The search led her to team up with Azamat “Ozzy” Dugulubgov, who amassed an 8-2 record as a pro before hanging up his gloves and shifting his focus to coaching in 2015, and has worked with several prominent competitors since, including flyweight standout Amir Albazi.

To outsiders, Kline’s desire to switch things up and feeling like there was a disconnect in her last outing likely lands as a surprise, since her UFC 322 win over Hill was her best overall performance to date inside the Octagon, and from the outside looking in, everything appeared to be working well. But we’re never privy to what’s going on behind the scenes or how an athlete feels in the heat of the moment, and though she was successful in her New York homecoming, the former CFFC two-division champion felt it was time to make a change.

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“I feel like when I fought Angela — maybe nobody else could see it, but I felt a disconnect, and I hope people see that there is a connection, there is a stronghold behind me,” Kline said.

“My amateur debut, my opponent told me after the fight that a big reason she couldn’t keep up was how in-tune me and my corner were, and I remember that to this day that my cornermen and our dynamic was more of a threat to her than even I was. That was a lesson I learned back in 2018 and I wanna continue to learn from my lessons, my mistakes, and keep that with me going forward.”

The ability to find and implement a new coach and corner voice into the mix wasn’t the only beneficial result of spending the first half of 2026 on the sidelines, as the opportunity to face Ricci wasn’t one that would have been available to her earlier in the year and only came together a couple weeks ago when “Baby Shark” raised her hand to step in as a replacement.