LAS VEGAS – If Julija Stoliarenko wanted to make a statement when she finally got her first UFC win, she sure did it.
Stoliarenko (10-6-1 MMA, 1-4 UFC), in her second stint in the UFC, came into her fight against Jessica-Rose Clark (11-8 MMA, 4-4 UFC) with an 0-4 record in the promotion. But it took her just 42 seconds to get a submission win – and she appeared to snap Clark’s arm with an armbar in the process.
“The last two years were kind of hard for me – very, very hard, actually,” Stoliarenko said at her post-fight news conference at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “Since I got to the UFC, I wasn’t able to put myself together because I was pressing too much. In the moment I lost my last fight, I was like, ‘Damn. What am I doing?’
“In talking with my coach, we decided to make some changes in my training – and mostly it was in my mentality. My training was just focused on being confident in my skills and being confident in myself.”
Stoliarenko’s submission was the second fastest in UFC women’s bantamweight history, trailing only Ronda Rousey’s 14-second armbar submission of Cat Zingano in 2015.
“That’s amazing,” Stoliarenko said. “To be able to do such a fast submission is not a surprise for myself, but to be able to do that in the UFC, that’s a different story. … If I get a submission, I’m going to snap it until the referee stops it. Of course, I don’t want to injure my opponents, but it’s up to them when to tap. If she’s not tapping, I’m going to do my work.”
Check out Stoliarenko’s full interview in the video above.
Julija Stoliarenko after arm-snapping win at UFC 276: ‘If I get a submission, I’m going to snap it’
