Allycia Rodrigues is the reigning atomweight Muay Thai world champion at ONE Championship and she recently revealed that she’s preparing for an MMA transition by training in Jiu-Jitsu. The promotion has managed to play host to a number of high-profile MMA debuts over the years, with dozens of elite strikers and grapplers making the transition under the ONE banner. Rodrigues is one of the top Muay Thai fighters in the world at her weight so naturally there would be a lot of attention around her, and she could make a pretty big impact being in one of the smaller weight classes.
Although Allycia Rodrigues is still focusing on her Muay Thai career right now, she revealed in an interview with ONE Championship that she’s already spending some working her Jiu-Jitsu:
“I always go back to training Jiu-Jitsu after a fight. Obviously, I need to keep up my Muay Thai training routine as well, but when I don’t have a fight scheduled, I can fit in Jiu-Jitsu training. And the best part is that I train both Jiu-Jitsu and MMA at my gym, Phuket Fight Club. This makes it easier to fit training into my routine.”
It’s always tough for any specialist to adapt to a broader ruleset, but Rodrigues does have a number of things going in her favour. Her Brazilian heritage means that she has a few connections to the Jiu-Jitsu world, and not just through her gym:
“My husband, Jose Neto, helps me a lot with my training, but there’s also Leonardo Souza, who is the Jiu-Jitsu teacher at Phuket Fight Club. But there are other teachers and training partners, and it’s always great to train with all of them because they all help me a lot. I only train MMA in the morning. In the afternoon, I train Muay Thai.”
Although nothing is set in stone yet, Rodrigues revealed that she does have a timeline in mimd for her MMA debut:
“I decided to train Jiu-Jitsu because I intend to fight MMA. If everything goes well, I intend to debut in MMA next year. Let’s see how I evolve and how things unfold along the way.”
Rodrigues is an elite athlete and she’s still very young, at just 26 years old. Obviously these factors make taking up a new sport significantly easier, but she’s still finding it tough:
“It’s very different. Jiu-Jitsu, since I don’t have much experience, requires me to use a lot of strength, and that really wears me out. In Muay Thai, my body is already adapted to the training. So I think that’s the main difference today, and it’s what makes Jiu-Jitsu training so difficult and challenging for me.”
She can’t afford to get too distracted of course, as she still has a Muay Thai title to defend at the moment. Despite that obligation, Rodrigues actually plans on testing her Jiu-Jitsu skills soon:
“I’m still a beginner in Jiu-Jitsu. But I hope to be able to focus more after this Muay Thai fight, and if I have the opportunity, I would like to compete and gain experience. I don’t know much about the events, but I hope to compete soon.”
