Debi Purcell on Gina Carano - I just wish she'd make weight and fight me.

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MMAyou.com had the opportunity to speak with female mixed martial artist Debi Purcell. Check out what Purcell has to say regarding fighting Gina Carano, Carano not making weight, who she would like to face next, and much more!

MMAyou.com: How are you doing? How’s everything?

Purcell: I’m great. I’m really actually really great.

MMAyou.com: Good good good. You signed a three fight deal with EliteXC and were set to fight Carina Damm before she tested positive for steroids. Has your new opponent been announced?

Purcell: I know who my new opponent is but they’re either gonna announce it tonight or after this show’s over. (Editor’s note: this interview took place on 5/31/08 before the EliteXC/CBS event) They asked me to refrain from announcing it (laughs).

MMAyou.com: I want to ask you about EliteXC’s golden-girl Gina Carano, would you be interested in a fight with her and if so

Purcell: (cuts in) Absolutely, absolutely! Sorry let me let you finish.

MMAyou.com: (both laugh) No good ahead. I was going to ask you, how would that fight go down? Would you keep it standing? Would you take her down? What would you do?

Purcell: Most likely with her I would take her down because that would be the smart thing to do. Standup wise I love standing and I think I could stand with her but I think that my ground’s better so why stand? (laughs)

MMAyou.com: That makes total sense. What did you think of her coming in overweight again?

Purcell: I think that… I see her point. Honestly this is the truth, I see her point about she wasn’t ready to fight and they basically made her fight or she wasn’t gonna get to do Gladiators, that’s what she said. I think it’s unprofessional. I think if you sign to fight at a certain weight you need to make weight because it’s not fair to the girls who are fighting smaller then her. I think that she should just move up a weight class and fight at 150.

If you’re walking around at 160 you shouldn’t be fighting at 140. So she can never make 140. And here I talk maybe I won’t make 130 (both laugh)

MMAyou.com: I’m sure you’ll make it.

Purcell: Here’s the thing though, I’ll die trying, you know what I mean? I’ll die trying. That’s the thing but I’m on. I’ve been able to train full-time, three times a day for my fight. I want to fight in both the 130lb and the 140lb divisions in EliteXC.

MMAyou.com: Where are you training at right now?

Purcell: I’m training at Subfighter in Lake Forest and with Marco Ruas.

MMAyou.com: That was my next question, how is Marco doing?

Purcell: It’s crazy. I have all these crazy…. My training, it’s weird. I have a boxing coach named Genaro Hernadez who’s an amazing boxer and I train MMA with Marco which is always amazing and then Team Subfighter I do my MMA and my ground. I’m actually getting married to a Jiu Jitsu guy named Ronald Assumpcao and I can’t even pronounce his last name but he’s a Brazilian black belt so I’ve been training with him too. So I’ve been doing lots of training (laughs).

MMAyou.com: You said you’re getting married to him?

Purcell: Yes!

MMAyou.com: When is that?

Purcell: Let’s see. We’re doing it exactly a month after my fight so on the 27th. He has a thirteen year old son named Gustavo who’s amazing and it’s like I’m marrying both of them.

MMAyou.com: Congratulations!

Purcell: Thank you. I haven’t told anybody yet.

MMAyou.com: We’re going to break all kinds of news today. Is there anyone in particular you would like to face right now?

Purcell: Believe it or not I want to fight Tara LaRosa more then anything. Like more then anything on the planet! I’ve tried to fight her for five years, every day of my life I tried to fight her. Now she’s calling me out because I think she wants the opportunity to fight on Elite or IFL.

Basically Marco has told me, and I do whatever he says, he’s like “you need to have one fight before you fight her“. So I’m like “okay” you know? So my goal is no matter what after this fight to fight her.

MMAyou.com: So this fight is something that you think is going to happen in the future?

Purcell: Yeah, 100%.

MMAyou.com: Right.

Purcell: You never know because I tried to fight her for all those years and she wouldn’t do it and said I haven’t done enough, and what have I done to deserve a fight with her and blah blah blah. And now that I haven’t fought in two and a half years she’s all of a sudden saying she wants to fight me. I think if she sees me doing really really well I think that she won’t want to fight me again.

She disrespects me at every chance that she gets. It’s really upsetting to me because I’ve done nothing… I respect the women! I think we have a hard enough time trying to build and get respect. I think that all the cattiness and the pettiness really hurts us as a whole. Even Gina, I have things with her but she’s helping grow the sports for the girls so you can’t knock her for that. I’m grateful for that for her. I just wish she’d make weight (both laugh)

MMAyou.com: So do many people.

Purcell: (laughs) Make weight and fight me.

MMAyou.com: As for Tara, she might just be trying to make a name for herself so that might be her way of doing it.

Purcell: I know, I know but degrading people and talking crap on them… I mean she told IFL that I was on steroids. Telling an organization that I’m a… That’s like grounds for suing and I actually thought about it. It’s not just light heartedness on the internet trash-talking, it’s like serious stuff, you know what I mean? And it’s unfounded. I don’t know why she does it.

MMAyou.com: Hopefully you’ll meet her in the ring. What do you think is the next step for women’s MMA to get bigger?

Purcell: I think one of the things that they’re doing is that their starting to sign the better women and the weight classes and that’s gonna help a lot. Believe it or not signing the key personalities is really helping the general public acknowledge women’s MMA. It helps, it’s what it needs.

Tito had his (inaudible) for men's MMA and everybody knocks him but you know what? He really helped put our sport on the map at one time so I don't knock him for that. As much as I have to say about Gina she’s doing the same thing for women’s MMA so I’m getting the opportunity to fight on Elite because people want to see women fight because of her so I kind of have to be happy about that.

MMAyou.com: In closing is there anything you would like to say to our readers?

Purcell: Just that I’m very grateful to fight again and I can’t wait. I’m in the best shape of my life mentally, emotionally, physically, everything, and I want to come back and just show what I ‘m capable of doing. I’ve never been able to do that, throughout my whole career, show what I’m capable of doing. So as long as I can do that I’ll be happy.

For more information on Purcell you can check her out on her website at www.debipurcell.com or www.fightergirls.com.

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