Cat Zingano has always been an ambitious fighter. With many stops and starts in her MMA career, she has often had to put those ambitions on hold due primarily to injuries. But now, Cat Zingano has made the decision to enter the featherweight division and suddenly finds herself potentially one fight away from a title fight.
“I’m pumped to be doing something different,” Zingano told MMAWeekly about her move up to 145. “I can’t express how awesome it is to do camp when you’re nourished and you can eat. It’s a completely different feeling when you go into these fights healthy. I get to stop my cut at 145, which is still a significant cut for me, but it’s better than 135. So I’m grateful for that.”
Cat Zingano’s featherweight debut this Saturday will be against Megan Anderson at UFC 232, but her eyes will also be glued on the co-main event of the evening, with Cris Cyborg defending her featherweight championship against Amanda Nunes, and she wants the winner of that fight next:
“Absolutely I would love that,” Zingano said of fighting the winner of Cyborg vs. Nunes. “The vision I had was be the champion at 125 and then be the champion at 135 and then be the champion at 145. That’s always going to be my goal. When I look up at the stars at night, that makes me excited to do. If it doesn’t happen in that order, it doesn’t happen in that order. This is what has manifested now.”
But Cat Zingano’s ambitions do not stop at striving for the featherweight championship. She still would like to return to 135 and earn another opportunity at the bantamweight title.
“I’m a very big bantamweight. I always have been,” Zingano explained. “I used to be No. 1 at 125 pounds but I was too big for that weight class so I went up to bantamweight and my goal was to be No. 1 at 135 and I’ve touched that but I haven’t accomplished what I wanted but I do plan to so right now it’s fight everyone, fight everything and see what I can do. It’s a battle and it’s fun and it’s scary and it’s challenging, it’s all of the things that make me tick.
“I do want to stay fluid and be able to bounce between 135 and 145 but I will say this is a pretty awesome f—king treat.”
Do you believe Cat Zingano has the potential to become a two-division champion?
