De La Rosa said she paid close attention to Sandhagen over the last few weeks, noting his particular way of movement and how he mixes his grappling and striking.
Of course, training in Denver means living in an AirBnB and away from her husband and daughter, Zaylyn, back home in Texas. Before that, De La Rosa said she and Mark were still able to get their normal amount of work in during the early parts of the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdowns because they had a key to the gym. And while the stay-at-home experience was different for everyone, especially parents, De La Rosa said it was great to have the extra time together. With the surplus of downtime, she admitted to starting a new hobby of crocheting, which she described as “super lame,” although UFC heavyweight Maurice “The Crochet Boss” Greene probably takes exception to that.
Regardless, De La Rosa hasn’t dealt with anything at home for the last six weeks while in Colorado. She said her family visited her during camp, and Mark would help wrap up the last of camp before fight week, but De La Rosa did enjoy the ability to just take care of herself, her training and her fight.
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“All I do is eat, train and sleep,” De La Rosa said. “It’s nice to be able to just focus on that and not to worry about making sure my family is good, taken care of and all those things back home.”
That’s an ideal setup as she approaches her toughest test yet. Araujo is 8-2 with just one win going the distance, and she is likely hungry after dropping a unanimous decision to Jessica Eye at UFC 245. De La Rosa, who was originally scheduled to fight Maryna Moroz, perked up when plans changed a month before the bout.
“It actually made me a lot more excited for it,” she said. “(Araujo) is a top-8 fighter, and I think her last fight was supposed to be, if she won that, she would be fighting for the title. I think it’s just a bigger fight for me, and I’m really excited for it.”
Still just 25 years old, De La Rosa has put herself in a solid position in the wide-open flyweight division. Sometimes, getting thrown in the fire hurts a fighter more than anything. But in some cases, an athlete can learn on the fly at the highest level and, so far, that is exactly what De La Rosa has done.
On September 5, with the help of a new camp and more time in the Octagon, she gets another chance to show off the next version of herself, something that is most exciting to her.
“Every fight, I’m just getting more and more comfortable in there,” she said. “I went straight pro, so I wasn’t able to get all the amateur experience and everything. I feel like I’m just now starting to be able to put everything together and be able to showcase all my skills.”
