Emily Whitmire was last seen in action at UFC Fight Night Phoenix, defeating Aleksandra Albu by first round submission.
The win at Phoenix was the fastest submission victory in UFC Women’s Strawweight Division history, which is a record that Whitmire had thought about breaking before.
“I had actually kind of thought one time…I knew the plan was to get the girl to the ground and wrestle and I knew there was going to be an opening for a submission possibly, so I kind of had a feeling that I was gonna get a first round submission and if I didn’t…the fight would kind of go on for the full three rounds. I actually thought one time…I was like ‘what if I get like one of the fastest submissions in strawweight history or something?’ I thought that one time and never thought of it again and then when it happened, I totally didn’t even…I couldn’t believe it happened. I still can’t believe it,” says Whitmire in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
It would take Whitmire just one minute and one second to get the submission over Albu in Phoenix.
Whitmire is also friends with actress and singer Demi Lovato, as the duo were introduced to each other via Randy Couture.
“I actually go workout with her sometimes, so I’ve been out there with her. After my last fight, I was in Whitefish, Montana with her. I actually travel with her sometimes and workout with her, she used to go to Unbreakable…where Randy Couture goes a lot when he’s in California. So they were kind of looking for a training partner for her and Randy thought I would be a good fit. He introduced us and we ended up hitting it off, we actually have a lot in common with the way we were brought up and stuff like that. We just hit it off and clicked, so I go workout with her every now and then. She’s awesome, I didn’t really know who she was when that all first came about and then I googled her and was like ‘oh my gosh, she sings this song and that song and that song.” I did some research about her and I became an instant fan, I think she’s so awesome. Leading up to it, she thought she was going to go to the Anaheim card (UFC 233) and then wasn’t able to get to Phoenix. So it was awesome to hear from her after the fight,” says Whitmire.
Lovato has been an MMA fan for a long time, having popped up in the crowd before at both UFC and Bellator MMA events.
