Yuneisy Duben was the breakout star at Tuesday’s Contender Collection occasion, and in keeping with her new boss, she wanted a win as a lot as anybody.
That win got here within the type of a spectacular one-punch knockout as Duben (6-0, 1 NC) defeated the massively favored Shannon Clark (5-1) in simply 73 seconds. UFC CEO Dana White instructed reporters after the present that Duben confronted unbelievable monetary struggles forward of her Contender Collection battle, to the purpose that the 28-year-old prospect wanted an help from UFC employees through the week simply to make it to battle night time.
“The largest upset within the historical past of the Contender Collection,” White mentioned. “[UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] was telling us that he was going by means of his textual content chain along with her and her individuals, she virtually didn’t come. She has no cash.
“She doesn’t have a greenback to her title proper now. … Her per diem acquired tousled and all these things, so the employees needed to go grocery purchasing for her, after which she is available in and does that. Let me let you know what, she ain’t broke now.”
White confirmed that along with receiving a UFC contract, he additionally gave Duben a bonus verify for her efficiency. The bonus quantity was not disclosed.
A local of Venezuela at the moment preventing out of Peru, Duben described herself as coming from humble beginnings in her personal media scrum following Tuesday’s occasion. She has been working because the age of 12 to offer for herself and her household in addition to to fund her MMA coaching, and talked about that she has had tools donated to her prior to now.
Duben was grateful to UFC employees and to her religion for serving to her get thus far in her profession.
“It was actually impactful when it occurred,” Duben mentioned of the employees’s form gesture. “However on the similar time, I mainly mentioned, ‘I’m going to do it. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to battle, I’m going to make it, I’m going to go on the market, I’m going to shine. This night time is mine and I’m going to make it occur.’ I believe that who I’ve to thank is God. No matter wanted to occur for me to be right here occurred and that’s how I consider it occurred.”
That single-mindedness is what drove Duben to energy by means of her battle with Clark, who was as excessive as a 13-to-1 favourite in keeping with White.
As Duben tells it, she didn’t even undergo the same old pre-fight routine of sparring or warming up earlier than strolling out to the UFC APEX cage. As a substitute, she targeted on the imaginative and prescient of her touchdown a knockout punch, an concept that proved to be prophetic.
“That’s precisely what was occurring,” Duben mentioned. “I used to be saying, ‘I’m going to do it.’ Not simply right here, once we have been right here, however all all through. I used to be dreaming, I used to be visualizing, I used to be envisioning this occurring, that I used to be going to do it, that I used to be going to do it that means. Again once we have been warming up, the identical factor, I might elevate my hand. That is what’s going to occur, I’m going to return out victorious, this pink nook goes to win, and it occurred.”
Watch Duben’s post-fight media scrum beneath, courtesy of Amy Kaplan MMA.
