Outside the Octagon
Hosted by Charleston K. Payne and Jude Starns, where every episode is the MAIN EVENT! The guys cover all MMA major events, previewing and recapping while also bringing in many MMA guests from all walks of life!
Outside the Octagon
Entrepreneurship Meets MMA: Miranda Maverick's Unique Path
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Ever wondered how a UFC fighter balances the intense demands of the octagon with the serene world of artistic creation? Join us as we chat with the incredibly talented Miranda "Fear the" Maverick, who shares the remarkable story of her dual passions. From discovering her love for pencil sketches at age 11 to advocating for better pay and benefits for fighters, Miranda reveals how drawing isn't just a hobby but a vital mental escape and an additional source of income. Her insights into the financial realities of a fighting career and the importance of alternative revenue streams are eye-opening.
Our conversation takes an entrepreneurial turn as Miranda introduces us to Prowler Pickles, her thriving pickle business born out of a love for homesteading. With flavors like spicy barbecue, this isn't your average pickle company. Miranda talks about the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship with her fighting career and underscores the significance of leveraging a fighter's platform to build sustainable businesses for life after sports. Her journey from homesteading to business ownership offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and pickle aficionados alike.
Finally, we journey through Miranda's MMA career, from practicing jujitsu with her siblings at home to becoming a formidable force in the UFC. Inspired by the legendary Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche fight, Miranda's relentless pursuit of excellence has seen her grow in both grappling and striking. We explore her future aspirations, including a potential rematch with Macy Barber, and discuss the mental and strategic aspects of preparing for a fight. Don't miss this compelling episode filled with inspiration, entrepreneurial wisdom, and the unique blend of fighting and artistry that defines Miranda Maverick.
All right, what's going on, everybody, and thank you so much for joining us for our second guest episode we're able to do. I'm the host, charleston Payne. To my left we got Jude Storms, the legend, the greatest co-host of all time, and joining us today we got an absolutely incredible UFC fighter, miranda Fear the Maverick. Miranda, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me, absolutely. So to start things off, I mean, first of all, like you're, you're an incredible UFC fighter. You're a great fighter, you've got a great resume built up, but you also do the Miranda Miranda masterpieces, the Maverick masterpiece of star, and I mean I've looked at some of your artwork through like Instagram and stuff.
Speaker 2:You've got some great great artwork drawn up.
Speaker 1:You know what kind of got you into that.
Speaker 2:You know, that was kind of my first passion. I guess you'd say it's the first thing that I ever started doing. When I was 11, we had a stupid little school project, middle school, where they're like okay, we're going to draw self-portraits, they give you a picture of you. They took and printed out. You were supposed to trace it and then learn shading. I decided I wasn't going to trace it, I was going to just try it freestyle.
Speaker 2:I'd always been decent at coloring in lines and drawing stupid little scenes, but nothing that was realistic, you know. And so I gave it a try and I ended up doing really well, it looked just like me and my dad and mom were amazed and they were like, do it again. Right, like try that again. And so I did. I drew a few different people and at 11 years old, started my own business of drawing pencil sketches it used to be called Art of the Maverick very original, I know and started selling pencil sketches for like $10, $20. So somewhere out there in the world there's somebody with a pencil sketch from 12-year-old Miranda for like 20 bucks.
Speaker 1:Wow, how cool is that man. I wish I could be that person Like that's awesome, that's from. Could be that person like that's awesome, that's from. Like the very beginning. You know that that's the start of Miranda Maverick. Like before, you are who you are now.
Speaker 2:You know yep, and I've never taken an art class or anything like that. Um, I've kind of just learned over time. I even went on a long hiatus throughout college where I didn't really draw much at all. Um, and that was just because I was so busy. You know, I had my full-time job, I had full-time training and I had full-time school, so it was just a lot. There was no time for me to draw, no space, even with where I lived. And now, a few years later, I decided to pick up the pencil and try again. And here we are. Okay, wow, yeah that's awesome.
Speaker 3:So, with the art and everything, I was just going to ask, you know, do you find that the artist carried anything over, like to MMA, like some of the drawings, some of the emotions that you think that anything from artwork or that hobby has translated to your career, to your?
