UFC strawweight athlete Gillian Robertson finds social situations harder to deal with than fighting in the cage and shared her experience competing in The Ultimate Fighter 26.
Canadian mixed martial arts standout Gillian Robertson first gained attention for her combat abilities after getting signed for TUF 26, designed for the inaugural strawweight champion to take the throne in 2017. She dropped a preliminary bout to Barb Honchak and later joined the UFC at the end of the year. After getting off to a successful start over Emily Whitmire, Robertson racked up other notable wins against the likes of Molly McCann, Veronica Hardy, and Priscila Cachoeira while also sharing the cage with Taila Santos and Maycee Barber.
Gillian Robertson finds social situations harder than fighting in the cage
In a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, Gillian Robertson opened up on finding social situations more difficult than fighting in the cage.
“I’m a socially awkward kind of don’t really put myself out there,” said Robertson. “Well I do with fighting but I’ve never really put myself out there in life so to be in these kinds of positions it’s just all a lot for me. For me, social situations are a lot harder than fighting situations. I feel like I’ve always been the socially awkward kid in the back of the class like the nerds. Well, I still am at the gym.”
“I’ve never been in a street fight in my life and I don’t intend to ever. It’s just… I don’t get it. I don’t see a use for fighting outside the cage for me.”
Robertson talked about her time competing on The Ultimate Fighter
‘The Savage’ reflected on her experience participating in TUF 26. While the interviews and media obligations were stressful enough, Robertson highlighted the crippling boredom that takes over when the athletes are not training.
“I never really did any kind of interviews or media or anything like that until I got in the TUF house so that’s going from absolutely zero to 100 percent. I was 22 and I was having interviews every day, cameras on you 24/7, literally after every single interview I had to go and change my shirt because I’d be dripping in sweat like I just got out the sauna. Just so nervous after every single interview.”
“Our season seemed pretty tame though I feel like in general. There was me and Montana De La Rosa were the two younger girls and everybody else I feel like was older and more mature like around at least 30. Nobody was trying to start drama. Nobody was trying to get in each other’s faces or we didn’t have any altercations. It was a pretty chill season.”
“The boredom gets to you if anything. No phones, no TV, no music, no books, nothing at all.”
Gillian Robertson is scheduled to take on Tabatha Ricci at UFC on ABC 5 this Jun. 24 at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
