Cat Zingano’s road to happiness takes her to a title position at UFC 200

How do you find happiness?

Books have been devoted to the subject. This city has been part of the search, and yet the elusive answer remains.

So, if you’re Cat Zingano, how do you find happiness?

Zingano, 34, suffered the suicide death in 2014 of her estranged husband, Mauricio, then was rocked a year later in a then-record 14-second loss to UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey at Staples Center.

In the minutes after, a disappointed Zingano was at a loss for what transpired — asking for a rematch that she now admits to knowing was not coming soon.

It hasn’t.

Zingano’s first fight in the octagon since the Rousey loss comes Saturday against Juliana Pena in the Fox Sports 1-televised final preliminary bout preceding the UFC 200 pay-per-view card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Her absence has been devoted to spending quality time with her 9-year-old son, Brayden, traveling some and shifting training camps out of Colorado to UFC men’s bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz’s Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista, south of San Diego.

“I’m trying to have a rebirth, coming back to the sport,” Zingano said this week.

That nearly wasn’t the case. Zingano said retirement crossed her mind.

And in a session with several reporters Wednesday, she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I knew [retirement] was an option, and everyone would understand. But I didn’t want to be a product of my circumstances. I feel like there’s a lot of times in my life where … I let something get to me or I didn’t follow through on something I really wanted because life happened.

“That was fine before, but now I have a kid watching me. I have my son looking at me, and very recently, he’s had an example of how to solve problems in a really negative way. Now, it’s my job to be an example of how to solve problems a different way. I hope I’m doing it right, but that’s all I have.”

“That” is also known as the pursuit of happiness.

“If you want it, you’ve got to go through everything you can until you find it,” Zingano told the Los Angeles Times. “Sitting there, waiting for it to come to you, we’ve all done that, waiting for this lightbulb to go off saying what’s right and what’s wrong in our decisions.

“Sometimes, we find what we want by also finding out what you don’t want. All of that is trial and error. Once you’re in that pit, the trial and error is important. It’s up to us, we’ve got to keep moving forward.

“It’s still a work in progress. I’m still learning how this new normal is for me on a lot of different levels. It’s crazy and hard, but all I know is to keep taking steps forward. Wherever that is, it’s not going to keep me where I’m not making progress.”

She said trying to work out at several gyms was an example of her search. At Alliance, Zingano (9-1) found a “clean-slate” place to learn, regroup and find the inspiration to reach the peak fitness she’s in, with fifth-ranked Pena (8-2) awaiting.

“I know she’s going to come out hard. I’m a fighter who does that myself, so I feel I have good perspective on what she’s going to do and I’ll be able to handle it,” Zingano said.

Victory could potentially move Zingano to a rematch with champion Miesha Tate, whom Zingano beat in April 2013, or a date with Cris “Cyborg” Justino.

“Should my plan go the way I think it’ll go, I’ll be 3-0 against all the women bantamweights who fight that night,” Zingano said. “I’m motivated to have fireworks in this fight.”

She said losing to Rousey “happened for a reason. This happened because I needed to back up and do something about all this other stuff in my life. I embraced it, and I dealt with it.

“I feel much stronger, much better. I’ve been in check with myself, ‘Am I good? Am I where I’m meant to be? Where I want to be?’ Everything feels right.”