Inside the training camp of undefeated UFC fighter Josefine Knutsson

Josefine Knutsson. Photo: Private

In just about a month, on June 15, Swedish UFC fighter Josefine Knutsson finally returns to the octagon for the second time.

The undefeated strawweight was scheduled to fight promotional newcomer Julia Polastri in March, but a back injury forced to pull out at the last minute. In June, she will face the same opponent she was supposed to fight a few months back.

”It’s awesome to get Julia again,” Knutsson tells Frontkick in an exclusive interview. ”We already prepared for her, so now I’m just focusing on keeping my body intact.”

What happened to your back?

”My back got stiffer and stiffer during camp. In my camps, we build up the intensity, with hard sparring and stuff, before we leave for the actual fight. It was at that point my back fucked up. I tried all kinds of treatments for like a week, but nothing helped. So unfortunately we had to cancel. We just couldn’t risk anything.”

No athlete is one hundred percent free from injuries going into a fight, but Knutsson learned a valuable lesson hurting her back.

”It sucked of course, but it was also a wake up call. I can’t train the same way ’off season’ as I do in a camp. I have to train smarter, add things to my training that I didn’t have before. I need to do prehab and focus on muscles I need to strengthen.”

Josefine Knutsson and Casey O’Neill. Photo: Private

Good sparring in Thailand

Knutsson started her new training camp in Thailand, distributing her time over two gyms. Since Thailand was early in the camp, she focused on conditioning and strength at first, but was also able to find a really good sparring partner.

”I trained a lot with a flyweight girl from the UFC named Casey O’Neill. We worked really well together, she’s very good. With some girls, there’s just too much prestige when it comes to sparring, maybe because there’s so few of us. But with Casey it was just the opposite and that was great.”

According to Knutsson, the kind of prestige between female fighters is something she has seen all over the world.

”Us girls should work more together and learn from each other. I want to get as much as possible out of the training with other girls.”

Khamzat Chimaev and Josefine Knutsson. Photo: Private

Josefine Knutsson went to Dubai

After spending a fruitful month of training in Thailand, it was time to head back home. However, as Knutsson’s old team member Khamzat Chimaev reached out with an invitation to train in Dubai, her team boarded a plane to the Persian Gulf instead of flying back to the cold and snowy Sweden.

In Dubai she trained alongside the UFC middleweight star, who’s preparing for his biggest fight to date as he’s taking on Robert Whittaker in Saudi Arabia, the week after Knutsson’s fight in Las Vegas.

”It’s such a good motivation to train alongside Khamzat. He has a mindset of a winner exactly all the time. In fact, that goes for all the guys I trained with down there. That gives me even more motivation and builds a good team spirit in the camp. I trained with some very tough guys, as close to my weight as possible. There was a lot of sparring and physical training. In a hot climate too. Good thing I was in Thailand before Dubai.”

Photo: Private

Knutsson claims her condition and stamina gets way much better training in a warmer climate than in Sweden. Talking condition, as a runner, it’s hard to resist asking the magic question.

How fast do you run 10 kilometers? 

”I haven’t pushed myself for 10 kilometers in a while,” she laughs. ”Maybe like 45 minutes nowadays. When I fought as a kickboxer I maxed 10K all the time. Striking, running – running, striking. I still run longer distances too, but more as a deceleration. After all, I compete in MMA.”

Read more: Undefeated Josefine Knutsson: “The whole Swedish MMA fan base is with us”

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