On July 1, 2011, Jessamyn Duke (3-1), a popular female MMA fighter out of Kentucky with a huge fan base out of Knoxville, Tennessee, will fight at at Tuff-N-Uff: Browning vs. Postma event to be held in the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas!

Knoxville fans are excited for this 145lb. female bout, as Duke will be seeking to keep her 2-fight win streak going in this fight against Autumn Richardson (3-3) - a fighter fromTeam Quest, and this will be Richardson's 2nd attempt at earning a Tuff-N-Uff title belt after falling short against Rousey this past November - so both fighters have a lot at stake.

Jessamyn Duke was kind enough to take some time out of her very busy training schedule to answer a few questions for me! I asked Duke if she’d done anything different to prepare for her upcoming fight with Richardson, and in fact, she said she had, because she was determine to NOT leave the decision to the judges!

“Autumn (Richardson) is a southpaw and a very aggressive fighter. I have prepared for her specifically by focusing on some tools and tactics that will allow me to impose my will on her and finish this fight quickly and effectively. I'm not leaving this fight to chance” said Duke.

And you may not know this, but Duke has some very special ties to Tennessee: “In my very first ring fight (a Muay Thai event in Arkansas) I met a guy named Rocky Browning who runs a gym in TN called Tiger King Muay Thai. He was very supportive of me during that fight, which I won, and we have talked about cross training some every since. He has even offered to bring my coach in for a seminar at his school.” In fact Rocky Browning's gym is well-respected in the industry, so it was good to hear he'd spent time with Duke.

Sadly, she has to leave early out of Las Vegas Saturday morning after her fight, so Duke won’t get to attend the G2 Women’s MMA Fight Summit, in spite of the great training available: “Unfortunately, I will not be attending the rest of the G2 summit after my fight. I fly out at 6am Saturday morning! I really regret not getting the opportunity to train at some of the seminars. I have trained with Cris Cyborg before and her seminars are fantastic. Hers is probably the one I will regret missing the most!”

In fact, a group of Knoxvillians have grouped together to fly out to Las Vegas for the dual purpose of supporting Jessamyn Duke at the Tuff-N-Uff on the 1st, and to attend the UFC 132 event on July 2nd: "Are you kidding me? Flights to Vegas are really inexpensive; we're getting some great hotel rates; there's buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner, AND we get to watch the TUFF and UFC fights all in one weekend!" said Maria Zambetti, from South Knoxville. "Plus I hear there's a huge event for the female fighters and we might get to meet a bunch of 'em, so we're just staying there the whole week!"