Bec Hyatt Fighting 18-Year-Old But Doesn’t See Age as Advantage Ahead of Invicta FC 6
Bec Hyatt will be the older fighter Saturday when she meets 18-year-old Mizuki Inoue at Invicta FC 6, but she doesn’t believe that gives her an advantage.
Ahead of the matchup, Hyatt explained her reasoning and much more during an interview with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show.
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On whether she’s studied footage of Inoue: “Me personally, I haven’t studied it. I don’t know normally study my opponents. I just train [and] do what my coach tells me to do. My coach does the studying, and he’s managed to dig up a lot of footage on her and studied her style and the things she likes to do. I have definitely been training for Mizuki in that way. She’s real experienced. She’s been training and fighting for longer than me. I think she won the grand prix at Jewels when she was 16 years old or something ridiculous like that. She’s been training and fighting for ages, and I’m only new to the sport. I’ve only been here for like two years competing and three years training.”
On what kind of kid she was growing up: “I was a little s--t of a kid. I really was. I’ve always had an attitude problem, but I had a relatively normal childhood. I come from a broken home, so I used to spend a week at my father’s and a week at my mom’s. I pretty much lived out of a suitcase, but other than that I was pretty good. I just competed in basketball and gymnastics from a really young age. I’m the youngest of four children. I’ve always had to fight for everything. I’d get picked on; you know what brothers and sisters are like. I’ve always had a fiery little temper as well.”
On what fighting has done for her: “I think fighting has really humbled me and given me an outlet and taught me a lot of things about respect for other people and boundaries and things like that. … I used to be a little angry, a little s--t growing up. I feel so sorry for my mom, but since I found the sport, it’s definitely changed my life.”
On whether she fought growing up: “I actually got kicked out of high school for fighting. I had to go to a different [school] … . I was really naughty. My mom, she says I wasn’t that naughty; I was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was always sticking up for other people, which caused drama and I’d get into trouble. I’d never back down. I’d always just keep going. I got into a lot of trouble. … I wasn’t allowed in the timeout room. I was too naughty for that. I had like my own little desk at the front of the principal’s office. Looking back it now, it’s really frustrating. I feel really sorry for my mom and my dad for having to put up with me.”
On why she got into MMA: “Originally I got into the sport to lose weight. I was heavily overweight. There are photos floating around on Facebook of me being a big chubba bubba. I got in it to lose weight, and because I have always competed in sports -- not necessarily combat sports, just basketball and gymnastics and things like that -- I’m extremely competitive. Once I figured out that I was actually kind of good at this stuff, I definitely wanted to compete and I was hunting my first fight.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 1:03:06).
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