Speaker 2:career. It gives me balance, so I guess in that way it does. Art for me is like my escape. It's my way of giving myself mental decompression, getting myself put into another world where a lot of people put on headphones and listen to music, you know, or read a book and sometimes I like reading too but for me it's sitting down and writing things or it's sitting down and drawing. So that's kind of my escape from the real world, so to speak. And I also do commissioned art, so I sell my artwork. If anybody has any pictures they want drawn, I do that kind of stuff. So usually it ends up not only being an escape from reality but also makes a little money on the side, which is nice.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I mean that's really cool, especially like having something set on the side. You know, because there's been the arguments about UFC and the pay and stuff like that previously. People bring that up pretty often. I don't really know how you stand on that and we're not really going to get into that because that's more personal and you can't go that route.
Speaker 2:I can at least comment on it. I won't do anything specific, but I definitely don't think fighters get paid enough compared to the profits that the UFC makes off of us. We're one of the only sports that doesn't have any kind of annual pay, any kind of if you get hurt pay like we're just done, like nobody pays us, some kind of sit on the bench fee like NBA or NFL or anything like that You're done. You get hurt on fight, say it's the day before the fight and you have a bad weight cut and you end up having medical issues. You don't get paid a dime, you get sent back home and that's it, plus all your cost of medical, cost of travel, all that. So it's really unfortunate from that aspect. I do think there should be something to where fighters get paid annually, or something right Like a guaranteed pay for a fight, no matter what kind of like one does. I think they do a good job of that. But at the same time UFC is monopolized so much that we can't really complain about pay because nobody else is paying us any better. So there's the ups and downs of that and that's why it's myself as a fighter I make sure that I have other avenues where I can make money.
Speaker 2:I have my education. I still work full time in case I ever do get hurt and all of a sudden have to be out of a fight or out of the career as a whole or say a fight doesn't pan out and I don't get paid for another six months, like I've got to have a backup. And a lot of fighters get done with their career and end up going back to work as assistant coaches at a local gym or back to a nine to five, and I never want to have to do that. So I've started up a couple of businesses of my own and and try to be smart about where I put my money.
Speaker 1:Man, that's, that's incredible. That's awesome, like the fact that you kind of have it all kind of lined out and stuff and, like I was saying before, like how you have something on the side that brings it in, and I personally did not know that. It's like you do like full time work on the side and stuff, so like building off of that a little bit like what did you study in college?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I went to get my doctorate in industrial psychology. I ended up only getting my master's. They actually like we won't get into it too much, but they basically kicked me out for doing MMA. They gave me a choice of pursue the doctorate or pursue MMA. Clearly I chose MMA. I could always go back and get more schooling if I wanted. But I did get my master's degree in IO psychology and ended up getting a job offer within like three days of getting kicked out, if you want to call it that, from the Hershey company the chocolate company and my boss was a fan and he didn't even know about the schooling. He basically was like hey, I saw, you're getting your PhD in this. We might have a job for you if you want it. And I was like sweet yeah, so I've been working for them for almost three years now.
Speaker 1:Sweet yeah, so I've been working for them for almost three years now and now I work full time. It started out as like a 10 hours a week kind of gig contracted employee and now I work full time for them as a statistician. So I used to focus on behavioral statistics. Now I focus on actual, like math statistics weigh in and out, like is there anything that, like you wish you could have done different, like maybe took a step back from MMA and focus more to get that doctorate or are you very happy with what you did and stuck with the MMA and still got your degree?
Speaker 2:I'm very happy with what I did because it wasn't like I wasn't keeping up with my education. I had straight A's. When they told me that and gave me the ultimatum, it was honestly ridiculous. They basically accused me of cheating because they didn't see how I was keeping up with all of it Because along with schooling I was working for them as a teaching assistant, so doing like online classes for them. I had a full-time job at a UFC gym that was local and I did my training and they were like we don't see how this is possible. And I was like because I do nothing else, I work, I work, I work, I work and made it happen and made my dreams happen.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of where I'm still at in life. You know I'm hustling, trying to get everything I can before I start to have a family and things have to slow down for me, so kind of just choosing my paths. The Hershey job is fully remote, very flexible, so it allows me kind of times in between trainings, in the middle of the night if I have to like, whenever I have to get things done. And, if you didn't know, I also have my pickle business that I started. I'm sure you've seen it here or there? I don't believe. I've seen that one.
Speaker 1:What's that about?
