Joana Gonçalves| Artemis Fight Night 1 · Ireland news

Summary

Joana Gonçalves | Artemis Fight Night 1 After six years away from the sport, Joanna Gonçalves makes a return to the ring at Artemis Fight Night. With no pressure and just a promise to a teammate, Joanna stepped in to fight with a relaxed mindset and walked away with a win. She…

AI summary AI-generated from the transcript

Post-fight interview with Joana Gonçalves after Artemis Fight Night 1, framed as the country’s first all-female fight card. Gonçalves says she is excited to see many young women on the card and looks forward to their futures. She had not competed for about six years—she stopped training and everything else around COVID—and only returned to training roughly the prior year, having trained since she was about 14. She entered this bout mainly for fun after telling a training partner she would fight if the partner did; they submitted names together. She won but felt she did not perform especially well. She is relieved and energized afterward and plans to watch a friend compete next. On fighting again, she says probably, depending on how she feels on Monday. She encourages women to try training and only compete if they enjoy it, and notes fitness and mental strength from training. She thanks her coach, friends, and training partner Rebecca.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Go back. Let's go. >> Welcome back Artemis Fight Night. Um, I have here Miss Yana Joanna. >> I'm used to all like the Eastern European Yanas. Joanna Gonav Gonzalez Gonav doesn't matter. All right, perfect. All right, first of all, congratulations on your victory there. Um, you know, so speaking of Artemis, what's it like being on, you know, kind of uh the country's first all female >> fight card? >> I'm super excited. Like I don't think I ever been in a fight that had so many girls like maximum two, three girls >> like fights. I mean, so six. Uh so seeing so many girls especially at this young age like they have such a good burden future ahead of them. I'm so excited to see them all in the future and yeah >> with this card did you kind of have any expectations kind of coming into this fight? >> No. Um so I fought before but I haven't fought in like six years. >> Oh wow. >> So >> it's quite the break. >> I know. So I was like I'm going to have fun. Um the girl that I've been training with, she wanted to have her first fight. So in order to motivate her, I told her, "If you fight, I fight." >> Okay. >> So we put our names together. >> Good motivation. >> Yeah. So I was like just I'm going to have some fun. If I lose, if I win, doesn't matter. I'm just going to have some fun. And well, I I won. I'm I don't think I did that great, but I won. So I'm happy. >> Well, you know, a win's a win. >> Yeah. >> You know, regardless of how you want to feel about it. Um, so like 6 years off, what was it that like what what what stopped you? Like why did you >> I don't know. >> So is it 6 years off from competing or just training in general or everything? >> Everything. >> Everything. >> Since co basically I stopped training and then I've been training back >> for the last year maybe. >> How long were you training before then? >> Oh, I've been training all my life since I was like a teenager like these guys. Like 14 years old I've been training. Yeah. Wow. So, >> u So, how does it feel to be back? >> Good. >> Yeah. >> Before I fought, I was like, "Oh, why did I put my name for this?" Uh, now I'm just happy I've done it and I'm all buzzing. I'm My friend is going to go there now. So, I'm I'm going to run to see her. >> We'll be We'll be quick here. Um, are are you going to fight again? >> Probably. Depends. I'll feel like I'll see how I feel on Monday. >> Right on. Um, and then just uh quickly, you know, for the women out there, like what would you do to try to mo or what would you say to them to try to mo motivate them to uh to compete and to be on on shows like this? >> I would say like give it a try and see how it feels. Like if you don't like getting punched, you don't have to compete. Like you can just train, but if you do like it, give it a try. It doesn't kill you. Like it you survive a punch. It makes you stronger. All >> right. And then last one here. What What skills do you take away from just training? If you don't want to compete, what skills do you take away and use every day? >> Um, I don't know. I I have I lost a lot of weight because I haven't trained in a while. I lost a lot of weight. I feel fitter. Uh, and mentally makes you stronger, I think. So, I'll just give it a try to everyone who who even thought about it. >> Right on. Amazing. All appreciate your time. I know you want to go check out your friend there fight. Do you have anything you want to shout out or >> uh me? I want to shout out to everyone. my coach, my friends, Rebecca, who's my training partner. So, thank you all. >> Right on. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Until next time. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Ooh.