The Full Story: Loopy Godinez

Nothing had changed; Carlos just couldn’t tell his eldest daughter the actual reason they needed to leave all but what they could fit in that stack of suitcases behind and head to Vancouver.

Loopy cried the entire way. She cried when they arrived in Vancouver and settled into a hotel in New Westminster, and continued crying for the next six months.

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“Where we stayed was nowhere close to Disneyland,” she said with a smile, able to joke about the family’s sudden journey to an entirely new country all these years later. “It was a s***** hotel. Everything was s*****!”

Frustrated and confused, she pressed her parents for an explanation, and they finally relented, telling their eldest girl the reality of what brought them to Vancouver.

Back home, her father operated a car dealership, and one day, the cartel showed up demanding protection money.

When Carlos didn’t pay, they shot up the lot, turning the fleet of cars for sale into a collection of bullet-riddled warning signs about what would happen if he didn’t agree to their terms. They would also call the house, familiar voices detailing the names of his daughters and the schools they attended.

The family packed up almost immediately, Disneyland floated as the happy reason for a rapid departure from everything they had built, everything they had in Aguascalientes.

“When my parents finally explained the whole situation, I was like, ‘No. No. This is not real,’” said Godinez.

But it was, and life in British Columbia was now their new normal.

No one spoke English. Her parents initially didn’t have work. They were alone, together, and spent a great deal of time leaning on one another, trying to make the best of their new situation.

Her father started working. Loopy and her sisters went to school. There were fights and tears and stress, but also a newer, more intense closeness between the family because they were all each other had until they really began settling in, learning the language, and the newness of the situation slowly started fading away.

“Years go by, we had to move a few times from houses, and every time, we were feeling better because you get used to the situation,” explained Godinez, who currently sits at No. 10 in the UFC strawweight rankings, five spots behind Brazilian Virna Jandiroba, who she faces on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. “Life keeps going and if you don’t keep going, you’re going to stay back, and is that what you want?

“My dad had to go out there and make money because he had four girls, plus my mom. It was rough, but after so many years of hard work, so many years of tears, now we’re in a better position.

“My parents are still working, still trying their best, and us kids are doing the same,” she added. “The pain doesn’t last forever.”

# # #

Back in Mexico, Godinez had trained and competed in judo, and after a couple listless years in Vancouver “just existing,” as she put it, she returned to the mats, and it was like she had never left.

“The coaches would give me higher belts so I could get higher competition because I was murdering everyone, pretty much, so I had to get a step up in competition,” she said, smiling, the excitement she shows during her bloody battles in the Octagon shining through as she discussed running roughshod over hapless judokas that happened to get stuck on her side of the bracket.

Her competitive fire rekindled, she sought out something with a little less impact after suffering a knee injury, taking the advice of a friend to give Brazilian jiu jitsu a try. Much like the move to the Greater Vancouver Area was a major turning point in her life, so too was discovering “The Gentle Art.”

“So I went to jiu jitsu and absolutely loved it,” explained Godinez. “One night, I went to watch some fights for the first time — it was one of Ronda Rousey’s first fights, and I was like, ‘I wanna do that.’

“Since she did judo in the Olympics, I felt familiar with it, like, ‘If she did it, I can do it.’”

Upon the advice of a friend, she walked into Titan MMA in Coquitlam, which wasn’t too far from her house, and started training.

For the first year, she wasn’t allowed to spar because she was too afraid of getting hit and would turn her back to her opponents. A couple months after turning 25, she finally had her first amateur fight, losing by split decision to Jamey-Lyn Horth. Less than three months later, they ran it back at BFL 44, with Godinez again landing on the wrong side of the scorecards against the current UFC flyweight.

She would earn a pair of wins on either side of a draw with Sam Hughes before dropping consecutive bouts to sit at 2-4-1 through her first seven amateur appearances, prompting some close to her to question whether a career in the cage was really something she wanted to pursue.