Speaker 2:No, okay, so it's Prowler Pickles, so you'll have to check it out.
Speaker 1:If you guys like pickles, you're definitely missing out, it's prowlerpicklescom like prowler, like a prowling lion, and I'll go order something like right now. I'll go order something like like yeah, that'd be awesome, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 2:Pickels dot com, though they even mentioned it in my last fight on the commentary, which was pretty cool. But I started making my own pickles. I grew up homesteading, knew how to vacuum, seal food, butcher animals, canned food, all that. And I was canning some food for my parents and took a video of it for my story and I was like homesteading people were like, hey, would you sell a jar or two of that? And I was like I don't know if it'd be worth it, you know for a couple of people. And I started talking about it and wrote down all the finances and wrote down the costs. I was like let me see if this works, and ended up posting like hey, if I have a pickle business, who would buy from me? Got a lot of positive response really quickly and so I started it up. It's been been out since December. I'm in a couple of small stores already and working my way up and I make 11 different flavors. So they're like spicy, sweet, um, I have sour ones, I have the traditional flavors.
Speaker 1:I got it all oh, my god, my, my dad's gonna love that, like as soon as I tell him like I had a guest on today and she has a pickle company like it's over with from there for me too, like that is incredible, like anybody listening. Like I'm very glad you're able to kind of plug that into the episode because, at least from where I'm from, we all love pickles, you know down here in south yeah I've got spicy dill, spicy garlic dill.
Speaker 2:I got sweet fire. I got zesty bread and butter.
Speaker 1:I got all kinds of one oh my god, I'm getting excited, right now like how quick can you get a shift here?
Speaker 2:you know, I can get a shift within like four days. If you order, I'll ship out tomorrow that might be a good deal right there.
Speaker 1:I might have to to do that.
Speaker 2:Do it. I even have spicy barbecue. It's my newest flavor, you should check it out. It's a refrigerator pickle, so that'll stay in the refrigerator, but the spicy barbecue are probably my fan favorites right now. That and the spicy dill.
Speaker 1:Spicy barbecue pickle. That sounds like. First of all, it sounds new, like that sounds very innovative. You know, like, like, what an incredible. How did you come up with that? Was it something that was?
Speaker 2:like I love barbecue stuff and I'm not so I know this sounds weird, because I have a pickle business, but I don't care for dill that much. I'm not a huge dill person. I like the sweet stuff, like the bread and butter, the sweet pickles, all that. And I was like man, I love barbecue and what would it be like to have like a barbecue pickle on like a burger or something like that would be awesome. And so I just started experimenting like literally made 10 different ones and just tried my best, and I was like I don't really like these tomato based ones. They ended up kind of ketchup, you know, and I was like, and so I came up with a spicy barbecue and I was like this is pretty freaking good good. So yeah, that's just how it happened lots of taste testing definitely I believe that.
Speaker 3:No, I just um, I want to take a second to say I really do like what you're doing with all these businesses, because we talked about that a few episodes ago fighters not being paid enough. So it's nice that they can use their brand to really capitalize and start businesses so that way, after they're done fighting, they have something to fall back on. So I really do like what you're doing. I'm going to have to check that out.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, I wish more fighters, would. You know? It's just a matter of doing the work and a lot of people are like, oh, it's not worth it, and I'm like it's takes off and that's just how it is. You know, in life for anyone, I've had a lot of things that I've tried to start, even my gear company, where I have my own glove brand, I have my own rash guards, like all that, and it's like, well, I sell those to like specific fans and I sell them when I'm doing meet and greets, but other than that, it's just for exposure, you know to where pickles kind of go to anyone. They don't have to be an MMA fan right, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's one thing like he was saying that we talked about it was like, I think, two episodes ago where it's like the UFC doesn't pay enough, in a sense, but at the same time, like it does, in a sense, also give the fighters like a bigger platform to build themselves a brand, and I really like that's one thing I appreciate in a lot of fighters the ones that do take advantage of the opportunity of being connected to the ufc automatically, in a sense does kind of give you a step over for sure for sure, well, I'm glad you guys didn't know some of that.
Speaker 2:Now you got a bunch of new fun facts there yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean that's definitely gonna be something we'll include on the thumbnail and stuff like that. You know he does all the thumbnail work and he does a great job with it, so I'm sure he'll be really nice for it. But uh, moving on a little bit, like how did you find like your your passion for mma, like what got you started in the sport?
