Despite ‘Sweet Tooth,’ Olena Kolesnyk Expects No Issues Making Weight for Higashi Fight

Professional Fighters League featherweight Olena Kolesnyk admits she loves eating sweets.

With two points already hers, Kolesnyk (8-5, 1 NC; 3-3 PFL) is carefully planning her next move in the 2023 PFL Regular Season as she is attached to a clash with Yoko Higashi on June 16 that can earn the Ukrainian a spot on this year’s playoffs. In her first assignment this season, “Cannon” took home a majority decision victory against Aspen Ladd. While Kolesnyk couldn’t finish her opponent on that occasion, she is proud of herself for following the strategy and overcoming an Ultimate Fighting Championship alum. Ahead of that fight, Kolesnyk went as far as shaving her head to make weight but failed the scale test by .4 pounds and was penalized by a point in the standings. While talking with Sherdog, Kolesnyk confessed to having a sweet tooth and loving to bake cakes, but she also explained that women's health, including menstrual cycles, can affect weight cuts. Still, she thinks everything will be all right for the upcoming fight as long as she stays away from sugar.

“I just like to eat sugar, and I make the payments for this,” she said. “Everything is simple in our life. Only people make it harder. Do not find excuses, be honest with yourself. I'm honest with myself, so I'm just tall, big, and of course, we all have weaknesses. This was one of my weaknesses, and I paid for this. I shaved my hair, I lost money to show. Whatever happened, happened. I never think about my past. I don't care about it, and I don't think about my future. I live in the moment. I live nowadays. Now I just try to become myself brighter and better every day, that’s all I can do.”

(00:00) Intro
(01:01) Getting close to finishing Aspen Ladd
(03:09) Rating her performance against Ladd
(03:39) Bouncing back from her defeat to Pacheco
(04:04) Missing weight
(06:12) Whether she thinks she’ll have trouble cutting weight for Higashi
(07:19) Her favorite outfits
(08:34) Missing weight ahead of her first clash with Pacheco
(10:17) Health above all
(11:28) Outro