“Someone asked me, ‘Are you sure you wanna do this?’ and I was like, ‘Yes! I’m just getting so nervous!’” said Godinez, smiling at the memory. “I was doing things in the gym that I couldn’t do when I was in front of people.

“‘What are they gonna think about me? What if I fall? What about this? What about that?’ I had to let all of these fears go and just go do it.”

She won her next fight by doctor’s stoppage and defeated Hughes in a rematch in what would be the final fight of her amateur career, turning pro two months later with a win over Jennah Macallister, suffering a broken hand in the process.

Just under a year later, a second start produced a second win, followed by a third, and a fourth.

On October 30, 2020, she battled Vanessa Demopoulos for her strawweight title in the main event of LFA 94. Demopoulos was 5-2 at the time and only a couple months removed from her hard-fought loss on the fourth season of Dana White’s Contender Series.

The pair went the full 25 minutes, battering each other the whole way through, falling into a blood-soaked embrace when the final horn sounded.

“It was an amazing fight,” recalled Godinez, her eyes lighting up at the mention of her five-round war with Demopoulos. “I had fun in that fight; we both got to bleed. She’s so tough.”

Godinez edged Demopoulos out on the scorecards, claiming the LFA title, but she would never defend it, as less than six months later, she would make her UFC debut.

# # #

Undefeated in five fights and coming off a grimy, blood-soaked win over a competitor that was very much on the UFC’s radar, the Vancouver native got the call to replace Hannah Goldy in a short notice matchup against Jessica Penne on April 17, 2021.

It was a fascinating matchup for the UFC newcomer — a clash with a former title challenger and highly respected veteran returning after serving a lengthy suspension and dealing with myriad injuries. While Godinez had looked solid through her five bouts on the regional circuit, this was an opportunity to see how she would handle herself on the biggest stage in the sport, against a decorated competitor with a chip on her shoulder and something of her own to prove.

Penne earned a split decision victory, taking the first and second rounds on two of the three scorecards in a highly competitive battle many believe Godinez deserved to win. Regardless of the result, her performance made it clear that she not only belonged, but was someone to pay close attention to in the 115-pound weight class.

Six months later, Godinez registered her first UFC victory — a first-round submission win over Silvana Gomez Juarez that earned her a Performance of the Night bonus for her efforts. When the promotion needed a replacement for Sijara Eubanks the following week at flyweight, the Mexican-Canadian volunteered, venturing up a weight class and turning in another gutsy effort in defeat against Luana Carolina, establishing herself as the kind of game competitor that fans are quick to rally behind.

WATCH: Loopy Godinez Locks In First-Round Arm Bar | UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Rodriguez

She fought again the following month, defeating fellow prospect Loma Lookboonmee, and then started her 2022 campaign with a unanimous decision win over Ariane Carnelossi at UFC 274, the first time she’d competed on a numbered event since arriving in the promotion. Three straight wins at strawweight landed Godinez an opportunity to face off with divisional stalwart Angela Hill in San Diego, where she claimed the opening round on all three scorecards before the veteran found her rhythm and her range, and out-hustled the emerging talent over the final two rounds to secure the victory.

During her first two years on the UFC roster, Godinez began seeking out more experienced training partners to work with, recognizing that a key piece to her reaching the highest levels was to spend time on the mats with others looking to do the same.

She went out to Victoria and brought former Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman in for camps and ventured to Squamish to train with the first woman she ever faced, Jamey-Lyn Horth. And she connected with Alexa Grasso and her uncle Francisco, the leader of the Lobo Gym in Guadalajara, getting in rounds and sessions with the flyweight hopeful and bantamweight standout Irene Aldana during training excursions to Mexico.

After getting back in the win column with a split decision victory over Cynthia Calvillo in April of last year at UFC 287 in Miami, the UFC called its eager strawweight to see if she was interested in filling in for Polyana Viana opposite Emily Ducote a couple weeks later.

