Alexa Grasso has made some big changes in her fighting career.
The Mexican fighter abandoned her long-time home at strawweight and has moved up to 125 pounds. Grasso (11-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) will be making her UFC flyweight debut on Saturday night when she takes on Ji Yeon Kim at UFC on ESPN+ 33 in Las Vegas.
Grasso said she is glad to have moved up in weight.
“Yeah, it was a big change, and I’m really happy with this change in divisions,” Grasso told MMA Junkie at a virtual media day promoting the event. “I feel very healthy and strong. I have the same speed of strawweight, but with a lot more power.”
The change in weight classes comes after having missed weight by five pounds for her last outing against Claudia Gadelha. The bout was removed from the card. That wasn’t the first time Grasso failed to make weight, as she also had issues in 2017 when she missed weight for a bout against Randa Markos.
The Lobo Gym product said she feels she her career is no longer limited, as the cut to strawweight set certain boundaries to what she could do in her training.
“There’s been so many changes, and now I’m not that limited,” Grasso explained. “Before, I couldn’t lift weights because I couldn’t gain muscle.
“Every fight you’re trying to get stronger, every fight you’re trying to get faster, so you have to increase your stimulants, and it was a very big barrier because I couldn’t lift that much. I couldn’t lift that much weight, so now I’m not limited. I can lift a lot more weight, do more things, and I can train longer and that was the change. Now I don’t have limits.”
But despite the move up a division, Grasso said she still needs to go through the process of actually making weight, but she insists that’s a lesser focus now.
“I still have to focus on weight; it’s not like I’m not doing a diet,” Grasso said. “I’m still hungry and thirsty, but it’s very different. I can focus most of my camp on improving my technique, and it’s a lot less stressful than just training to make weight, so I’m very happy with the change.”
Alexa Grasso excited about her move up to flyweight: ‘Now I’m not limited’