The changes she made

Dark times in her mind battling weight

What a night it was for Felice Herrig in Houston, Texas at UFC Fight Night 104.After putting on a great display of movement and striking against Alexa Grasso to take home the unanimous decision victory, Herrig spoke to UFC.com about how she overcame the odds as a three to one underdog."I went out there and I did everything I knew I could do," Herrig said. "Alexa is a boxer by trade and I'm a kickboxer by trade, so I think people forgot about my years and years of striking credentials because I had so much success with submissions in the UFC--people forgot. I have a great boxing coach, Doug Mango, we work my boxing all the time and I'm a complete MMA fighter, what can I say?"I have great jiu-jitsu coaches, Jeff Curran and great wrestling coaches. I feel like I'm a complete fighter and I boxed with Alexa because I wanted to box her. I think people counted me out and people thought Felice can never box with this great boxer, and she is a great boxer, but I knew that coming in there. Not that I had anything to prove to myself, but I'm like, hey I haven't gotten into a brawl in a while and it would be nice to go back to my roots a bit."Having not competed since July 2016, Herrig was returning following a long layoff. The former TUF 20 contestant talked about the changes she'd made in her time away and said that it was mostly down to the adjustments she'd made with her mental preparation."I think you're seeing the fighter I always had in me and that I always was, but I couldn't [previously] pull out the performance because my anxiety got the best of me," Herrig said. "I had a lot of medical imbalances from years and years of stress and cutting weight. I have over 15 fights between kickboxing and MMA and that's a lot of fights, a lot of time and a lot to put your body through."Dieting all the time--and doing it wrong might I add. Now I have energy and It's not miserable anymore--I'm doing everything right. I'm not over obsessed with the scale. I don't weigh myself anymore until two, three weeks out, because I don't need to. [Previously] If I looked at the scale and it was a number I didn't want, I'd think "oh, tomorrow I have to lose one pound be one pound lighter". Then the next day I have to be a pound [even] lighter."In a moment of real bravery, the co-main event winner went on to reveal the extent of her fixation with her weight and how she overcame her unhealthy mindset."It's a lesson too, it's a mental head case when you look at the scale, and you, ah, I almost felt like I had to top myself," Herrig said, emotion clearly in her voice. "Now I feel like less is more and I shouldn't be miserable in fight camps. I was miserable for a lot of years and I did a lot of things wrong and I was stubborn."I have a team behind me [now] that believes in me and kept, even though I was stubborn and I didn't always want to listen and I hit rock bottom, I started listening and I'm just thankful for everyone that did believe in me. I know I was a three to one underdog, but all you people that bet money on me, I hope you won a s*it ton of money."