For FloCombat via A.G Fight

Jéssica Aguilar left World Series of Fighting in 2015 when she signed with the UFC to be one of the faces of their new strawweight division. However, some unforeseen events have since prevented the Mexican 115-pounder from achieving the results expected by many fans and by the fighter herself.

After coming over to the UFC with a 10-fight winning streak, Aguilar has only fought twice so far in the Octagon and lost both fights – with a UFC 211 decision loss to Cortney Casey later being overturned to a No Contest after her opponent failed a drug test.

Aware of her negative momentum, the 35-year old veteran doesn’t hang her head, though, and doesn’t try to live in the past when she was considered to be the best in the world after beating Japanese star Megumi Fujii.

“The UFC is the biggest event, everyone knows it”, Aguilar said. “And now they have the best strawweight fighters in the world. My career has always been a search for the best in my division. Unfortunately I have faced some problems in recent years. I've fought Megumi [Fujii] and then I've defended my title for five years, always competing at a high level."

Itching to get another chance to showcase her skills inside the Octagon, Aguilar's name was considered for UFC Mexico City in August. However, the Mexican fighter, one of the icons of the sport in Latin America, will have to postpone the fulfillment of her dream of competing in the country.

"I would’ve loved to fight in Mexico City”, Aguilar said. “It is my dream, but I can’t fight with this injury. I'm still recovering. I'd like to fight again this year, but I guarantee that I will only do it when my body is at a hundred percent. Recovering from knee and nose injuries, I lost a lot of weight and have to recover now.”

Aguilar also took the opportunity to give her opinion on the state of the sport in Latin America. Despite not being able to fall back on the MMA tradition of countries like Brazil and the United States, the sport is experiencing a peak in popularity at the moment, largely based on the popularity of athletes like Cain Velasquez, Yair Rodriguez and Aguilar. Therefore, the desire to continue being a part of this process is even bigger for “JAG”.

"I want to share my story, motivate and help with the growth of the sport, which is relatively new (in Latin America). In my case, I started at age 24 and became a world champion, and now I am part of the largest MMA organization in the world. I was part of history, I was the first Mexican and Latin American MMA champion, I could show that Latinas can compete in a sport that is considered a sport for men."