UFC on FOX 12's Juliana Lima dropped to strawweight to hang with American strength

MMA in North America is different than many places in the world because of the heightened attention on weight cutting, size and strength.

Having as many physical advantages over an opponent as possible has become part of the culture, so it was no surprise when Juliana Lima dropped from 125 pounds to 115 pounds when she made her Invicta FC debut in April 2013.

“In Brazil, I used to fight at 125 pounds,” Lima told MMAjunkie. “But after I was contracted to fight at Invicta, I decided to drop down since the American girls are so strong. I’m naturally slender.”

Lima’s change in fighting weight has produced mixed results so far. She was unsuccessful in her only Invicta appearance, dropping a unanimous decision to Katja Kankaanpaa. That result stands as the lone defeat on Lima’s record, but she managed to bounce back in her next bout with a first-round knockout victory.

While Lima could have been negative about her first professional loss, she instead took it as a learning experience.

“I think I was intimidated by the magnitude of that event,” Lima said of her lone career defeat. “Cris ‘Cyborg’ (Justino) was also fighting that night. So psychologically, I was a bit off. I only felt that I was fighting correctly by the third round. I was too apathetic on the first and second. It was a horrible fight. I just kept trying to defend takedowns. She kept pressing me against the cage. And she won after she got me down three times.

“It’s a good thing this happened. Now I know what it’s like to fight on a bigger stage. I regret what happened, but I feel it would never happen again. I don’t want to take anything away from Katja, who’s a great fighter. But I feel I lost more to myself. At the end of that fight, I had no scuffs, no bumps, and no feelings. Everyone who knows me didn’t recognize me in that fight. I would have preferred to have lost by submission or knockout. I became very motivated after that. My next opponent, I finished her in only 1:08. But I still have a lot more to dish out.”

Following her rebound victory, Lima was offered the opportunity to join the groundbreaking cast of “The Ultimate Fighter 20,” which debuts later this year on FOX Sports 1 and will crown the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight champion.

Unfortunately, that opportunity fell through due to Lima’s inability to speak fluent English, but it didn’t prevent her from being signed to the organization, something the 32-year-old never believed would take place.

“I saw 50 Twitter e-mails – I didn’t understand,” Lima said of how she discovered her UFC signing. “They said ‘welcome to the UFC.’ I thought it was a prank. I then called my manager Chris Vender, in America. We chatted for some 10 minutes, then he asked me if I was sitting down and he said it was true.”

While she won’t get to vie for UFC gold on “TUF,” Lima (6-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) still has the opportunity to make her mark when she makes her octagon debut against Joanna Jedrzejczyk (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at Saturday’s UFC on FOX 12 event from SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The second women’s strawweight bout in UFC history streams on UFC Fight Pass prior to the remainder of the card, which airs on FOX.

For more on UFC on FOX 12, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.