Interview with Amanda Buckner Part 2

By Keith Mills

On April 14th, Amanda Buckner fights on her pay-per-view debut in BodogFight against Hitomi Akano. In the first part of this interview, we asked Amanda about Bodog and Akano. Now we ask about the fights themselves and put it all in perspective with the women's divisions including EliteXC.

Amanda Buckner is an IFC and Ring of Fire Champion, Abu Dhabi '05 Submission Fighting Worlds vet, and has faced most of the top-ranked female fighters in North America including Jennifer Howe and Tara LaRosa.

FCF: You were quoted as saying something to the effect of 'I feel a strong pressure to represent women and what they are capable of.' Do you think you accomplished that?
AB: I think I did. I think I represent women well as far as the ideas I try to get across and as far as my fight goes I felt like that. I felt it looked like a skilled fight between two fighters. That is my goal every time I go out, win or lose. It sucks to lose, don't get me wrong, but I would rather lose a fight that looked like an amazing fight between two skilled fighters, than have a win in a sloppy match where people might say women aren't at that level yet. The fight between Julie (Kedzie) and I may have been short but I think we looked like two skilled people fighting.

FCF: Please describe that fight.
AB: It was a pretty short fight. I didn't go in with a specific gameplan. I knew she had a pretty strong striking background and thought my wrestling and jiu-jitsu was a little more experienced than hers. I didn't go in saying I wanted to take it to the ground. We ended up clinched after a couple short exchanges and I found myself in a position for a good takedown. I landed in good position and tried to stay aggressive. When I stood up in her open guard I landed a hard shot I could tell kind of rocked her a little bit. She kind of stood up with her head sticking out a little bit and I just grabbed for the guillotine.

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