It has been a while since Allycia Rodrigues last fought. Over two years, with the 24 year old taking time out to give birth to her first child.
Rodrigues was planning to make her comeback last December but that fight fell through at the very last minute when Janet Todd tested positive for Covid-19. Rodrigues will finally face the American at ONE Fight Night 8 this month and admits she was disappointed when the first match fell through,
“I was quite sad as I was feeling more than prepared and I was really looking forward to getting back in the ring.”
Afterwards Rodrigues declared that ‘it’s all in God’s hands’ and a few months later she is able to look on the bright side. The Brazilian thinks that having extra time to prepare for the fight with Todd has actually helped her,
“I certainly had more time to work on some things and improve others that I already felt comfortable doing.”
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Long time
The night when she beat Stamp Fairtex in Bangkok to become the atomweight Muay Thai champion must seem like a long time ago. Since then Rodrigues has moved back to Brazil and had a baby.
But she is now back at Phuket Fight Club with her son and Rodrigues has found a way to juggle her commitments as a parent with a fight camp. She has been training non stop and thinks her hand speed has increased in the last few months,
“This postponement of the fight helped me to have more time to improve my boxing even more. I’ve been training every day since the postponement of the fight.”
But while Rodrigues sounds relaxed about the postponement she sounds very motivated to return to the ring,
“It’s been a long time since my last fight, so the desire to fight is getting stronger and I try to put that desire more and more into each training session.”
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Smaller gloves
She has only fought once with the smaller gloves but Rodriguez knows that her punches will have more impact then they would in a pair of standard 8oz Muay Thai gloves. She has been working on her boxing in order to prepare,
“I feel very comfortable with my elbowing and kicking game because it’s something I can do really well. But I’ve also been working a lot on my boxing.”
Todd started competing as an amateur in 2009 and has never been stopped. But Rodrigues is over a decade younger than the American and believes she can become the first opponent to ever finish her,
“I’m going to knock her out. I believe we’ll exchange some blows in the first and second rounds, but the intention is to press from the beginning in search of the knockout.”
