Just two fights into her professional mixed martial arts career, Maui’s Sumiko Inaba can’t wait for more.

Inaba beat Kristina Katsikis on May 21 in their flyweight fight at Bellator 259 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The 30-year-old Inaba improved to 2-0 with her second straight TKO victory, stopping Katsikis (1-2) by strikes at 3:35 of the third round.

“I feel great, it’s awesome, it’s weird to watch it back now that it’s all over,” Inaba said Wednesday. “When you’re up there during fight week you’re like, ‘Oh man, I can’t wait, I can’t wait,’ and then all of a sudden it’s done. But, no, it was awesome.”

Inaba said she was happy to have had the experience of a win at the same facility in November 2020 at Bellator 251.

“The whole experience, I was a lot more comfortable going up this time just from the experience last time,” Inaba said. “It wasn’t that long ago, six months. I had a year off before that last fight, so this was closer together, which I want to consistently keep it, the fights a little bit closer.”

Inaba said she hopes to fight again in a couple of months.

“I feel great, I’m right back in the gym just trying to get better and take another one hopefully by the end of August, get right back in it,” she said.

The 2009 King Kekaulike High School graduate has put her full-time efforts into training for her career that is now on a fast track. Her job in the travel industry was put on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She had an eight-fight career as an amateur.

“I made 30 in-between my last fight and this fight, so I told myself ‘I’m ready to go,’ ” Inaba said. “My goal was to get my first pro fight by 30, but to have two by now, it’s awesome. I’m hoping to have four by the end of this year, two more, going into next year.”

Her first pro fight ended in the first round, so Inaba was thankful to have gotten more cage time in her second fight.

“I was definitely a lot more calm, a lot more confident,” she said.

That confidence “translated into my fight because I was able to listen to my corners more, which was great because this one didn’t end in the first round. … It was good to go back to my corner, have the experience of going through a whole round, having to listen to them and calm myself down and then go into the next round with the game plan that they told me. It was nice being able to experience that, just have a little bit more cage time.”

Inaba said that staying in the cage toe-to-toe with Katsikis was part of the game plan.

“I knew that my cardio and conditioning is good, so I’m going to push it, so withstand the first round, just stuff the takedown (attempts),” Inaba said. “Then by the third round, which is when she was more tired, I was able to show my striking. There was a game plan and I’m glad I was able to execute it.”

“I thought that it gave me the ability to showcase all my skills as an MMA fighter,” she added, “so I thought it was awesome and hopefully the next one I can show more things that I learned throughout this next few months.”

Inaba takes pride in representing Maui and Hawaii more than 5,000 miles away when she battles in Connecticut.

She is well aware of the impressive list of MMA fighters from the 50th state who have paved a path that she is now traveling, mentioning champions Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Max Holloway as some of the fighters she looks up to.

“It’s kind of weird because Hawaii comes with, not a stereotype, but there’s a lot behind all those names — there’s like action, fireworks, they’re exciting fighters,” Inaba said. “So there is that behind me and I love to perform as well, put on a show when I fight every time I go in there. It’s cool to have that, it’s motivation to be known as coming from Hawaii. … It’s cool to represent.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com