It was the year when Hong Kong’s Ramona Pascual was going to build on her momentum and on everything she had been learning at the UFC’s Performance Institute in Shanghai. And then it wasn’t. “I guess the past 12 months just shows that anything can happen,” says the 32-year-old. Like so many athletes all over the world, an extended Covid-enforced stint at home has meant Pascual’s career was effectively put on hold across 2020. But she was finally able to return to Shanghai near the end of October, and has her sights set on a return to action by the end of January. “I just want to fight,” she says. “I just want to be active. I just want to get that momentum going again and be super active in 2021. “The first step was just getting back here to Shanghai and that took time. I was really lucky that I hit the ground running. I’m physically and mentally in a good spot and I’m just hoping to get a few fights as soon as I can.” UFC rise of Hong Kong’s Palatnikov brings light to dark year The end of 2019 had brought with it a victory inside the cage and affirmation outside it that the Hong Kong fighter had her career back on track. Then came 2020 and Covid-19. “It was supposed to be an active year for me with no injuries and a number of fights, but it is what it is,” says Pascual. “In the grand scheme of things I have it good, considering everything. It has been a year of awareness about what you have and what you need to get by.” Pascual had in 2019 joined the first intake at the US$13 million PI’s Academy programme, Hong Kong’s only representative among a group of around 40 fighters drawn from throughout China and chosen both for their potential and for their results following an extensive series of tryouts. To get that far was an achievement in itself, given Pascual had struggled with knee issues and with the distinct lack of opportunities for bantamweights (57.2-61.2kg) on the women’s side of the sport in Asia. Just how much difference the PI can make to a fighter was on show when just four months later, Pascual (4-2) returned to the cage after an almost two-year lay-off with a 26-second pounding of Russian Yulia Kutsenko (4-7) on a card staged by regional promotion Wu Lin Feng. But the coronavirus struck and Pascual had to cool her boots. The PI was closed for four months from March, like China itself, and Pascual found herself back at home in Hong Kong with all that time on her hands. “I’m used to being busy,” she says. “So it’s been challenging. It plays with your mind when you’re thinking, ‘How can I get back into fighting shape when I can’t even train in the gym?’ So it’s definitely been a year to strengthen the mind. “I’ve been dealing with myself in all the areas where I am weak. Like not being able to handle this situation is a weakness. It comes down to not being able to accomplish what you want to accomplish because as athletes we are so results-driven. But accepting this as part of the process, looking at things in the long term.” While there were times when Pascual felt she was “spinning my wheels”, she also got to work on some specifics, particularly the striking side of a fight game that has been built on her foundations in judo. Sessions at home four times a week with Shenzhen-based boxing coach Jon Jordan have her fine-tuned – and the return to Shanghai has her jumping out of her skin. “I’m seeing so much more awareness of my body and how it moves in the striking context. My eyes have been opened,” says Pascual. “Now I am back in Shanghai, you can tell, given the year that we have had, that there’s that extra level of appreciation of being here, of having this, and of being back together. “We realise how the rest of the world is and we’re just so grateful for what we have. Now we all just want to fight.”