Speaker 2:yeah, kind of a long story. There's several avenues to it. Uh one, I watched ufc.
Speaker 2:Growing up, my dad was big about self-defense, keeping his family safe. We had somebody in my family that was sexually assaulted when they were young. So my dad took it very, very seriously as he raised us and we'd literally roll around in the living room for like one hour a day on average and it wasn't just like the playful stuff that most families do Like. We were learning, like watching old UFC fights, turning on jujitsu videos from YouTube, pausing them and learning these moves. None of us had any experience prior, but my dad got to where he would teach us the arm bars, teach us rear naked chokes, like the basics, right. It's not like we were world champs from being at home in the living room, but I knew how to take somebody down. I knew how to submit them if they didn't know anything. And when I was 13, I think the first women's MMA fight happened Maybe I was 14. But Ronda Rousey versus Liz Karmouche in the UFC. I know there was women's MMA before that, but we didn't watch any other promotion, so I had no idea. And when I saw it I was like, oh my goodness, women do this? And my dad was like, yeah, they do. You know, you were raised for this, you could, you could be a world champion someday. And I was like I don't want punched in the face so fast forward. You know, like three, four years, I guess not even that, like two years.
Speaker 2:When I turned 16, I was like, all right, I'm old enough to drive myself. Now I want to go to an actual gym and learn jujitsu, like see if I can compete against these other people, cause I was always an athlete. I was always very strong, like farm strong, I guess, you'd say. And I was like, let me try out this jujitsu thing at an actual gym. So I did, found a way to pay for it.
Speaker 2:And fun fact with that too is my siblings helped me cut wood, and my dad helped too, but sold firewood for my first few months of gym fees, and that's how I paid for the gym. And so started training in jujitsu. And then, when I almost turned 18, like was 17 and a half, they were like you know, 18 years old is the legal limit in Missouri. If you'd like to fight MMA, you might as well give it a shot. I was like, yeah, maybe, and I eventually convinced myself to do it. And if I love to fight and liked it and ended up winning, I would go be the best I could be, and if I ended up losing that fight or just not liking it, I would say there we go, check off the bucket list and we're done. I obviously won it, ended up winning it in the first round against a girl who had about four years of experience, and the rest is kind of history.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. So how long? So you said you've been doing this since pretty young. You know, like, like, what are some of the biggest things that you've improved on in your game. Since, like, you really like the door open for you and you really got like what's some of your major improvements?
Speaker 1:and also, like, gonna go back a few sentences of what you said whenever you mentioned Liz Carmucci, it was actually really awesome that you said that, because she was the first guest that we ever had on our podcast oh, wow, okay, that's awesome super like I don't know if you ever got the chance to meet her or have a conversation with her before, but like super, super nice person, like I had such a great time interviewing her that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I haven't met her in person at least.
Speaker 1:I think I might have messaged her a couple times, but it's probably back when I was a nobody yeah, I mean, like the fact that she like like that was the very beginning of our podcast too, like I think we maybe have like five followers on instagram whenever she, whenever she opened the DMs back and I was like wow, like that's so, like so awesome that she was willing to just come on be the first guest you know be like the stepping stone for us to be able to start moving up the ladder a little bit. You know, that's super awesome for women's MMA. You know, like she's a trailblazer for us and she is her game as well, so I love that yeah, that's incredible, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:But yeah like I was saying, though, like what's something that's incredible, that's really cool. But yeah, like I was saying, what's something that's improved the most about your game from the first time you walked into Nacogon to now.
Speaker 2:Man. I think it's obvious to anyone who's watched all my fights through. I didn't even learn how to strike really until I was like 20 years old. So I was in my fights. My whole amateur career was literally run in take them down, submit them like first round finishes for seven out of my eight wins. And everybody was like, whoa, you're really good at jujitsu. And I wasn't. You know, I was a blue belt but I was really strong and I was fast and I would just take them down and go. And most girls at that time period just didn't have great wrestling or grappling in general. And so my last amateur fight, my coaches basically threatened to take me out of MMA and they were like, listen, if you do one takedown in this fight, we're taking you out of MMA and making you do kickboxing for a year and I was like, oh no, I don't want to be taken out of MMA.
