Ukraine’s Maryna Moroz confirms friends have died during Russian invasion

Despite the heated feud which topped last weekend’s UFC 272 card in Las Vegas, perhaps no fighter inside the T-Mobile Arena felt quite as much pressure to succeed that Ukrainian flyweight Maryna Moroz.

Moroz scored a second-round submission win against Mariya Agapova on the undercard on Saturday night, a fight which came amid the Russian invasion of Moroz’s homeland. Afterwards, a tearful Moroz confirmed just how much pressure she felt to perform given the events taking place in Ukraine and speaking to Ariel Helwani on Monday’s MMA Hour, via MMA Fighting, she detailed the complex mix of emotions she was feeling.

“I [was] thinking, ‘I need this fight. I need to finish and show everybody that Ukraine is strong,’” she said. “I was more focused. I was more focused [because] I needed this fight. I want to show Ukraine that if I win, then Ukraine can win this war.”

The 24/7 news coverage of the war, Moroz said, proved to be a hugely conflicting situation for her as she prepared for the fight and something she says affected her greatly in advance of the fight.

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“It was really hard for me. I cried [a lot]. People didn’t see this,” Moroz stated.

“My manager, we tried to make a video for my sponsor for everybody, but I’d start to do something and I’d cry, cry — I could not stop. Every moment I’d say, ‘Maryna, you’re strong. Stop, stop. You’re strong, you need to be strong. Don’t cry, don’t think, don’t look at news.’ But all this time I’d open my Instagram and I’d see news or terrible messages.

“Russian people [were] writing me terrible messages. My opponent’s friend, she lived together, [would] write bad message, ‘Oh, today, kill [people] and your family die,’ like bad messages. I’d cry, but every moment I’d say, ‘Stop. You’re strong, strong. You can do it. You can.’”

Moroz did confirm that, thankfully, her immediate family are safe and that they are helping to provide food to Ukrainian troops — but have ignored Moroz’s pleas to flee the country.

“My family is outside [the city], but it’s still dangerous,” Moroz said. “The whole country, whole territory right now, it’s dangerous to stay, because Russians can come to village, any place. So my father make a lot of Molotov cocktails and have a couple guns at home. My sister’s husband go in the army, out right now, he’s protecting the city.

“My family wants to stay. I asked about if I can help them move, [my mother] said, ‘No, we don’t want to move. We will stay home. It doesn’t matter what happens, we will try to live how we can.’ And I cry, because I’m scared that somebody can [come] and something happens, can come in house. I’m scared to think about this, and it’s just scary for me. I want to save my family. I want my family to move, but they say, ‘No, we have farm, we have animals.’

“My family, my mother cried, ‘I love my animals. I love my cow. I love chicken. So no, I’m staying. Take guns and I will stay in my house.’ And that’s it. She’s ready to kill the Russian army is they come in the home, to save the home.”

And Moroz confirmed that the conflict has already taken the lives of some people close to her.

“I know a couple of my friends [have joined] the army and died. It’s sad,” she said.

“I see these terrible pictures, kids dying, killing a whole city, fires at home, many scary pictures, and I feel sad. This terrible time, bad emotion — I don’t know how to say it [in English]. So scary. I want to every day cry, and it’s so hard. And I want this to stop. One day, I believe it’ll stop, and no more of this. I want to go back in my country again, normal life.”

Ukraine’s Maryna Moroz confirms friends have died during Russian invasion

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Ukraine’s Maryna Moroz confirms friends have died during Russian invasion

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