MMA interview: Kyra Batara talks fighting and ‘female problems’

Eddie Bravo’s atomweight pupil, Kyra Batara, was slated to scrap with 13-time national Judo champion, Vanessa Rico Fernandez, at Combate 11 this past February. However, the fight was discarded altogether, as the 5-4 Batara was unable to make the 105 weight requirement and a catchweight bout was not accepted. Combate Americas has re-booked Batara vs. Rico, and the 105 fight is now scheduled to go down at Combate Classico in Miami, Florida on July 27, 2017. Before settling the score with Rico, Batara caught up with Bloody Elbow to discuss why the Rico fight was cancelled, female problems affecting her weight cut, and if she would ever consider moving up to 115.

*Combate Classico is scheduled to air live in the U.S. on Azteca America and ESPN3 at 10 P.M. ET on Thursday, July 27, 2017.

Click HERE for Bloody Elbow’s interview with Kyra Batara before her Combate 11 fight that never took place.

• Missing the 105 weight requirement for Combate 11:

“Everything was going very well with my weight cut, with my weight management. I was dropping weight pretty regularly. I started at about 120; I got down to 110 fight week. So, I was 110, which is 4 pounds over the max fight weight. I even saw Eddie Bravo that night, the night before weigh ins, and he goes, ‘wow, this is the best you’ve ever looked. You’re looking really slim, it looks like you had a great weight cut this time around.’ I’m like, ‘yeah, I’ve been dieting really hard; I feel really good.’ I had some like, female things going on with me at the time, so I don’t know if that played into my weight cut management, but it was the first time for me. I woke up the next morning; I didn’t float any weight, and I just couldn’t get the last 2 pounds off. So, I was in the sauna, I was running, doing everything I could.”

• Making the call:

“I called, 5:30 A.M. like, ‘hey, I’m doing everything I can, but for some reason, my body’s not allowing me to lose this last 2 pounds. It’s not like I’m cutting a lot of water; it’s not like I dropped a whole lot of weight. My water weight’s just not coming off, the last few pounds.’”

“She [Fernandez] goes, ‘if you’re a single ounce over the weight allowance, I’m not going to take the fight.’”

I was like, ‘hey, I can be 2 pounds over, but that’s as low as I’m going to get.’”

She was like, ‘nope, I’m not going to fight you.’”

• Scratching the fight:

“So, Campbell [McLaren] asked for a catchweight; he asked if she’d mind a weight allowance, and she was just not having it. We were like, ‘alright, well, we scratch the fight then. There’s nothing we can do.’”

• Did you officially miss weight by a specific amount?

“There was never an official weigh in, but now, I wish there was a weigh in, so that people could see that I was only 2.5 pounds over. I was 2.5 pounds over, and she would not take it. Some of the Combate guys did see me on the scale, but it was never recorded; it wasn’t documented anywhere. So, there was a lot of drama on social media, saying that I was so much heavier than I was. A lot of people thought I was like 5, or 10 pounds over; it was 2.5 pounds. If it were the other way around, I would’ve taken it in a second.”

• Would you sum it up to a mismanaged weight cut, and not something medically related?

“It was just a mismanaged weight thing. I’ve been in this sport since I was 13. My body is changing a lot. It’s not the same water cuts.”

• Female problems:

“A lot of people don’t take into consideration women with their menstrual cycles. When you’re cutting weight, your last few pounds especially, if you’re on “that,” the day of weigh ins, it changes a lot for you. If you don’t calculate that right timing, it can mess things up for you.”

• In that respect, do you believe it’s more of a challenge for women to cut weight than it is for the men?

“I do. A lot of men don’t understand, but any woman that has been there, they know completely. If you don’t calculate to the day where you’re going to gain that weight, and you don’t prepare in advance, it can take a toll on your body.”

• How do you combat that, or remedy that, or plan around it?

“All women all different. All women can gain more weight, less weight, but regardless, you’re going to retain water weight when you’re at that time of the month. If you know that you’re due in that time, I guess you cut the weight in advance, but that’s also really hard. It’s like, walk as close as possible and cross your fingers. It’s one of those things that we have to deal with as women, that I don’t think men have quite understood yet.”

• The 2-2 Vanessa Rico Fernandez commenting about your weight on national TV in Spain:

“If you see the post on the Combate Facebook, it’s the whole video of her saying, ‘Kyra, I hope you’re not eating too much, and you better make the weight.’ I replied in the comment section, I don’t know if you watch Family Guy, but it’s a little GIF of Peter Griffin on the treadmill, and it’s a fishing pole with a Twinkie at the end of it. I repost the video, like all I can do is laugh about it now. I already apologized, and I said that in my post. I was 2.5 pounds over. ‘That funny moment when all of Spain knows that you’re a fat ass,’ is what I said in the post. I missed weight; it happens.”

Click HERE to troll the Facebook comments.

• Done apologizing:

“I was so devastated that it happened. I know that it was extremely unprofessional. I said my apologies; I’m done apologizing. It’s over, it’s done, there’s nothing I can do about it. She can carry this grudge with her, and be all emotional over it. She’s going to go in there fighting angry, fighting with emotion, and I’m going to go in there just like any other fight.”

• As you get older, do you think you will make an eventual move up to strawweight?

“No, not at all. I think my issue is like I said, I’m a fat ass haha. I love food; I love eating, and it is a problem. I do crave sweets like anybody else. I’m a human being. I go out to eat with my friends and I want to order the cheesecake. As an athlete, I just have to take better care of my body. I have to make sure that everything I put into my body is for fuel, and not always for pleasure. I mean I’m 4’ 11.’’ I’m tiny. I’m not a big 105’er, so going up to 115 is kind of out of the question.”

Check out Kyra “Mogwai” Batara take on Vanessa Rico Fernandez at Combate Classico on July 27, 2017. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for all of your MMA event coverage including interviews, news, and more!