Speaker 2:So that whole fight I just stood and did striking and it wasn't great, it was sloppy, but I still hit her and I still won 30-27. So I was like there we go, I guess I can strike. I need to work on practicing it now. And when I moved out to Virginia for grad school, I primarily went to the House of Muay Thai and that was where I started training and, man, my striking got so much better and I think my evolution in that has really shown over time. And then, since moving out here to Colorado, obviously like cardio with elevation, but also just in general mixing it all up I had pretty good striking, I had really good grappling and now I can change levels hide it, nobody can really tell what I'm going to do next, which is nice next, which is nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean your style has definitely evolved since the first fight of years that I watched a few years back. Very, very fun fighter to watch. I must you know like it's always exciting watching stuff and I really enjoy it well, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:My last fight against andrea. I always like it when I like surprise people, you know, and they were like oh, this is going to be a striker versus grappler match.
Speaker 2:No, I was like, well, you might want to keep your eyes open for this one, and did pretty much striking the whole time and beat Andrea at her own game. Not that that was necessarily the goal. The goal was just win the fight, obviously with as much velocity as I could, but found that I was a faster striker, more powerful striker and so just kept it on the feet.
Speaker 3:So something I always like to ask and find interesting personally, because I grew up playing other sports and kind of got into MMA just because of the competition. It was fun for me to watch. It was just a new sport for me. So did you play any sports growing up and did that impact your MMA career in any way?
Speaker 2:Like I said, I grew up an athlete. I credit all of it to growing up on a ranch, though we moved around a lot. My dad was a rural real estate investor Say that five times fast A rural land investor and he would basically buy property, clean it up, move to the next place. So I grew up like building fins, just everything. I did everything pick up, feed sags, all of it. That made me really strong.
Speaker 2:And so, as a child though, I pretty much played every sport like did gymnastics when I was really young, played soccer, played basketball and was pretty good at that, did track and field, and I had a mindset that was always very goal oriented. So, even like later middle school years and then into high school, I was like I want to do these sports if it gets me free college, because we weren't a family that was rich or anything. My parents were basically like if you want to go to college, you got to find a way to pay for it. And I was like all right. So I thought to myself I'm going to get a sports scholarship right Because I'm a pretty good athlete and did well in track and field, did well in cross country, always play state in Arkansas and then in Missouri, where we live.
Speaker 2:As I got closer I started gaining more muscle, just from genetics. I was like man, my times are getting slower over time, not faster, like they should be. I was like, let me try wrestling, tried wrestling and started jujitsu around the same time I was like man, I love this jujitsu thing, I hate wrestling. And when I found out I was not getting a college scholarship for wrestling, I just basically quit that sport too. I was like, all right, I'm all in on jujitsu and ended up getting a full ride scholarship with my academics instead. So yeah, played every sport pretty much known to man except softball and volleyball and did pretty well at them, and I guess you would say it just gave me more coordination and stuff going into MMA and that sense of competition yeah, that's one thing.
Speaker 1:One quote that I heard I can't remember exactly what said it, but it's like he said something like along the lines of mma is completely different from any other sport, because you play baseball, you play football, you play basketball, you compete in mma. It's not. You don't play mma like it. You don't play ufc like it's. It's a whole nother level and, like I put, I put anybody that's a fighter on a much higher pedestal than what I put myself. I got a membership to the UFC gym about three weeks ago. Then the day I signed up for my membership it was five minutes down the road from where I work at. It was convenient. I've been looking to get back in the gym. I go over there. They're like we're doing a kickboxing conditioning class for an hour and 30 minutes a day, like if you want to sign up and just try it out. Oh my God, I don't know how y'all do it.
Speaker 1:Like, obviously, like I'm not the most built for it right now, you know, if I got more in shape it might be a little bit of an easier thing to do.
Speaker 2:But ooh, I mean, I don't even know how to describe it, it's not easy. I just want to go home.
