Zara Di Tofano Grapple Kings 11: Exclusive Pre-Fight Interview | Combat Confidential

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Interview with Zara Di Tofano in this exclusive pre-fight interview at Grapple Kings 11, brought to you by Combat Confidential. Zara shares her journey leading up to the match, how she started her path in BJJ, the challenges she faced, and what motivated her to take BJJ more…

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[Music] thanks for taking this time I know you got you got a little bit of time yet before your fight so um you know I guess first thing ask he like how do you how are you kind of preparing you know for the yeah mentally just sorry you weren't initially going to be the kind of the main so that was kind of up yesterday yeah yeah yeah ju like just pretty much like when I when they texted me and said do you want to be on the card like straight away I was like yeah cuz I just take any opportunity I get to fight and but yeah I just train like as hard as I can all the time like I always train hard like all year round so I'm prepared for like anything that comes up so when they text me for this I was like yeah I'll take it straight away um and yeah like training is just always super hard anyway I always train with such good people um so like I always feel prepared for training um I know I was going to be like on the main card cuz I knew it was like a title but I didn't know I'd be like the top like main card until obviously like yesterday and because of like all the pull outs and stuff like that or whatever happen so that's a bit of extra pressure now but I'm uh I'm looking forward to I think it would be a good fight um I don't really know much about the girl I'm fighting but like I've seen a couple of her fights and she looks like super super tough super aggressive so I think it would be a good fight yeah yeah is that something You' kind of normally do do would you just excuse me um when it comes to an opponent would you kind of just do you prefer to be not necessarily surprised but just kind of just let it happen or would you kind of prefer to get into details yeah I kind of I kind of like look them up like that I I do a bit of study like just just I like to I just like to know kind of what their game is just to like before I used to not do that just because I didn't really take it like Jiu-Jitsu itself that serious but now I think like getting into if you want to like kind of get into the higher levels I think it's kind of good to just look at the person's game what they're doing um just to prepare yourself some people don't like doing it though cuz it kind of like scares them off and stuff like that and it's not really like it kind of makes them nervous to see like oh that person's really good at wrestling so it might like freak them out but me it just prepares me even more and I can like work my game like around what they do and stuff like that so yeah a bit of a nerd I just study everyone's everyone's Jiu-Jitsu like you know that that's good I think Jiu-Jitsu is full of nerds really there's a lot of intelligent people who love to choke each other yeah you had mentioned briefly about um like taking things a bit more seriously yeah was there anything in particular that kind of spurred um your motivation to be more serious about jiujitsu um yeah like I think when I I left school cuz I I left school like I'm still pretty young I left school maybe like I finished over over year ago nearly two years ago and after that like I kind of felt like everyone was like going off to like college and doing loads of like crazy stuff and I am in college now but the main goal for me is Jiu-Jitsu and I was just kind of after school I was like there's nothing I really really really enjoy like other than Jiu-Jitsu like I just love going to training I love competing and like it was just it was just then as soon as I left school I was like yeah I want to do it I still I still you know I'm in college and like that and I'm studying fulltime but like what do you study event management but it's good to have a backup in life you know I think and it gives me it gives me a lot of flexibility to train pretty much full time like I I train pretty much all the time I train as if I'm a full-time athlete um and like the goal is just to keep competing and to you know work my way up and try and build a bigger name for myself and get on some of the bigger shows and then just hopefully make a name for myself in in the sport yeah what's your what's your dream promotion to be on um I'd love to be on grapple Fest Polaris all of those you know still still waiting um but you have to start somewhere so grapple Kings is a great place to start start there um and then yeah just just work my way off the ranks yeah did you did you do you find it difficult kind of like to enter into this Combat Sports World as a woman like is it I know things are probably like it's a male dominated sport you know so like it did you find that a difficult transition or was like it pretty welcoming for you um well it was kind of different for me because when I started I was a I was a kid so it was kind of different like I started when I was 12 which was eight years ago so it's been like a long time um and when I started like there was like in the kids class I can't even remember but like there was there were still girls there and stuff like that so it was a lot different um and then I remember transitioning from like the kids class into like the adults class and there there wasn't many girls there still there still isn't um but for me