Issue 128
May 2015
The journey for women’s MMA has been a long one, but I’m not surprised by how popular it’s become. In fact, I feel like I was able to anticipate the growth of the scene before we got to where we’re at now.
MICHELLE WATERSON
The former Invicta atomweight champ and ‘Karate Hottie’ on the storied rise of women’s MMA
As a fighter you need to be taking chances and doing your best every time you’re out there, so I hope people have noticed how the female fighters in MMA today are trying to lay down the groundwork for future generations to come.
The level of competition right now is awesome and inspiring and I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far.
I feel like one of the most important aspects of women being taken seriously in mixed martial arts has been the growth of Invicta FC. They have a lot of respect for their fighters and it shows.
Instead of referring to us all as her “girl fighters,” Shannon Knapp, the Invicta president, really believes in calling us her “fighters” or “athletes.” She has a lot of respect for us and what we do inside the cage.
The fighters who compete for Invicta have an urge to put on good fights for her because we’re treated so well. I believe the women who fight for Invicta are not just fighting for the promotion; they’re fighting for something bigger because it’s an all-women’s promotion and people didn’t believe they’d be able to make it work.
Invicta has really become a part of all of us and we’re proud to fight for them. It truly feels like an organization that’s owned by the athletes. We’re like one big family unit.
I have a lot of respect for female fighters, regardless of whether they’re my opponents or not. Look at my world title fight with Herica Tiburcio in December. There was
an outpouring of emotion after we fought.
The reason there were some tears and we embraced was because if someone is going to beat me, I have to give them the respect they deserve. I know how hard it is to become a world champion and I appreciated how hard she’d worked to get there.
At the end of the day, we’re both mixed martial artists, we’re both trying to make sure female fighters get the credit they deserve and we both have a passion for the sport.
We both fought our hearts out for three rounds and the fans acknowledged that.
Obviously, I was heartbroken that I lost and I’d love to rematch her for the belt. But what was going through my head when I embraced her was that I still had a lot of respect for her as an athlete.
A MOTHER’S LOVE
The relationship between a mother and daughter is extremely important. My mom has been at almost all of my fights and she
loves it. She’s probably on social media more than I am to try and keep up with whatever is going on in the sport.
She’s from Thailand and when her and I went there to visit some family I decided to go and train some Muay Thai. Although I’ve always been involved in martial arts, it was training Muay Thai there that really sparked my interest in competing.
My mother didn’t train fight sports when she was younger because women training in martial arts was frowned upon over there. But she’s a feisty little Thai lady so I’m sure she would’ve tried it if she was given the chance.
Now I’m a mother and my daughter understands that fighting is what mommy does for a living. In fact, she’s actually been to all of my fights since she was born.
After that last fight against Tiburcio, having to look her in the eyes afterwards was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I had to explain to her that you win some and you lose some. You’ve just got to keep on pushing forward. That’s the way I live my life.
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