Ashlee Evans-Smith Believes You Learn More From a Loss

MMAjunkie Radio recently interviewed UFC fighter Ashlee Evans-Smith ahead of her upcoming UFC Fight Night 83 bout with Marion Reneau. They meet later today. Here are some highlights.

Evans-Smith on making fighting her career: “There’s actually a funny situation that happened to me. I think it was before I got to the UFC, but I had three pro fights at the time, but a boy that I was dating in high school, his father hit me up on Facebook and said, ‘Hey, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I’m really glad you found a way to make money doing what you’ve been doing all along.’ I was a little punk rocker in high school, and we’d get into these little fights and go to punk rock shows. We’d drink and be kind of (expletives). I’ve grown up since then, but I really have been doing the same thing on a small scale – illegally – for a long time. No one was ever shocked. It was kind of a ‘ah-good-for-her’ type situation.”

Evans-Smith on learning more from a loss: “What’s that cliche? You learn more from a loss than a win? I totally agree with that, and you go back and figure out what you did wrong, and you criticize your performance than you would in a win. In that fight, leading up to the submission, I was doing pretty well. So it made me confident being in the top level of MMA. I just realized you can never let your guard down.”

Evans-Smith on being a role model for young girls: “I didn’t realize how many young girls I was influencing until I started doing these seminars across the country,” she said. “I did some in Texas, in Pennsylvania. You have these little girls coming up to you and saying, ‘You’re my role model.’ I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ You get into the sport because you love it, but there are things that come that you didn’t expect, like being a role model and a little girl telling you she wants her picture on her wall.”