Speaker 2:I always find it funny when, like fans or people who think they're athletes, quote unquote come into the gym and watch people spar. Like I won't crap on him too much, but a relative of mine came into the gym and watched myself and my sister spar, which, if you didn't know, she did amateur MMA. She's not fighting right now, but she had four amateur fights, was very good, um, and just basically decided she wanted to pursue something else in life, but she and I would spar. And he was like, oh, I think I could keep up with you guys after two weeks of training. And I was like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:And he was like, yeah, and he's a smaller guy, right, like he's about my size, a little bigger than me by like 20 pounds. And I was like, all right, you want to go now? Like we got mats right here, like let's, let's see what, what you can do. And he's like, well, no, I said after two weeks. I was like, all right, sign up two weeks from now. Ended up like grappling with him later on and like submitted him within like 30 seconds, you know. And I was like, all right, well, that's with your two weeks, to God, and we aren't even striking, you know, yeah, like that's one thing I don't, I'm not going to say like.
Speaker 1:You probably know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Whenever I mentioned this.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to say the podcast host name, but I don't understand why this particular person always gets UFC fighters and boxers on and says, oh, I could beat you in a street fight. I'm two, 60. Fight I'm 260. Yeah, like I. I don't think so. I mean, you know, like something tells me I'm fine and I could be wrong, but I don't think that just a normal average person can just go in a street fight.
Speaker 2:Size doesn't necessarily matter if somebody's got that much skill and knows fighting like that's not to mention I think it's even funnier when they say street fight, because it's going to be harder to fight an mma fighter in the street because they're going to have more room to move around you. And if you're weighing 260, you're probably not the most fit in the world and you're probably going to be gassed because you don't train for this on a daily basis. Like you said, an hour and a half class for most people kills them right, where we do like three of those a day and it's like, I'm sorry, like we're going gonna be walking all over you in about a minute after you're gassed and we we have plenty of strength and skill left and just dominate. After that, give you the ground and then you're done like you won't have anything else to do. Sure, maybe if you started in top of mountain, we're able to punch us 10 times before the bell rang, maybe, yeah fair.
Speaker 3:um, so you said you watched a lot of tapes and you're living and growing up with your dad, so so is there anybody, any fighter in particular that you watched, that kind of inspired you and you kind of base your game off just as like a mentor or anything?
Speaker 2:thing. My dad was the inspiration to get me started in fighting. There were a lot of people I watched growing up that I was like, wow, that's incredible Ronda Rousey, of course, you know, being a pioneer of women's MMA, I ended up getting tons of arm bars my first few fights because I thought I was so cool and I was like man, I want to be that good, but also like not nobody. That I was like, wow, I want to be like them. I guess I never really had that personality for anything growing up. I wasn't the person who cheered for sports or anything like that.
Speaker 2:But now, like, there's a lot of people that I watch and I'm like, wow, you guys, I watched you fight as I was growing up. Now you're my rivals, which is amazing, or even training partners, like Tisha Torres used to be one of my favorites because she was so fast and just threw everything at once, you know. And now she's a training partner of mine, which is really cool, and I get to do rounds with her all the time and obviously she's smaller, but that's awesome to me. Michael Chandler is now one of my favorite fighters, but back in the day it used to be like Forrest Griffin and even like Dan Fry, like all the OGs of the sport, that you'd watch back in UFC one to 10. I always thought was just incredible, because there weren't really rules back then and you get to see that size difference. These people that are like I weigh this much, I could beat you up, and it's like why don't you go watch UFC one through 10 and see how that worked out for them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that is the God's honest truth. I mean UFC one to 10, there was no weight classes, like they have it on ESPN plus and stuff. I'm sure you're familiar with that. Like I'll still go back all the time and like go watch all the events because it's like it never gets old, you know. And then no one thing. One thing for sure is like I can go re-watch like 99 of any ufc events that have ever happened and and still enjoy it. You know, just like I'm watching it for the first time it's like a fast movie for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, but yeah, sarah mcmahon.
Speaker 2:I guess sarah, guess, sarah McMahon was one of my favorites too growing up. I always appreciated the wrestling and stuff and always watched her and I was like man, I need to implement those styles into my game. But a lot, you know, I watched a lot of tape when I was starting the sport because I was trying to learn faster and be better than everyone else. So I was trying to watch as much as I could and just piece it all together. Trying to watch as much as I could and just piece it all together, not necessarily to make my own game, but maybe get a tip from this person or see what not to do with this other person, or see what moves seem best in MMA Just all of it kind of put together.
