“For one, I got my body healthy and started feeling like myself, really tapped into some different things,” Pennington said when asked what has clicked over these last four fights. “I started focusing a lot on my health and recovery.
“Mentally, I’ve matured. I pretty much just got out of my own way. I was in my own way constantly.
“I fought girls where — all the losses that I have are decisions, and not to take anything away from them, but a lot of those fights, I beat myself before going out there. This sport is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical, and so when your head isn’t right, it doesn’t work, and that has been the big difference.
“I really started focusing on the mental as well as the physical,” Pennington added. “As much work as I put in physically, I started putting that much work in mentally with different behind the scenes things.”
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That includes making changes when it comes to some of the coaches she works with and who will be cornering her, as well as finally finding a sports psychologist she clicks with.
“I’ve put myself in vulnerable positions in order to grow, and it’s really helped me,” she said. “Everything has been different.”
That includes the way she’s approaching her fights, and the thing she’s focused on heading into battle this weekend.