“I fought Cynthia Calvillo, I was still (training) in Vancouver,” said Godinez, mapping out the timeline. “I went for vacation, when I came back two weeks later, they asked me if I wanted to fight two weeks later. Of course, I said yes, and I talked to Francisco Grasso. I said, ‘This is who they’re offering me. Do you want to be in my corner?’

“He said, ‘Okay.’ We trained online, and that’s how we made the game plan. He came to Vegas, and we fought.”

Godinez dominated, collecting her second win of the month and fifth victory in six starts at 115 pounds. She also realized it was time for another major change.

# # #

“The first time I came here, I fell in love with this gym,” Godinez said of Lobo Gym. “‘This is where I need to be. This is what I want to be.’ But to make a change this big, you need time, you need money, you need everything.”

After beating Ducote, she knew the time was right, and pulled the trigger, moving back to Mexico in order to train with the Grassos and the rest of the burgeoning collection of talented fighters and coaches assembled in Guadalajara.

“I made the change because sometimes you get into a comfort zone that is no good,” began Godinez, laying out her reasons for relocating. “You’ve got to keep on the edge of uncomfortable because it forces you to improve, to be better, have different situations. If you’re living the same every day, I don’t think you’re going to make big things because you’re staying comfortable.

While the impact of her move has been much more immediately recognizable, the parallels between the brutal choice her parents were forced to make all those years earlier are not lost on the eldest of the Godinez girls.

“Now that I’m an adult, I understand the sacrifices they made, and it was huge,” she said. “They didn’t want to leave Mexico either, but we had to. Nobody wanted to move, but they had to grab us and just do it, with four kids.

“Nobody wants to be there and it’s super-hard, but in the end, I think it was the best decision, not just because I got to see fighting and fight, and my sisters went to school and (wrestled) and now we have all these opportunities, but the most important thing is that the stuff that we went through brought the family even closer.

“At the end of the day, you don’t have anything without your family. In the end, I think it was something positive that happened.”

# # #

Loopy isn’t the only combat sports standout in the Godinez family.

“They’ve done an amazing job. They’re always supporting us,” Godinez said, beaming, recognizing the major trajectory shift her life took the night the family didn’t set out for Disneyland and the backing her parents have afforded her and her sisters. “I’m always throwing new things at them and they’re always going with me. I cannot ask for better people to be there with me, always be encouraging me.

“They’re super, super-happy for us. Without that move, we may not be doing all of this. Who knows? Maybe I would have five kids already?”

The lighthearted fighter lets out a huge laugh and chases her hypothetical with a series of quick  shakes of her head no.

That’s not a life she has any interest in at the moment or even wants to contemplate. For the time being, Godinez wants to keep things incredibly simple.

“I like that she’s higher (in the rankings),” Godinez said when asked about the pairing. “She’s well rounded, has great jiu jitsu.

“I think it’s a great matchup for me.”

While not one to go into detail about the matchup in front of her, the surging contender lit up when asked what a victory on Saturday night would do for her going forward.

“It’s gonna be crazy,” began Godinez, shifting in her seat, excitement clearly racing through her body. “It’s gonna be a lot of new opportunities for me, a new view of everything, and we’ll see what comes out of it.

“I’m not looking past this fight,” she added, almost to be sure it was clear that her focus was fixed on the task at hand. “I just want to fight, get this win, and then sit down with the UFC and management, go from there.”

Following each of her victories, Godinez usually takes a little vacation, provided she’s not making one of her hasty turnarounds to fight again right away.

Given the stakes on the line this weekend, that kind of rapid return is unlikely, which means a trip is in order.

If she is successful on Saturday — if she pushes her winning streak to five, making her case for a place in the Top 5 and officially announcing herself as someone that has to be a part of any future conversations about title contenders in the 115-pound ranks — Godinez should consider taking the whole family on vacation.

After all, they’ve still never been to Disneyland.