ONE ON ONE FT. VICTORIA MARSHALL
We open to one of the private suites in the rafters of Arena CDMX, looking out over the cage setup ahead of UGP 67 this weekend; at the table sits both Hype Woman Extraordinaire, Kayla Chapman, and the reigning Bantamweight Champion, Victoria Marshall, who have clearly already been talking ahead of the camera ever starting to record. Once it is, though, the small talk dies down, and Victoria just pushes her hair out of her face while Kayla gets ready.
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome welcome welcome to Union GP One on One; my name’s Kayla Chapman, back once again with one of the most dominant fighters on the entirety of Union GP’s roster–the reigning Bantamweight Champion, who defends her title for the fourth time this weekend, against Syn Saetang: Victoria Marshall, everybody!”
Victoria can’t help but laugh and shake her head a little, raising a hand in a wave toward the camera.
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “First of all, as always, thank you so much for taking time out to talk with me, I know fight weekend is always crazy hectic.”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Yeah, of course.”
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Now, before we get to this weekend, I wanted to go back and revisit UGP 65, against Serenity Holmes. It was one of the more grueling fights we’ve seen you in lately, you could make the argument it was 2-2 going into that final round–I know you were complimentary of her ahead of that event, but was that a harder fight than you expected?”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Um…hm, maybe? I said going into that weekend, I could tell she was talented. Anyone that could set aside that pro wrestling bias could tell she was talented. I think what really stuck out to me was she stayed with that gameplan, though; she clearly wanted the fight on the feet, and it was working for her. I can’t take anything away from her, there, she landed some good shots–that high kick, in particular, I know you were sure that was it, that night.”
Kayla can’t help but grin a little, shrugging her shoulders as Victoria just lets a little smile spread on her face.
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “I knew it was gonna be tough, but I figured I’d weather that storm and get her outta there at some point. I didn’t expect it to take almost the entire fight, though, she just…kept comin’, I thought I had her finished in the 4th but she got back up and kept on fighting, so I gotta give her that credit. Again, people want to talk down to her cuz of the pro wrestling thing, but if you’re still pretending like Serenity’s not talented, it’s cuz you haven’t stepped in the cage with her.”
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “But, eventually, you did just what you said the gameplan was–take her down, pound her out, and walk out with the title.”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Yeah, that fifth round, I could kinda tell she’d run out of gas, it was just a matter of putting the hammer down.”
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “And because of how active you’ve been, we’ve already got a third fight in 2025 lined up this weekend–a rematch with Syn Saetang.”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Yeah, I’ve never really been one that likes to sit and wait, I…I get my celebration out the night of the fight, maybe the next day, then I get focused again and start to work toward whoever’s next.”
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Obviously, I mentioned this is a rematch, and one for you that has a particular history to it: Syn was your debut fight in Union GP proper, after the Flyweight tournament. But obviously, both of you have grown by leaps and bounds since then–we talk a lot about this streak you’re on, 15 fights unbeaten now, while Syn’s won 6 of her last 7 fights since the first time you two fought. What do you think is the biggest difference between now and then, though?”
Victoria lets her eyes bug out for a second, exhaling a breath as she mulls over that question…then a laugh bubbles up as she shakes her head.
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Honestly? Everything. Neither of us are even close to the same fighters we were back then. Syn’s gotten significantly better on the ground, we saw her catch Alex Hughes with that guillotine a few months back, which…let’s be honest, nobody had Syn by Submission in that fight. You could’ve offered me a billion dollars for a correct prediction for that fight, I never ever ever would’ve got it right. And, like, I don’t think I’m giving away trade secrets here, but a lot of the people I’ve fought have been better strikers than me, but I’ve proven I can hang in there with them now, so…we’ve both evolved, a lot, in the past couple years. I know people can’t help it, any time people fight a second time, they want to look at the last fight for what they think’s gonna happen, but…”
Victoria just waves a hand dismissively.
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Well, the last fight was a first round TKO, in which Syn’s only offense was an unconvincing armbar attempt–but that was before she took a break, refocused, and came back as the fighter she is now–and, there’s a world where that decision loss against Serenity goes her way.”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “Yeah, 100%. Whatever she did in her time off, she’s got her career back on track now, and she’s doing it convincingly. You mentioned earlier, 6 wins out of 7 fights, 4 or 5 of those are finishes, against some people that have been really hard to get outta there in the past. Syn’s on the best run of her career, no doubt, and ever since she came back and started climbing the rankings, I’ve been looking forward to crossing paths with her again. It’s one thing to fight someone like Serenity, or C.C., or Eugenie who have known a lot more wins than losses in their careers, it’s a different thing with someone like Syn. She and I both know what it takes to course correct, to have to build ourselves back up, knowing there’s always gonna be those people that look at the early part of your career and say ‘she can’t hack it at the top,’ right? That doubt’s always going to be there, people are always going to talk about that, and I know what that big win that really silences those voices can mean to a fighter who’s had those struggles in the past. So, this weekend’s gonna be crazy, I…very much expect the best that we’ve ever seen from Syn.”
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “One more question, and…I know you hate it, but let’s be honest about where you’re at, in respect to the Bantamweight Division: six finishes in your last eight fights, undefeated since before you moved up from Everest, you’ve been the #1 Pound for Pound fighter for almost all of 2025 so far, and if you get your hand raised this weekend, you become…I think, the fastest Bantamweight to reach 4 defenses? Or at least, close to it. You’ve beaten basically all the potential contenders except Marissa Kane and, if you stretch down the rankings a bit, Taylor Webb…do you still feel like you have more to do at 135, or does a win this weekend maybe open you up to moving to 145 and challenging the winner of the co-main event this weekend?”
Victoria, as ever, wrinkles her nose at the idea of looking into future fights that may or may not ever happen, letting out a long breath and shaking her head.
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “I don’t know, honestly. I know that’s not really the most satisfying answer, but it’s the truth–there’s definitely a part of me that still wants to focus on 135 pounds, I’m still only like…halfway to reaching the reigns Dallas and Gianna managed, I’ve got this weekend and two more defenses if I wanna break Gianna’s record in terms of defenses, it feels like there’s still a lot to do…but at the same time, we’ve only seen, what…one? Maybe two people, move up to challenge for another title? So, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some appeal to it, try to be the first person in several years to pull it off. But, I dunno, right now I’m not really thinking about any of that; I’m thinking about the fact that I’m facing…probably the hungriest challenger I’ve faced since I won the title, this weekend. I’m just focusing on making sure I get the right result this weekend. What happens from there, happens from there, but if I want to get to this big Superfight y’all keep asking about, I gotta make sure I don’t get tripped up by Syn this weekend.”
Kayla chuckles a little but nods as Victoria sorta hand-waves the question away.
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Alright, fair enough. I probably shoulda known better.”
VICTORIA MARSHALL: “You really should, by now.”
The Bantamweight Champion’s tone lightens quite a bit, as a smile cracks on her face.
KAYLA CHAPMAN: “Alright, well, obviously we don’t want to take too much time up for you, so I’ll let you go. Thanks again for the time, best of luck this weekend!”
Victoria just smiles and nods, and the video cuts.
