Cynthia Calvillo isn't upset that her AKA teammates Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev won't train with her because of their Muslim beliefs.
"It's a little bit weird because of their religion ... they won't train with women," Calvillo told theScore. "(Nurmagomedov) is still showing technique and stuff like that. So I still get to watch it. But it doesn't bother me … because they're not really being directly rude to me."
Calvillo (8-1-1) recently moved back to her hometown of San Jose and is now training full time at American Kickboxing Academy. Makhachev came under fire earlier in March for posting a since-deleted tweet that MMA "is not a woman's sport" during the Zhang-Jedrzejczyk title fight at UFC 248.
"It just rolls off my shoulder. I know a lot of women got upset by that," Calvillo explained. "But I just (can't) get mad or judge anybody else based on how they were raised. I don't know their idea of what a woman represents to them and why they can't really fathom seeing women fighting. They're fine, they're respectful. They're all entitled to their own opinion."
Calvillo is scheduled to make her flyweight debut against Antonina Shevchenko on Apr. 25 at UFC Lincoln. That event is headlined by Anthony Smith facing Glover Teixeira in a light heavyweight bout.
Look for our full video interview with Calvillo next week on theScoreMMA podcast and in the meantime, subscribe to theScoreMMA YouTube channel here.
