STIKK: So another badass Ukrainian jacked girl — just bigger. I’m stressed out, I basically couldn't sleep. Then they started the finals. I get a text at the hotel like, "hey get here now, they're starting the finals two hours early." I'm freaking hurrying, getting my stuff together, and then I get into another janky taxi...

GAM: Like Dukes of Hazzard ride to the freakin event...

STIKK: Oh my god, yeah, but this time he spoke English — actually, a little English, Russian, Azerbaijani and Turkish.

GAM: Wow.

STIKK: The ride was a little better, but he dropped me off across the street and it's not like you can cross just any street. Cars are just flying, going 50 or 60 MPH down residential type streets. It's insane and there's a lot of traffic, like New York kind of traffic. As I cross the street, I'm thinking "I'm going to miss my final." I get in there and luckily there's a match before I have to go up, meaning I have six minutes to warm up. With my gi on, I'm sprinting up and down the stands, just trying to break a sweat and then they call me up. I'm nervous because I got beat the day before by a smaller Ukrainian. I go into the match, I end up grabbing the lapel and a sleeve grip. I should add at this point, I train mostly no gi. I increased my gi training leading into this week, but I generally do better in no gi because I like scrambles and wrestling more.

I grab a collar and sleeve, trying to work a snap down, just kind of feel what she's doing. "Will she be super aggressive like the girl before," I'm wondering. But she's kind of doing the same thing, feeling me out, but her head is lower than mine and I get a pretty deep collar grip. And I don't ever do loop chokes, like ever, and I just felt like a loop choke was the thing to do. So I ended up doing a quick shuck over my arm and then I squeeze her head. I felt like the grip across her neck was super tight and I thought, "screw it, I'm just going to go for the loop choke because she's not going to freakin' throw me on my face. I dropped down and twisted for the loop choke and she ended up going unconscious.

GAM: Oh.

STIKK: About a minute and a half later, it would be time for my finals match in the gi.

GAM: Was that surreal? You go for this choke you never go for and you just won.

STIKK: Exactly, and she's unconscious. I've never put two girls asleep. Ever. And I was expecting to have my ass handed to me. Not to mention I was feeling so shitty from not sleeping for three days and cutting weight.

GAM: I don't know about you, but when I really start skimping on sleep it's about the two or three day mark I start getting nauseous like the flu.

STIKK: I felt like my equilibrium was off, similar to being on a boat for a long time. Being there in the venue is so odd. I was just trying to kind of get through the matches and maybe that's why I did well. I almost gave up caring because I felt like all odds were against me.