Ana weighs her options

It’s not the end of the world for Fil-Am mixed martial arts fighter Ana (Hurricane) Julaton who lost a unanimous three-round decision to Russia’s Irina Mazepa in a featured event of the ONE Championship “Spirit of Champions” bill at the MOA Arena last Friday.

Right after the bout, Julaton was in good spirits, exuding the confidence of a fighter who knows how to take the good with the bad. Her striking coach Angelo Reyes said in his view, Julaton did enough to convince the judges to see it the Hurricane’s way. Reyes called it an educational process for fans to understand what it takes to win in MMA.

“I’m fine,” said Julaton. “Honestly, I don’t think Irina did anything special. I was never dazed. I took her down twice. In the third round, coach Angelo wanted me to strike with her and all she did was run. Still, I respect her for doing what she thought she had to do to win. I’m going back to the gym and watch the tape with my grappling coach Ricky (Lundell). We’ll evaluate what I did wrong and what I did right. MMA is a different style of fighting, it’s a different world from boxing. You win some, you lose some. You just keep going. There are world champions out there with as many losses as wins. It all depends on how you do in your last match.”

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Julaton said what pains her is letting down the Filipino fans who came to celebrate a win last Friday. “I wanted to win for the fans,” she said. “Fighting in the Philippines is an incredible experience for me. I love the support of the fans and I always give back their love. I think I beat Mazepa. I was able to do what I wanted to do which was basically to neutralize her striking. The fight went according to how I wanted it to go.”

Reyes said he’s not totally disappointed because Julaton showed a tremendous improvement in her grappling. “MMA scoring is extremely subjective,” he explained. “Judges don’t score points in every round like in boxing. In the end, they choose a winner based on cage control, striking superiority, ground dominance, defense and all that. If you review what happened in Ana’s fight, you’ll understand what I mean. In the first two rounds, Mazepa couldn’t do what she wanted because Ana kept her pinned against the cage. Ana did a solid job taking Mazepa down, once grabbing her foot off a kick and another on a double leg takedown. Ana had dominant position on the ground and surely, that counted for something. In the third round, Ana stood and tried to engage. Mazepa kept moving away but got hurt by a jab.”

Compared to Julaton’s bloody brawl with Lisa Brown in a boxing match, Reyes said the fight against Mazepa was a cakewalk. “Mazepa is no Lisa Brown,” he said. “So, Ana lost on points, no big deal. We all know about Ana’s boxing pedigree. It’s not easy to switch from boxing to MMA. She’s had a long layoff from MMA. In fact, she had to do a boxing bout to stay active last March. This was just her fourth MMA appearance and she’s 2-2 which isn’t bad considering what she’s had to learn in ground fighting.”

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Reyes said the cut on Julaton’s nose bridge was superficial. “No problem,” he said. “Ana got cut, that’s how it is in MMA, It’s a war in the cage. Ana stuck to our gameplan which Ricky laid out. We wanted to keep Mazepa on her back heel. We knew about her kickboxing history so we wanted to limit her kicks down to the leg level and Ana did that. Ana was purposeful and she did what we wanted her to do. Mazepa had her back to the cage almost the entire first round then Ana had a takedown. I couldn’t see Ana losing that round.

“In the second round, it was more of the same and Ana again took Mazepa down. In the third, all Mazepa did was run. The referee (Olivier Coste) could’ve given her a yellow card for refusing to engage. Mazepa landed some shots but if you’re looking at the overall picture, Ana established cage control and dominated the ground. So how could she lose?”

Reyes said he would’ve liked for Julaton to be more active under the ONE banner. “We kept reaching out, asking to fight but never got a chance until late this year,” he said. “We’ve got two more fights in our ONE contract which expires in June. We’re weighing out options once the contract ends. We could do a fight in January or February and another in April or May. From there, we’ll decide what to do.”

Reyes said Julaton could fight even next week. “She’s a true athlete and in great shape,” he said. “If there’s a fight in January, she’ll take it. Actually, I’m looking for ONE to take care of Ana’s career. Coming off a long layoff, I’m surprised ONE got her to fight against an extremely tough opponent in Mazepa. I can’t help but compare how Top Rank takes care of Manny Pacquiao. Ana’s a star in her own right. Moving to UFC could be an option. That all depends on Ana. With ONE, she’s allowed to do boxing in between MMA fights. With UFC, she’ll be exclusively dedicated to MMA. We want Ana to be active, that’s how champions are made.  We’re looking at four fights next year. We hear that UFC is doing two shows in Manila so maybe, that could be an option. We’ll set down our goals, consult with Ricky and decide what’s best. In the end, it’ll be Ana’s decision what to do. We hope that whatever she decides, the Filipino fans will support her all the way because Ana fights for them.”