The question for Cat Zingano was easy: Why have you been away from competition for so long? The answer, perhaps not unexpectedly, was hard.
Zingano hasn’t fought since she submitted to a Ronda Rousey arm bar at UFC 184 on Feb. 28, 2015, in just 14 seconds at the height of Rousey-Mania.
A decade-long dream of making it to the top as well as years of sweat, suffering and sacrifice went poof in about the time it takes to get from the bed to the toaster in the morning.
She hasn’t been seen since, though she’ll return to take on Julianna Peña on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the biggest show of the year and, quite possibly, in MMA history.
The big stage will be a prime opportunity for Zingano to make amends, to remind folks who may have forgotten that she has finished both current champion Miesha Tate, and Amanda Nunes, who will fight for the bantamweight title on the loaded UFC 200 main card.
Zingano submitted Tate in 2013 and Nunes in 2014, both in the third round, and took that momentum, as well as an undefeated record, into the bout with Rousey.
But with Zingano, it’s never just about what takes place in the ring. She has battled serious knee injuries and, tragically, lost her husband, in a 2014 suicide.
She knew following the loss to Rousey that, despite how much she wanted to get back in there and redeem herself, she needed some personal time. Life, at times, seemed like an ordeal for her and she wisely realized she needed time and space to reflect and rebound.
It will be slightly more than 16 months between fights for Zingano, but it appears the time away was time well spent. She traveled to Thailand last year to train and immerse herself in martial arts. She switched camps and now trains under the highly regarded Eric Del Fierro at Alliance MMA in San Diego.
But before she could do any of that, she needed to make sure she sorted her personal life out.
Zingano’s issues aren’t the kind which are healed in a night, a month, a year or, perhaps, forever. The key was somehow learning to cope and move on, to pick up the pieces and deal with the new reality.
“I’ve been training, but the last two years of my life, I would say I’ve had more going on for me than the average person,” Zingano said. “I think I’ve handled it pretty well as far as staying active. I’ve done what I could as far as getting physically healthy after my knee injury, and I’ve done what I could to get mentally healthy after losing my husband.
“I understand people want to be entertained, but at the end of the day, this is still my life and I’m still human and I need to go through the things that normal people go through when things like this happen.”
Adding to the tumult was the extraordinary buildup she went through leading up to the Rousey fight only to have it end so quickly.
The fight ended in a bat of an eye, and it was an uncommon place for a woman whose career had known nothing but success. She entered the fight 9-0 with eight finishes.
But in the aftermath of the loss, she didn’t know what to say or do. She was overcome by her emotion after having worked her entire adult life for this goal, only to have it end so suddenly, so swiftly, so disappointingly.
It’s not like she took a long and sustained beating and Rousey proved conclusively she was the better fighter. Zingano raced out at the bell and threw a flying knee. She then executed a judo throw. Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, managed to reverse and when they landed, she was in perfect position for the arm bar.
And then, boom, just like that, it ended.
“It was hard,” she says of the loss to Rousey, “because on that night, I didn’t get to show what I’m capable of. But on the other hand, there’s nothing like falling flat on your face to let you know you need to make some changes in your life. That fight was humbling, but I learned a lot from it.
“One, it humbled me but it also made me hungry. Two, I needed to make some changes in my [training] and I did. I am happy to go out and show everyone what I have been working on here at Alliance MMA.”
Del Fierro and the majority of the fighters at Alliance rave about her work ethic and the progress she’s made.
Her manager, Ed Soares, said she’s determined to make a statement against Peña, who has been on a roll recently.
“She’s really determined to prove what happened against Ronda was a fluke,” Soares said. “Ronda is great, but anyone who has seen Cat knows what she is capable of doing. It’s been hard on her because she’d been looking for that opportunity her whole life and when she got it, it ended in [14 seconds]. It was pretty devastating to her.
“But she’s had a great training camp and she’s happy and motivated and feels she has made a lot of positive changes. And I think she’s a lot more dangerous.”
With a win over Peña, she wants to put herself in position for a big fight and, ultimately, another crack at the belt.
She’s just had to do it at her own pace given the hand life dealt her.
“I’ve never left the rankings and I’m third in the world right now, which is the lowest I’ve been in this weight class since I started with the UFC, when I was fourth,” she said. “I’m still a pretty vibrant fighter and I’m still very much here. If there were a lot of girls better than me, that would be clear. But because I am who I am and I work how I work, I have the ethic and the style to [do big things.]
“Yes, I took some time off, but it’s not like I needed a vacation. And it’s not like I’ve done nothing with my time. Life happened and I dealt with it. I’m dealing with it in a healthy way. I’m a very dedicated employee and now that I’m back, I am going to show everyone what I’ve done and how far I’ve come. This is a long journey and the journey is nowhere near over. I still have a lot to show and a lot to prove.”