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The undefeated strawweight was scheduled to fight Julia Polastri in March, but a back injury forced her to pull out at the last minute. In June, she will now face the same opponent.
"It’s awesome to get Julia again, we already prepared for her, so now I’m just focusing on keeping my body intact. Pulling out sucked of course, but it was also a wake up call. I can’t
train the same way ‘off season’ as I do in a camp. I have to train smarter, add things to my training that I didn’t have before. I need to do prehab and focus on muscles that needs strengthening."
Knutsson started her new training camp in Thailand, distributing her time over two gyms. Early in the camp, focus was on strength and conditioning, but she was also able to find
a really good sparring partner:
“I trained a lot with a flyweight girl from the UFC named Casey O’Neill. We worked really well together, she’s very good! With some girls, there’s just too much prestige when it comes to sparring,
maybe because there’s so few of us. But with Casey it was just the opposite and that was great. Us girls should work more together and learn from each other. I always want to get as much
as possible out of the training with other girls.”
After spending a fruitful month of training in Thailand, it was time to head back home. However, Knutsson’s old team member Khamzat Chimaev reached out with an invitation to train in Dubai,
so her team boarded a plane to the Persian Gulf instead. In Dubai she trained alongside the UFC middleweight star, who’s preparing for his biggest fight to date against Robert Whittaker.
“It’s such a good motivation to train alongside Khamzat. He has a mindset of a winner exactly all the time. In fact, that goes for all the guys I trained with down there. That gives me even more
motivation and builds a good team spirit in the camp. I trained with some very tough guys, as close to my weight as possible. There was a lot of sparring and physical training. In a hot climate too.
Good thing I was in Thailand before Dubai.”
Knutsson claims her condition and stamina gets way much better training in a warmer climate than home in Sweden. So how fast does she run 10 kilometers?
“I haven’t pushed myself for 10 kilometers in a while,” she laughs. “Maybe like 45 minutes nowadays. When I fought as a kickboxer I maxed 10K all the time though. Striking, running – running, striking.
I still run longer distances, but more as a deceleration. After all, I compete in MMA now.”
"It’s awesome to get Julia again, we already prepared for her, so now I’m just focusing on keeping my body intact. Pulling out sucked of course, but it was also a wake up call. I can’t
train the same way ‘off season’ as I do in a camp. I have to train smarter, add things to my training that I didn’t have before. I need to do prehab and focus on muscles that needs strengthening."
Knutsson started her new training camp in Thailand, distributing her time over two gyms. Early in the camp, focus was on strength and conditioning, but she was also able to find
a really good sparring partner:
“I trained a lot with a flyweight girl from the UFC named Casey O’Neill. We worked really well together, she’s very good! With some girls, there’s just too much prestige when it comes to sparring,
maybe because there’s so few of us. But with Casey it was just the opposite and that was great. Us girls should work more together and learn from each other. I always want to get as much
as possible out of the training with other girls.”
After spending a fruitful month of training in Thailand, it was time to head back home. However, Knutsson’s old team member Khamzat Chimaev reached out with an invitation to train in Dubai,
so her team boarded a plane to the Persian Gulf instead. In Dubai she trained alongside the UFC middleweight star, who’s preparing for his biggest fight to date against Robert Whittaker.
“It’s such a good motivation to train alongside Khamzat. He has a mindset of a winner exactly all the time. In fact, that goes for all the guys I trained with down there. That gives me even more
motivation and builds a good team spirit in the camp. I trained with some very tough guys, as close to my weight as possible. There was a lot of sparring and physical training. In a hot climate too.
Good thing I was in Thailand before Dubai.”
Knutsson claims her condition and stamina gets way much better training in a warmer climate than home in Sweden. So how fast does she run 10 kilometers?
“I haven’t pushed myself for 10 kilometers in a while,” she laughs. “Maybe like 45 minutes nowadays. When I fought as a kickboxer I maxed 10K all the time though. Striking, running – running, striking.
I still run longer distances, but more as a deceleration. After all, I compete in MMA now.”