Speaker 1:Right. So this is one question I like to ask as guests and stuff. What's one interesting thing that you do right before every fight, like before you walk in the cages? Is there something that you do that kind of like maybe takes the edge off, takes your mind off of things, or maybe just like gets you in that zone that you need to be in, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess two things. One, my entire fight camp will pray together, right, my dad always leads the prayer, whether he's there or not, I'll have him on the phone, whatever. We all sit around the circle and pray. Something incredible happened this last fight. We have like four different fighters in the warmup room, right, it was the big arena in Anaheim and we have these four different fighters, all different ethnicities. We have a Portuguese guy in there, a Japanese guy in there, myself and another American, and we were like, hey, if anybody wants to join in the prayer, you can.
Speaker 2:And of course, that was the first fight, right. So everybody's in there warming up and every single person in that room, including the commission, came over and did the prayer with us, which was just incredible, like outstanding. And for me it's not oh, I pray, I win. Like that's not how the prayer goes, right, it's take my anxiety away, take our anxiety away, keep everyone safe in this fight. Let us use our abilities you gave us to do the best that we can, right. So that's a big, huge thing for me. And then my dad and I always have the saying. He's like go be a maverick, you know, you were raised for this shit that's awesome yeah, that's incredible
Speaker 3:that's so good. So your next fight against, uh, tracy cortez? Is there anything in particular and if you don't want to go too much into detail, unless you don't have to but is there anything in particular that you're, that you're seeing in tracy cortez's game that you think you could exploit?
Speaker 2:uh, there's a lot of things but I'm not gonna say them out loud on here anywhere else, um, you'll just have to watch the fight and find out. But I think I'm more well-rounded in terms of better in the positions that she's good at. She's also a well-rounded fighter, but I don't think she's great anywhere. Um, she's fast and I know she comes forward trying to throw haymakers, basically a lot like all of her punches are thrown with intention and I plan on kind of exploiting that with, with footwork, with movement, and she's just going to be surprised because she's not going to know what's coming with the striking, with the takedowns, with all of it. I plan on making it look like the Andrea fight.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited to see you go out there and fight again. I think that's going to be an exciting matchup. Personally and I'm not just saying that because you're here I think I give you the edge in that one. I think I do. I mean, I think, even with what you just said, I think that you see some things that you could exploit. I'm sure that there may be a few things that she thinks she sees in you that that could go the other way, you know, but personally, I think I got, I'm giving you the edge in this.
Speaker 2:Well, I do try my best to study my own fights too, as if I was my opponent, and work on the holes that we have, and we've been filling in holes a lot ever since the Aaron Blanchfield I had, where I lost man, we've been filling in gaps everywhere, and I think it's shown in my fight since, on top of that, yeah, we're just preparing every day. I'm training a ton, staying ready, focusing on recovery a lot during this camp, and whether Tracy shows up or another person ends up being standing across from me, I'm ready to go. I have no confidence that she'll end up actually taking this fight, considering how many times she drops out right, yeah, I mean that's fair.
Speaker 1:But I really got like one more question for you, and that's what is that feeling like whenever you walk into the octagon? You walk, walk in the cage and that door closes behind you, like like, what's going through your mind in that moment? Are you trying to not have stuff go through your mind in that moment, like what's the stare down, like you know, like like all that, like what are your emotions, what are you thinking in that moment?
Speaker 2:man, all the nervousness, all the feeling is really gone by that point. Once the cage closes, I usually just try to stare down my opponent and keep my eyes on them the whole time. Usually they'll look away or whatever else or turn around and I'm like all right, that in my mind, gives me the small victory, right. And if they keep looking at me, I'm like all right, play my game. You know, like this is fun. And in my head, beyond that, I'm kind of thinking okay, if they start out like this, we're going to do this, and they start out like this, we're going to do that, and kind of just running down my own game plan, so to speak. But from there on it's go like it's funny how your mind can process everything so fast to where you can actually think very clearly in there once you get pretty experienced, to where there's not really emotion anymore and I'm sure that you don't get too caught up looking too far ahead, but is there anything that you really have set or planned for your future in MMA?
Speaker 3:Is there anybody that you have your sights on, or would you be interested in moving up a weight class or anything like that?
