It’s been my dream for years. It’s always been my dream to “be the best female fighter in the world.”
How can a fighter NOT have this goal? Why else does a professional put herself or himself through tedious tortuous training regimes that ready them for a fight, instead of just coming in, sparring a few fun rounds until you get tired, and then heading home? It would be so easy to do that.
When I beat Jennifer Howe in our rematch in the IFC 7 years ago (wow, 7 years?!) and the announcer called me “the middle-weight champion of the world,” the dream was born “to be the first woman in the UFC.”
I was young and strong. Anything could happen!
That dream is now gone. Obliterated. Impossible.
I kind of knew it by now, that my dream wouldn’t come true. People have been surpassing me. And it’s my fault. I’m on a 5 fight losing streak. I’ve been doing something wrong. MMA has evolved and I couldn’t evolve fast enough.
Part of me is sad.
But part of me is so happy.
I think of myself, Tara LaRosa, Julie Kedzie, etc, all the women who remember HookNShoot, we’re kind of second generation pioneers. WE were inspired from the original pioneers, like Debi Purcell, Megumi Yabushita, Megumi Fujii, etc. Now, there is the third generation coming after us, Ronda Rousey, I dunno I think I’d consider Meisha kind of second generation, too, but she’s younger than me and more well rounded. The third generation tends to be more well rounded at a YOUNGER AGE since they GET IT, that you need everything. The second and first generation ones are well rounded only because we’ve been doing it forever. Or not. Akano Hitomi still can’t throw punches, but she can throw my butt all over the place effortlessly with her Judo.
Anyway, I digress.
I have changed my goal. I can no longer be the first woman in the UFC, but I’d like to make my new goal “get into” the UFC.
And for that, I need to win my fights. First, I’d like to fight in Invicta. The owners have always been so nice to me, and I admire and respect them for putting on a great show, and giving women wonderful opportunities to fight. I also want to win my fights in Jewels. I want rematches with AKano and Hashi, but I think Akano is gonna retire soon. ~_~;
I have a lot of work cut out for me. I know I’ve improved SO much after having joined my new team “Groundslam.”
I gotta hurry up and win, because I’m 30 and my body is falling apart. lol Let’s see how much longer I can squeeze out of it.
Anyway, this is super great news for the female fighter community. 🙂 Congratulations! I knew we could do it!!