangtao Muay Thai product will clash with Alexia Thainara as part of UFC’s foray into Perth, Australia on September 27th in an intriguing strawweight fight.
Loma Lookboonmee appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to touch on several subjects ahead of this fight and when touching upon her viewpoints o this Thainara clash, Lookboonmee said,
“So I’m aware of my opponent. I know what she’s good at. I know her strengths, I know her weaknesses. My coaches and me, we’ve got a good plan. I’m training very hard, and I think what really matters and I think when I get in there, the person that I need to beat is myself.”
“You know, that’s what matters to me, and that’s the real battle. If I can do that, then I’ve already won. For me, that’s myself, that’s the focus. I’m not focused on my opponent. I’m focused on myself, I’m focused on winning against myself. That’s my battle that I’m fighting.”
The importance of confidence as well as elbowing at UFC Perth
There are specific opponent to opponent considerations though and when getting into some of the localized machinations of the matchup for this UFC Perth bout later this week, Lookboonmee stated,
“As for training, my opponent is a black belt. George Hickman, he’s like you elbow her once, now she’s a brown belt. You elbow her again, now she’s purple. Elbow her again, she’s blue. Yeah and he’s like you just keep elbowing her [laughs] and she’s just going to keep going down.”
“I told him, you know I’m not overly confident in my ground game and he said I’m more confident in your ground game. Like I’m confident in it and that meant a lot to me.”