Alyse Anderson has a fight booked. We don’t know who she will be fighting or when but the American atomweight says she is already in ‘gangster mode’,
“(It) just kind of means like buckling down, being tough, going hard in training, eating the right foods … it’s just being on your A-game and not letting little things bother you,” she explained.
Past issues
The American says she has had some issues in the past and this frame of mind helps her to overcome them,
“Well, I guess people who know me know I’m kind of like a softie. Like, I don’t like confrontation. I get anxiety doing small things, stupid things, like waiting in line at the grocery store, and it’s something I absolutely hate doing because it makes me so nervous. But (being in gangster mode) just kind of means like buckling down, being tough, going hard in training, eating the right foods … it’s just being on your A-game and not letting little things bother you.”
She says her manager, Brian Butler, knows all about her gangster mode and tells her when it’s time to turn it on,
“When I have a fight, he’ll be like, ‘Ok, you have to go into gangster mode now for x amount of weeks.’ Or if I’m crying on the phone, he’ll be like, ‘Ok, you can be upset for five minutes, but then you have to turn gangster mode back on’.”
Mainstream tastes
However Anderson laughs when asked whether she actually listens to gangster rap,
“I call it gangster rap, but my friends say it’s not gangster rap because it’s like Drake, and I like R&B stuff. But when I’m training, I like to listen to slower music because I feel like it keeps my breathing down and my heart rate under control instead of the gangster rap.”
Her tastes in music sound decidedly mainstream but Anderson says that all changes once fight camp gets underway,
“I like Taylor Swift. All the lovey-dovey breakup music is what I listen to, but I do not let myself listen to that in camp. I’ll put it on for a second and make myself switch it because I’m like, ‘No, I’m in gangster mode. I can’t go down that road yet’.”
Her opponent will presumably be announced any day now. We still don’t know who it is but we do know that the 27 year old is already in ‘gangster mode’.
