Aieza Bertolso came to Dana White’s Contender Series looking for a UFC contract, and she made damn sure there wasn’t much to debate when it came time to hand one out.
Bertolso submitted Camila Reynoso at DWCS Week 8 on Tuesday night, using a finish she had been terrorizing her teammates with throughout camp to punch her ticket to the UFC. Now that she’s officially on the roster, Bertolso isn’t planning on easing her way into anything. She wants fights, she wants wins, and if things go her way, she wants a UFC title sooner rather than later.
“I’m very happy. Couldn’t be happier the way things happened. That finish couldn’t have come at a better time,” Bertolso told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator at her post-fight scrum.
“That’s how we planned it. I’m very happy about it.”
The finish wasn’t something Bertolso pulled out of nowhere once the fight hit the ground. She had been hitting the same submission throughout camp, and once she saw the opening, it was just a matter of making the right adjustment.
“We’ve been training for that in camp a lot. I was just basically catching everyone in training, I was getting everybody, you notice that she got some defense in there. I figured if I adjusted a little bit, if I tightened it up, she wasn’t going to be able to defend it at the end,” she said.
Bertolso knows confidence can only take a fighter so far, and she refuses to let success turn into complacency. For her, respecting the danger across the cage is exactly what keeps her prepared for whatever comes next.
“I think staying humble is a key to success. You have to prepare yourself, that’s the most difficult opponent out there, you prepare yourself to win, but you prepare yourself to lose as well,” she said.
“That’s how I think I prepare myself. I always think that opponent can beat me, and if you always think that the opponent in front of you, if you respect your opponent, if you always think that your opponent can beat you, you’ll prepare yourself the best.”
Bertolso isn’t looking to waste any time making her way up the division. She believes she has the complete game to finish fights wherever they go, and if everything goes according to plan, she wants gold sooner rather than later.
“I know I’m a complete fighter. I do have a very good stand up game, I also have a very good ground game, and I can finish fights,” said Bertolso.
“That’s what I want. I want to get as many fights as possible, quick as possible, and I do feel that soon I could be fighting for a belt. I want to have some wins, and go fight for that belt as soon as possible.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Aieza Bertolso above.