Tecia Torres Doesn’t Mind Being on the TUF 25 Finale Prelims

– Tecia Torres spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of her fight with Juliana Lima at TUF 25 Finale. Highlights are below:

On stepping in to take the fight: “I was waiting for a fight since February because I’ve been wanting to fight. I saw Amanda Ribas got pulled from the fight, so I asked for this fight. I was like, ‘Sean Shelby, can I have that fight, please?’ I was waiting on Michelle Waterson, but he was saying it would be late August, but he wasn’t really telling me anything. I asked if I could take this fight and he said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘At this point, if you want to fight one of the big wigs, you have to beat anybody.’ That’s why I wanted it. I want to fight, I want to get paid. I still want to fight Michelle Waterson. I’ll still take that in late August if I can if I’m OK after this fight.”

On not being worried about her placement on the card: “I like fighting earlier in the night because I can get it over with. I’m a fan of the sport, so I want to see the other girls fight on the card and some of the other guy fights. I’m excited about that. Being on TV is a little bit easier for my friends and family to watch it, but I understand they want to sell more Fight Pass and get some fights on there. I hope we open up the show with a bang and show women can fight hard.”

On her new training environment: “I’m getting a lot more one-on-one attention. I think my style is going to be a little more evolved this fight. Although I took it on two and a half weeks’ notice, I was still training before that. I feel like with every fight that comes, I’ll just get better and better. I felt that in my last fight because I did a month with this camp and a month with my old camp. I felt really good about it, so I’m just excited about how this fight’s going to go. I really feel like I’m going to show the best version of me yet.”

On a possible title shot: “I think I’m definitely one or two wins away from getting a title shot. I’ve been No. 5 (in the UFC’s rankings) now for a while – probably the last few years…I think that everybody has had that opportunity to fight for the title in the top five – except for me. I think one or two wins and I should be getting that shot for myself.”