Amy Coleman, in Her Invicta FC Debut, Looking to Prove She Belongs | MMAWeekly.com

Heading into her second professional fight, featherweight up and comer Amy “Donkey Kong” Coleman had made some alterations to her game following her previous fight, and she believes those alterations played a large part in her unanimous decision win over Anne DeCrescente at Valor Fights 33 in May.

“I changed up a lot of things in my camp and got more serious about making my game more well-rounded, and it couldn’t have gone any better,” Coleman told MMAWeekly.com. “I finally got in there and felt like I could see things more clearly.

“I found (DeCrescente’s) rhythm pretty early on in the fight. It went super-well. She’s super-tough, I didn’t put her down, so it did go to a decision, but I don’t think I could have done any better unless I ended it earlier. It was a really good showing.”

Having gone the full 15 minutes for the first time in her pro career, Coleman believes she did what she needed to do in order to secure the win, and in fact feels she could do even more if approached with the same situation again.

“I felt pretty solid throughout,” she said. “I made sure that I was a bit patient, and capitalized when I needed to, and didn’t take any risk.

“Pushing into those last rounds is always something we are planning for. We hope we don’t have to go that far, but we plan for it, and I still felt great. Looking back now, I could have pushed even harder towards the later rounds.”

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Coleman (2-0) returns to make her Invicta FC debut on Friday in Kansas City, Mo., to take on promotional veteran Amber Leibrock (1-1) in a main card 145-pound fight.

“Amber, from the footage I’ve seen of her, is very game-y, she’s very tall and has a good reach with great boxing,” said Coleman. “She’ll come forward and isn’t afraid for a fight, so I think it’s going to be exciting no matter what.

“Both of us have a bunch of Fight of the Nights under our belts, so I think it’s going to be super-exciting the whole time. As far as game plans go: I think we’re ready for whatever she can bring to us. Hopefully she feels the same and makes it exciting.”

Having missed significant time since making her pro debut in January of 2015, Coleman is eager to make her mark in the featherweight division, and isn’t opposed to returning to action sooner than later if the opportunity should arise.

“As a fighter, if you come out of any fight healthy, it’s a good thing, so I wouldn’t turn down going back into the cage right away,” she said. “You’re already in shape, and you’re already feeling good, coming off a win, so to keep the momentum going is something I’m not going to turn down, for sure.

“I want to prove to everybody that I do belong here. But we always have to look at all the options and what my camp and Invicta is thinking about for the future.”

(Photo Courtesy of Valor Fights)

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