UFC: Aspen Ladd gets third-round TKO after coachs rousing speech dont stop punching her
Going into the third round of her UFC on ESPN 7 fight against Yana Kunitskaya, Aspen Ladd’s coach was not happy.
Jim West fired off a barrage of expletives with his fighter on the stool, telling Ladd to “punch her and don’t stop f****** punching her” until she got the finish at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
It certainly worked. Ladd (9-1) dropped Kunitskaya (12-5, 1 no contest) with a left hook out of the gate and blitzed her for a TKO via ground and pound 33 seconds into the final round.
“I better freakin’ listen – if he’s seeing this, then he’s seeing this, I need to go. And I did,” Ladd said in her post-fight interview in the Octagon.
It was a great way for the 24-year-old to bounce back from the first loss of her career earlier this year, a knockout by top-ranked bantamweight contender Germaine de Randamie after a bad weight cut.
“I could definitely have done better but I’m happy to be back, feels like I’m home,” Ladd said. “It was a good hook but there’s a lot more I can do. As always I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Talking on commentary, UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier and lightweight Paul Felder were impressed by West’s motivational skills.
“Sometimes your corner just has to light that fire under you,” Felder said. “These cornermen and trainers know their fighters better than everybody, they woke her up.
“He’s there to get her motivated and prepared,” Cormier said. “He went out there and did what a coach is meant to do.”
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