Cynthia Calvillo hopes to crack into Valentina Shevchenko's "close-knit" team, eyes strawweight belt and 125lbs superfight

Andrew Whitelaw from Sportskeeda MMA caught up with Cynthia Calvillo ahead of her upcoming fight against Nina Nunes. The two spoke at length about everything, from Calvillo's training to her aspirations as a fighter and her next opponent.

Cynthia Calvillo is ranked No.11 in the women's flyweight division of the UFC. She has gone up against some of the biggest names in the division and will be taking to the octagon once again this weekend at UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs. Fiziev.

Check out the best bits from the interview in the transcription below.

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Transcription:

Q: Nina’s been around for a long time you know, she’s super well known, you’re both kind of super experienced.

How do you see her as a challenge [and] where do you see yourself beating her?

A: Well she’s tough, you know, she’s also been a top 10 fighter as well, and she’s fought some of the toughest fighters out there.

[Tatiana] Suarez, you know, she beat Claudia Gadelha, she just fought Mackenzie Dern, so I just think she’s really really tough.

You know, it’s one of those cases where you don't really want to look at [it] like “okay screw the record.”

It’s like you might not have as many wins or as many, a lot you know, you have losses or whatever.

It’s all about, “you’re tough” [and] “she’s experienced.” It’s not like she’s got a better record. Sometimes you never know when you fight people who are undefeated, you don’t know who they fought or whatever.

But in this case, we know she’s a top 10 and might not have the best record, but she’s fighting the best you know.

And so, I just feel like she’s going to be really tough, she’s also coming off a loss, just like I am.

And I feel like none of us are going to want to give an inch. I do feel like she might just play it a little bit smarter and try to point-fight.

She did get snubbed in the first round and if anybody watches my fights, I do my best work on the ground.

So I think she’s going to do everything in her power to not let me get to her, but I’ve been working [on] a lot of parts of my game, a lot of it.

But she changed all of my coaching around me and I think it’s made a world of a difference, and I think everybody’s going to see that on Saturday.

Q: So are you between the [UFC] PI and Syndicate [MMA] right now?

A: Yeah so I’m training at Syndicate and I’m training at the PI and [I’ve] also started working with the new boxing coach.

His name is Jorge Capetillo. He’s one of the best boxing coaches in the game, he’s a coach to Tyson Fury.

Right now, he's got into the MMA scene, so he coaches Brandon Moreno, Anthony Pettis, Arman [Tsarukyan], he just fought two weekends ago.

I don't want to say his last name because I know I’ll butcher it [AW: Tsarukyan?], yes Tsarukyan, there you go.

Because I felt like I would have butchered it if I [had] tried to read it, but yeah, so he’s helped out a lot of us immensely.

And I think that’s going to change my game a lot, not just like technique-wise, but mentally like he’s just one of the best coaches that can really make their fighters dig deep.

And I’m super thankful, I think it was just one of those things that I needed to do, I needed to get a couple of losses.

I needed to make some changes to finally get to where I needed to be, and I think I have the right people around me.

Having John Wood from Syndicate, their whole team, they’ve been extremely supportive, quickly becoming, you know, one of the best coaches in the game.

And yeah, I’m pretty stoked, I think I found a good group of people to have around me.

Q: Was it interesting to you to see the Taila Santos fight? Did it show that the champion Valentina [Shevchenko], did it show that she’s fallible maybe or is she just going to be holding that belt, you know? Indefinitely seemingly.

A: I mean we’ll see how it plays out, you know, I feel like, fighting at that level for as long as she has.

You know, the difference between me and her is that she’s been doing this her entire life.

And me, I don’t have the same amount of experience that she does, so I just feel like eventually someone’s going to come through.

I think Taila, she has a very good chance to maybe try to come back and get another chance at fighting [for] the title.

And she came really close [and] some people thought that she won the fight, so I think that’s definitely a fight to make in the future.

And that’s probably going to mix up the division, but for right now I feel like Valentina just has her numbers down.

She’s really smart, she’s got a close-knit team and they just seem to get it right every time.

I've never seen her crazy overtrain. She trains hard, she trains really smart and it’s very interesting to see.

Like she’s very picky with who I feel like she has around her, so I hope that one day in the future I’ll be able to work with her in her camp.

But it’s also a dream of mine to be able to compete with her one day, so we’ll see how that goes.

Because maybe it could be like me and 'JoJo' [Joanne Wood], we coud fight and we could train again.

Q: I want to ask you about Marina Rodriguez, because she seems like she’s going to be fighting for the strawweight title right?