it was never really a challenge I think like I was always just such like as a kid I was such a sporty kid I always like I did rugby and stuff like that I played gck like I did I was always in sports um I was never like really like I know for some girls it's definitely hard you know going into these type of sports but because I started it's so young I feel like it just it helped me a lot and um definitely like to this day like I'm still like there's definitely not and like a lot of girls there's a lot more now than there was when I started and I remember going to Adult class there was only one other like one or two other girls in the class but there's definitely more now there's probably like six seven which is like way better but yeah it was never it was never really hard for me cuz I started so young but I know for other girls a challenge yeah is there a particular aspect of you know kind of Jiu-Jitsu or MMA grappling anything that you think um women would benefit from um like by doing it yeah yeah yeah um yeah so like the reason I started Jiu-Jitsu when I was 12 is cuz my mom wanted me to like have self-defense she thought it was important and 12old me was like okay yeah why not seems B so that's why I did it and but obviously other than like self-defense way that I think it's just great for your own confidence and like your own personal growth as a person like I feel like I've grown so much as a person I've changed so much like over the years um and I feel like Jiu-Jitsu has always been there it's only within maybe the last two years I've started to take it more serious but it's always been something in my life that I could always go back to um and it's something if you know I was having hard times in my life or something I could go to training and I could just forget about all all the struggles or stress or whatever outside of outside of uh outside jiujitsu in real life I suppose but um yeah I think anyone can benefit for you get super confident you know you grow you grow a lot you get to do things like this you get outside your comfort zone and it's good it's just a great experience you know for everyone I think even if you don't want to take it seriously and just to do it as a hobby it's it's great like honestly best Bo in the world I'm probably being biased but like yeah I think it is I agree and I think we can pull 10 out of 10 people here and they're all saying the same how has Combat Sports how's that kind of changed your life um like don't even know where to start to be honest it just obviously I started as a kid I just did it as a hobby um it was only until maybe like two years ago where I started to take it properly like like serious and like actually do a full time it's just like it was always a perod in my life but it was never my whole life until like maybe the last two years um but it's just it's so good for you like I think mentally as well like you just don't think about anything else like well I don't anyway like this is kind of all I think about now which like some people might think like oh like that's a bit you know like you should be thinking about something else but like I just love it so much I don't think it's bad of how much I think it you know it only benefits me so I think it's good um but yeah like it's just it's just changed my life completely it's just made me like such a more confident person and I've just grown so much and I think like I've met such amazing people like doing the sport like honestly friends for life it's just it's so good I think everyone can benefit for me like you don't have to start when you're like 12 like me you can start when you're like 35 50 like whatever you know it doesn't it doesn't matter everyone can do it and you can take it serious you can just have fun show up once a week you can show up 10 times a week you know whatever you want I just think it's it's very inclusive you know everyone can do it and I think that's that's important you know um last question here um if you had to tell somebody who's maybe sitting on the fence uh you know who's maybe interested but they just you know maybe they don't have the courage yet to take that step um what would you say to convince them um to start training just do it like as cliche like just do it because like you'll only as cliche as it is you only get the chances you don't take you know what I mean I think like just if you're thinking of it like you know you don't I always think picture yourself 80 years old you're on your rocking chair in your in your front porch or your back garden and it's like oh like you're you're looking back what if I had starty jit you I mean it's just like you don't you don't want your life to be like that so that's why I'm very I just take whatever whatever chances I get like especially like shows and stuff like that and if someone's like do you want to do you want to do this do you want to fight that straight away I'm like yeah I don't I and sometimes it's bad because you know there can be risks and stuff like that but I'd rather I'd rather take a risk doing something I love than regret in the future you know yeah absolutely so all look here thank you very much I appreciate it and then U here just what's your prediction for tonight oh I'm going to win yeah yeah any particular uh maneuver or um no I just definitely definitely going to out teack her anyway I'm going to get a get a good good good sub that's what I'm thinking yeah yeah well look um I I hope that happens than you me too I hope I get to talk to you again after this we can go over that again thanks very much Youk you [Music] bye