Issue 132
September 2015
The UFC’s newest title contender may have stumbled into MMA, but there’s a reason why ‘Jag’ is regarded by some as the No.1 in the world at 115lb.
Jessica Aguilar seems to have spent her entire working life dealing with blood. Whether it was analyzing it as a forensics expert on hit TV show Dexter, mopping it up following fights between prisoners when she was a corrections officer, or the six years she spent working at a Houston blood bank. But at no point did she ever think she’d become so accustomed to spilling it.
Regarded by many as the world’s leading strawweight at the start of the year, Jessica was finally welcomed to the UFC in June, seven years on from the day she promised Dana White she’d be champion. And she’s looking to stay true to her word and have the organization’s president wrap 12lb of gold around her waist.
After debuting in MMA in 2006, ‘Jag’ has risen to the very top of women’s mixed martial arts. She’s now one of the most experienced female fighters in the sport, and enters the biggest promotion riding a 10-fight win streak as first Bellator and more recently World Series of Fighting’s flagship female.
Born in Veracruz, Mexico, the 33-year-old American Top Team prodigy has run up a 19-4 pro slate that’s littered with victories over a who’s who of women’s MMA. Not bad for someone who didn’t start learning martial arts until she was 23. But she’s never shied away from competition, throughout her life.
“I was always into sports, growing up. I always competed with my two brothers and did everything they did. Right through school I played all sports, and even played for the boys’ basketball team. Right through my life I’ve been competitive,” says Aguilar, who moved to Texas aged three after her father took a construction job.
Unfortunately, he died three years later leaving her mother to raise three kids alone. And it was her mother who instilled in Jessica the Aguilar fighting spirit. “My mom had never worked until that point, but she learned how to speak English, how to drive and how to work and she worked two or three jobs to put myself and two other brothers through private school. Now it’s my turn to work hard and give her a better life.”
In high school, Aguilar enjoyed sports, but had her heart set on a career in medicine. However, tragedy struck again when she was in ninth grade and her older brother was killed in a car accident. Jessica had to grow up quickly, so she finished school early to go to college and pick up work as a lab technician in a blood bank.
“I was there for six years,” she says. “I was making different components for patient use. I loved it. I loved the people and the company I worked with. But I also wanted to see the world. I’ve always been ambitious and outgoing so I wanted to do something different. I watched my mom work so hard for so many years that I knew I had to do something different. So I moved west.”
She adds: “Honestly, I wanted to be a movie star or TV star, which is why I moved across country. I actually did a couple of roles, extra roles in movies and some TV shows. I was an a nurse in a move called Christmas in Miami, an Italian film. And I was also a forensics expert on the third season of the TV show Dexter, which is probably the most high-profile thing I did.
“But while I was kept busy they weren’t major roles, and I couldn’t pay my bills just acting. So that was kind of a hobby really.” In order to make the money she needed, Aguilar joined law enforcement.
“I was living in Salem, working and attending school, but my job was an hour’s commute away. So I went to find something else and there was a job in corrections. So I went for it, got it, and within two weeks I was working at a prison.
“It was well paid, but I saw a lot of sad things in there. It was sobering. I learned a lot and enjoyed it. During the training I learned basic wrist locks and thumb locks and stuff. But little did I know then what was coming next.”
In the summer of 2005 Aguilar moved to Florida, and after settling into her new surroundings she joined a local boxing club to attend aerobics classes. Only one day she arrived late and decided to stick around for the ‘wrestling’ class that followed. Only it wasn’t wrestling, it was Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
That was the December. In February 2006 she had her first MMA fight after just two months of training and on just a week’s notice.
She says: “People often ask, ‘How did you do it?’ But there really isn’t any secret. I just did it. It’s very simple. If you put your mind to anything and commit to it then you can achieve anything. Did I think back then I would be a world champion and professional fighter? Of course not. Not even in my wildest dreams. But I just did it. I was just a normal girl signing up like any other student, and here I am today.”
Though she lost the fight – to future TUF 20 contestant Lisa Ellis – she was bitten by the MMA bug. But to fulfill her ambitions in the sport she needed to take her training up to another level, so she joined American Top Team shortly after her first fight. When she arrived in Coconut Creek, Florida, she set herself an ultimatum:
“The day I walked into ATT I had a goal and I said to myself, ‘I want to be the best. I want to be a champion.’ And I achieved it. I told myself that if in five years I couldn’t become the best 115lb fighter in the world then I would walk away from MMA.”
Bellator’s 115lb tournament in 2010 was the chance to prove that, but Aguilar was eliminated in the semi-final courtesy of a controversial split decision loss to Zoila Frausto. But, instead of hanging up her gloves, she recommitted to her goal and hunted down the best fighter she could find. She twice defeated long-time pound-for-pound queen Megumi Fuji – once on home soil and once in Japan – before winning the WSOF belt and defending it twice.
She also won two FILA Grappling World Championships gold medals for the US in 2009 and 2010, but she has a new goal now. The rest of the planet’s premier strawweights are in the UFC and she won’t feel like she’s finally reached her destination until she’s at the top of the pile. Her first task was to dispatch Claudia Gadelha in Brazil in August.
“I wanted a title shot first fight, to be honest. But I can’t complain about getting the number-two girl in the world first time out. I never expected the UFC to add a strawweight division in my time. I knew it would happen eventually, but I doubted for a long time it would be during my time in the sport.
“But the 115lb weight class has arrived and now it’s my time to prove again why I’m the best strawweight fighter in the world.”
