Ukrainian UFC Fighter Maryna Moroz Gives Emotional Interview After Win
Maryna Moroz was victorious on the UFC 272 prelims and then the Ukrainian gave an emotional speech about her family and friends back home.
Moroz fought Kazakh fighter Mariya Agapova on the opening fight of the preliminary card for UFC 272, headlined by Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington.
The Ukrainian earned a brilliant second round stoppage, forcing Agapova to tap out to an arm triangle choke, and leading to an emotional outpouring as the fight finished.
Complete domination 🔥
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) March 6, 2022
Maryna Moroz kicks off the prelims by with a slick submission win over Mariya Agapova 🙌#UFC272 pic.twitter.com/JlIcawwkLh
LOCKS IN THE SUB 🔒
— UFC (@ufc) March 6, 2022
Maryna Moroz with the dominant finish to end it RD 2!
[ #UFC272 | Prelims are LIVE on E+ ] pic.twitter.com/ny7MJXjccI
Following the fight Moroz was allowed to get onto the microphone to speak to the crowd and understandably the 30-year-old, who has coached her country's Women's Olympic boxing team, was extremely emotional.
"My family is in Ukraine," she said whilst being interviewed in the octagon, "I had a hard week. I worried, I cried, because my family is right now in a bad situation.
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"Thank you to everyone who messaged me, supported me, because this week was hard for me. I wanted to cry because of this war my country is in.
"I have a lot of pressure. All this week I feel nervous, I cried. I tried to focus. Many people don't know, but it was really hard for me. I see in Ukraine how terrible the situation is. It was really my heart almost crying. But I did it. I focused and I did fight."
Powerful words from an emotional Maryna Moroz competing in incredibly tough circumstances 💙💛#UFC272 pic.twitter.com/U35HcBvj3C
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) March 6, 2022
Moroz, who is now on a three fight winning streak since moving up to 125 lbs, continued to explain how tough things were for her right now in the post fight press conference.
The American Top Team fighter, who'd last appeared in UFC in March 2020, added, "I'm nervous about my mother. I don't want Russian people to come and kill my family, because many of my friends have died right now."
"I want people to listen. Stop this, because I want to save my family."
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) March 6, 2022
Ukraine's Maryna Moroz spoke about the Russian invasion of her home country.
Full #UFC272 post-fight scrum ▶️ https://t.co/KtQ4lHBB8a pic.twitter.com/jLYQX8X1e5
Fight sports in Ukraine have been in the headlines over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with some of the country's most famous boxers taking up arms to protect their homeland.
Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko have all pledged themselves to the Ukrainian army during these hard times.
Vitali, the former heavyweight world champion and now Mayor of Kyiv, went viral for a clip in which he admitted his group had killed several Russians.
Ryan Sidle