No matter how much or how little experience a fighter has coming into the UFC, there’s nothing like the first win in the Octagon. Whether it comes in the first, second or third try, that hand raise is always a milestone. 

For Ivana Petrovic, it happened in her sophomore appearance against Liang Na in April 2024, nine months after she dropped a decision to Luana Carolina. Petrovic licked her wounds from her first professional loss and returned with a fury against Liang. 

The arm triangle submission came about 90 seconds into the final round. Petrovic felt “reborn” getting her first UFC win.  

“When I lost my first (UFC) fight, I was working really hard to come back and to show everyone that the fight before that was not the real me,” Petrovic said to UFC.com.

She admitted to feeling “really nervous” ahead of her debut, even saying it felt like she was “fighting for the first time” in her life. Her second bout was nothing like that. Octagon jitters behind her, Petrovic just felt more at ease having familiarized herself with everything that comes with a UFC fight week.

Petrovic gets a new experience at UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi in Edmonton. She faces fellow one-loss fighter Jamey-Lyn Horth, who hails from Squamish, BC, Canada. 

Knowing she will fight in enemy territory doesn’t faze her all that much. In fact, it motivates her. Petrovic believes the work she does with a mental performance couch steeled her mind to silence the crowd when all is said and done on fight night. That reality, plus the fact that she is a slight betting underdog, is all the motivation she needs to snag a second win in the Octagon.

“I’m even more hungry when I'm the underdog,” Petrovic said.

Horth is a tough challenge, who has had an inverse experience in the Octagon to Petrovic. She defeated Hailey Cowan in a sharp debut before dropping a split decision to Veronica Hardy 11 months ago. 

Stylistically, Petrovic knows her best path to victory remains her ground game, so she feels like she prepared properly to get the fight into her world as quickly as possible.

“Jamie-Lyn is a really strong person,” Petrovic said. “I need to be prepared for her strength. But she also has good striking, and hopefully, (I’m) going to strike her in the head or on the cage.

“My takedowns, that's my world… (I think I’ll get) some submission on the ground.”

The 30-year-old is eager to replicate the success she found while competing under the Ares FC banner, namely earning and defending the flyweight title.

Those results led her to the Octagon, and after a speed bump, she believes she has everything in place to start making waves in the thriving 125-pound division.

“I really feel that I'm growing from fight to fight,” she said. “Every time something new like this fight, I'm sure that I'm going to bring something new in the cage. But also mentally, I'm a different person than I was the last fight.” 

Don't miss a moment of UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi, live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on November 2, 2024. Prelims start at 5pm ET/2pm PT, while the main card kicks off live on ESPN+ at 8pm ET/5pm PT.

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