Are you here to stay at flyweight, or are you just going to see how it goes?

And do you think Marina could be challenging and be the next champion? You know her well, having fought her to a draw right?

A: Yeah, absolutely, my plan is to go down to 115 [lbs] after this. Originally I was already set to my fight that I had scheduled for June 4 which was supposed to be at 115 [lbs].

And then we were looking for an opponent and Nina was someone that was looking for a fight.

And I was like okay, cool she’s 115 [lbs] but she wants to move up to 125 [lbs] now?

So she’s not going to be that much of a difference in size, I was like “alright I’ll make this exception."

Let’s fight this one at 125 [lbs] and then we’ll go back to 115 [lbs] because I do feel like I have some unfinished business.

As far as I’m concerned, I feel like I really never lost that fight at strawweight, I fought Carla [Esparza], [it] was a close fight. I feel like I won that fight. I fought Marina Rodriguez, I feel like that was a close fight but I feel like I won the first and the third round with my takedowns.

So I also feel like, I kind of won those fights and I feel like I haven’t really been [beaten] at 115 [lbs].

[It's] not like I have in the last two fights, right? Obviously 125 [lbs] were the first two times I’ve ever gotten finished in a fight.

So, I think that I definitely have some unfinished business, I’m looking to become the champion there.

And if the right fights come along, I’m more than happy to get about 115 [lbs] and have some superfights at 125 [lbs].

Q: Who’s the most important person you want to fight at 115 [lbs]?

If I said you’ve got like one year left, who do you have to fight at 115 [lbs]?

A: I want to fight Marina Rodriguez, I still want to fight Carla, I want to fight her, but the way that fight with Marina [went] was a little irritating.

Because I was going through a lot of stuff in that fight camp that made it difficult for me to make weight.

And I ended up missing weight, and I remember them being like I was only able to hold her down because, you know, I missed weight.

And I was like “that’s bull c**p.” I was like, I need to fight you and make weight and beat you the right way, so you don’t have any excuses.

So, I feel like she’s the one that’s going to be up there soon fighting for that title and I would love to have that fight back.

Even after I fought her, I was like let’s run it back and she’s like “No, I want to fight somebody that makes weight.”

I’m like, I’m going to get it back, like, I don’t care I’m getting it back.

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Timestamps:

Watch Cynthia Calvillo's interview with Sportskeeda MMA below:

Introduction: Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to Cynthia Calvillo, No.11-ranked flyweight in the UFC.

[Going] up against Nina Nunes this weekend. Cynthia, it’s really good to see you.

It’s been since last year we saw you. How’s everything been going since you’ve last been in action?

How’s preparation going? (0:00)

Q: How much attention do you pay [towards] rankings? On the one hand, you are in the top 11 flyweights on the planet.

And then on the other hand, you just see Maycee Barber take your spot, does that make you like motivated? How do you see rankings? (0:40)

Q: Nina’s been around for a long time you know, she’s super well known, you’re both kind of super experienced.

How do you see her as a challenge [and] where do you see yourself beating her? (1:50)

Q: It was a tough run of sorts after the Jessica Eye win for you. What do you put the results down to? (3:12)

Q: In some people’s careers, you know they get to their mid-30s and they think that’s towards the end of their career.

But I think you walked into an MMA gym when you were 23? So, do you think in a way you’re kind of in the middle of your career?

Or your best days are ahead of you? (4:32)

Q: So are you between the [UFC] PI and Syndicate [MMA] right now? (5:58)

Q: Is it funny to you the way this sport works? Because I feel like, judging by your Instagram [handle], you and JoJo [Joanne Wood] would seem to be pretty good friends.

And you guys fought in 2017. Is it funny how things come around like that? (7:12)

Q: Was it interesting to you to see the Taila Santos fight? Did it show that the champion Valentina [Shevchenko], did it show that she’s fallible maybe or is she just going to be holding that belt, you know? Indefinitely seemingly. (8:24)

Q: I want to ask you about Marina Rodriguez, because she seems like she’s going to be fighting for the strawweight title right?

Are you here to stay at flyweight, or are you just going to see how it goes?

And do you think Marina could be challenging and be the next champion? You know her well, having fought her to a draw, right? (9:59)

Q: Who’s the most important person you want to fight at 115 [lbs]?

If I said you’ve got like one year left, who do you have to fight at 115 [lbs]? (11:28)

Q: Cynthia, it’s always good to speak to you, massive good luck this weekend, maximum respect, it’s good to see you. (12:26)