Katie Perez will debut in Rizin FF against Kate Lotus on May 10th. With her first fight in one of the biggest promotions in the world coming against a surging contender with a lot of combative cache in Lotus, when discussing this opportunity, all factors considered, Katie Perez said [viaBowks Talking Bouts],

“Yeah, it’s a big deal for me. It’s very exciting. It feels like a natural culmination of a lot of effort, time that’s been put in consistently. It’s kind of one of those like you keep grinding, grinding, grinding, keep your head down, and the reward for that is opportunity. You just kind of have to keep working at it. I definitely have a checkered record in terms of my overall success. A lot of that has to do with the mind space I’ve been in and the way I’ve been able to apply myself in my fights.”

“But I do believe that the quality of training I have, my skill level, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be. This is just the next step on my journey. It’s not like a finishing point. It’s like the next step for the next chapter. So, I’m very excited.”

When asked if she is working with a sports psychologist and if not, what has made the difference in overcoming this mental hurdle, Katie Perez stated [viaBowks Talking Bouts],

“No. Yeah, absolutely. I think people say it a lot that like fighting is 90% mental and 10% physical. All of us focus on the physical. We’re training six days a week, hours every day, classes and learning. But then like hard application whether it’s sparring, or rolling, or strength and conditioning programs. So like we all you know pay lip service to the fact that it’s 90% mental and 10% physical.”

“But I think the training tends to reflect an emphasis on the physical and you just sort of forget to cultivate that mindset. I know throughout my career, I’ve struggled a lot with imposter syndrome. With not believing that I’m capable of this. I still have a hard time sometimes thinking of myself as an athlete. Like I’ll be like I’m an athletic person.”

“I’ve been a pro athlete for like six years and like getting paid to do a sport. So, it’s not like a fake thing, and I’m doing at a high level with really intense competition. Absolutely loving it, dedicated my life to this. My sleep schedule, my diet, everything is around this. But I still sometimes have a hard time kind of clicking the gears on ‘I am a professional athlete.’ I am an MMA fighter, these things.”

“The labels have a hard time like jelling with the identity of the person, I think for me anyway. A lot of it has to do with self-worth issues [and] kind of like where I came from when I started fighting. In a lot of ways, I started training to find myself again and to sort of reclaim me a bit. I may not have intentionally done that but it was definitely the subconscious effort has been learning to invest in myself. Care about myself, self-discipline as a form of self-love.”

“So yeah, in previous fights I’ve sometimes been hesitant, tentative, afraid of messing up, not really afraid of getting hurt. I’ve been fortunate in my career to not really sustain any terrible damage or anything like that. Knock on wood because it’s combat sport. It’s going to happen at some point to somebody, but it’s not something that like I live in fear of. It’s definitely like a fear of messing up, of making a stupid mistake.”

“Of embarrassing my coach, my team, of putting on a performance that’s like, oh my gosh, and I’ve done performances like that. I’ve guaranteed those performances by being afraid of them. That’s something I’ve been grappling with really intensely. Not just for this fight camp, but like life in general over the last few years. Like I said, seeking out a sports psychologist is a great effort.”

Source: LowKickMMA.com