Sarah Kaufman reflects on her first loss, which came after she did something she's never done in training.
At Strikeforce's last show, Victoria's Sarah Kaufman suffered the first defeat of her career and relinquished her women's 135-pound belt to Marloes Coenen in the process.
But it was the way she lost the fight that bothered the 25-year-old the most.
"Going into the third (round), I was really starting to feel confident and getting back into my normal fighting and aggressive style, and we ended up on the ground and I started getting excited because I hit her with some real good shots on the ground," Kaufman said.
And then, in a split second, things all went wrong. As the ref hovered, she figured it was time to go for the kill. But in her anxiousness, she left a bit of space with her right arm out and Coenen, a Dutch submission specialist, executed her specialty -- the armbar.
Kaufman (12-1) believes she made two mistakes, which led to her getting caught: first in allowing Coenen (18-4) the opportunity to grab her arm and second in not properly doing what she needed to to get out of it.
"I did the opposite of an armbar escape," Kaufman admitted. "I actually kind of helped her put it on by standing up, which I've never done in training. I didn't do what I should have done, I was too in the moment.
"Knowing that she likes to armbar the right arm, of course it's something we emphasized: 'Don't leave your right arm there.' And I did. Ugh."
Afterward, there was some confusion as Kaufman appeared either upset at the stoppage or the fact that Coenen didn't let go right away and Kaufman was visibly favouring her right arm. She explained it was more of a refereeing error than anything else.
"Obviously it's in the moment and as a fighter you don't stop until the ref stops it, that's how it works. But I felt like I tapped a lot and the ref did take a little bit of time to get in there. I tapped a bunch of times and then had to say 'tap.' When he stepped in, she was still holding it. And then there's a picture of the ref holding her leg and my arm and almost like (it's) helping her to put it on even more."
Luckily for Kaufman, there was no break or serious injury -- a few days afterward she said it was a little sore, but that was about it -- and she did not receive a medical suspension.
Nor has she taken any time off. In fact, she immediately went backstage after the bout to hit pads with her trainer Adam Zugec.
"I don't normally do that, but I felt like I needed to because I felt like I didn't fight to my ability. I was also upset that I didn't push my conditioning to where it could have gone. I wasn't even a little bit tired, and to me that's frustrating, where I could have done so much more if I leave a fight not even tired."
Her next step was to take a look at the fight in its entirety and see what things she could have done differently. She said typically she and Zugec, who runs ZUMA, the gym she trains at in her home town, each watch the fight separately, then they'll watch it together.
"Then I can say, 'This is what I was thinking at that moment,' and he'll go, 'Well you were an idiot, don't do that!' Or he'll agree with me or whatever's going on," Kaufman said.
She admitted her relationship with her trainer is very close, just like family. And, like a close family member, he is always brutally honest with her.
"If I'm being an idiot, he'll call me an idiot for sure."
Hopefully for her, there won't be much more of that in the future.