Speaker 2:Definitely don't want to move weight classes. I think I'm perfect size for 125. I attempted 115 when I was younger and now I have even more muscle mass than I did then. And as far as 135, I'm really short, like it's not going to work out too well. I train with Raquel Pennington quite a bit and she's strong and she's big and I have no interest in going up to that weight division due to what I see, the difference being Like she walks around 20 pounds heavier than me on average, so it would just be silly. But as far as my future in the sport, I see myself reaching this top 10, then reaching the top five. The only person that I kind of have a grudge against, that I really want to fight still, is macy barber again what kind of what?
Speaker 1:what calls that grudge? And like, like, what's the, what's the mix up there?
Speaker 2:oh, man, if if you haven't watched it, go watch my fight against macy barber. It was voted robbery of the year in 2021. It was a clear win by me, like a clear win. And she ended up getting it to the point that DC had to come to me afterwards and apologize because he had already told me congratulations on the win when he walked in the cage. So that happened. But you guys go check it out, Go watch that. And just her attitude afterwards made it to where I know it's the judge's fault, but you don't have to be like I don't know, like I clearly won the fight. I don't know what people are talking about and I'm like shut up, Like just be quiet, and I stayed respectful afterwards. But I'm ready to get that one back for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, do you see that kind of coming in like the near future, like maybe after this fight that you got coming up next, or like Listen?
Speaker 2:there's been so many opportunities for me to step in short notice against her, for me to take to, for her to take me as an opponent because her opponent dropped out, and every time the matchmakers and UFC in general is just like it's not going to happen. So quit asking and I'm like all right, so she's protected's protected. You know, it's pretty obvious that macy barber is kind of a ufc star, so to speak. They're trying to protect her and eventually they're not going to have a choice when we're up in the top five fighting for title contention, and I hope that ends up happening right I mean it.
Speaker 1:It would be a pretty cool storyline to see her maybe get up there, get the belt and then you be the person that gets in there to take it away, because there is kind of that tension already built up. You know, it's kind of the sean o'malley cheeto vera thing where he had to kind of prevent that loss. You know, just recently at two nine.
Speaker 2:For sure you guys go check it out, though, let me know. Let me know who you thought won. Go go watch that fight after we're done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll definitely go back and check that out god, I definitely I.
Speaker 3:I hope that one of you two guys can uh get the belt pretty soon here so we can see that rematch. That will probably get a lot of views, I would assume, because it just adds something. Make it a little interesting. Who doesn't?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, for sure, for sure absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I know for sure if it happened again, I would most definitely be tuned into that one, and I'll for sure be tuning into your next fight, miranda. Thank you so, so much for joining us today. It was a huge honor to be able to sit down and talk with you and have you on for our second guest episode that we've ever been able to do. I mean I think we covered up some pretty good questions, some pretty great topics. I really appreciate you coming. Do you have anything else that you want to say? Leave the people with.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys for having me. If you guys want to support, go check out theprowlerpicklescom and also check out fearthemaverickcom. I have tons of fan gear and stuff you guys can get. I'm always coming up with new stuff so you can support the fight.
Speaker 1:All right Sounds good. All right Sounds good. Yeah, I'll be sure to link that down in the description of our episode, whether it be on Spotify, as well as our YouTube and stuff like that. Ok, thank you so? Much. I'll definitely be going to give you some pickles, like probably as soon as we're able to get off this.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you so much. I appreciate it Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, you guys have a great day.
Speaker 1:What an episode, you guys. I'm very grateful to have been joined by an incredible person, incredible fighter, with some incredible stories, incredible answers to all of our questions, ms Miranda Maverick. Such an incredible episode. Jude, you got any final thoughts for?
Speaker 3:the outro. All I want to say is you just watched a future UFC champion. You called her before she got there. You just watched a future UFC champion Also called her before she got there. You just watched a future UFC champion Also. Go check out that pickle company. Go check out Prowler Pickler Prowler Pickles. We look forward to trying them. We're going to have to definitely do a taste test. Do some content for you guys.
Speaker 1:See if we can get each flavor or something Like especially the dude, the spicy barbecue, like it sounds crazy for a pickle, but like for whatever reason. The more I like I was thinking about it the entirety of the episode, the more I thought about it. I was like, dude, I need that in my but. What an incredible episode. What an incredible person. We're, the guys here at outside the octagon. I'm charleston. Over to my left is jude. Jude, I appreciate you, as always, being here by my side and that's going to be a wrap for this incredible, great guest episode of the outside the octagon podcast. Thanks so much for watching.
