Trailing In PFL Playoff Standings, Aspen Ladd Says She’s Treating Her Next Bout as a ‘Five-Minute Fight’

Expect to see some fireworks in Aspen Ladd’s next Professional Fighters League assignment.

Ladd (10-4, 1-1 PFL) needs a quick victory to secure a place in the 2023 PFL playoffs and will attempt to score it as she will lock horns with Karolina Sobek on June 16. The Ultimate Fighting Championship vet Ladd lost to Olena Kolesnyk via majority decision in her first 2023 PFL Regular Season outing. While speaking with Sherdog, Ladd mentioned that the main focus is treating her upcoming clash as a five-minute fight rather than a 15 or 25-minute contest. Ladd emphasized the importance of accumulating points in the tournament. At the same time, she acknowledged that she can be a slow starter in fights, stating she needs to overcome that. However, fighting back-to-back and being in a perpetual training camp might help her shake off the slow start.

“Honestly, the main focus for me, and I think it’s [the same for] a lot of the girls going into this tournament, is treating it like a five-minute fight. If all my fights were 45 minutes to an hour, I'd end up winning just about most of them because that, endurance wise, I tend to get better as the fight goes. So trying to treat it as a five-minute fight as opposed to a 15-minute fight or a 25-minute fight is the main focus. Obviously, this is a points tournament and going into the second round like this, you need to get as many as possible.”

Timestamp:

(00:00) Intro
(00:48) Commenting on the Kolesnyk fight
(01:34) Disagreeing with the judges’ decision
(02:15) Praising Kolesnyk’s toughness
(02:58) Whether was she bothered when Kolesnyk missed weight
(03:24) Getting used to the point system
(04:28) Enjoying the PFL environment
(05:06) Preparing for Sobek
(05:48) Being a slow starter
(06:41) Celebrating Star Wars Day
(07:05) Coping with the perpetual training camp mentality
(08:00) Outro