Issue 003

June 2005

Sabrina Cohen is a fighter both in and out of the ring, though not as you may expect. The petite 22-year-old from Newport in South Wales is not only the principality’s top amateur female MMA fighter, but also a full-time firefighter in the Gwent Fire Service. Training out of Cardiff MMA Gymnasium, Sabrina has been quietly making a name for herself in various competitions, but recently put her name on the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) map by announcing her plans to participate in a 100-man MMA fight as a fundraising event for charity.

A charitable cause

Tragically losing her father to cancer at age nine, Sabrina says she was so inspired by his fight for life that she decided to honour him in this unusual manner. “Seeing him fight so hard to spend as much time as he could with his family, I wanted to fight just as hard as a tribute to him.” Asked how she came up with the idea of fighting 100 rounds, she replied: “The idea came to me as a bit of a daydream to be honest. I hadn’t planned to do anything like this but as soon as I thought of it I just went with it. That’s me all over, though,” she says, jokingly. 

Pledging half of all funds raised to Macmillan Cancer Relief, Sabrina was also keen to support another cause close to her heart — the Fire Service Benevolent Fund. “Half of everything I raised is going to that. It is a charity that provides support to injured firefighters, widows of firefighters and their families. The work it does is incredible. It has a centre called Jubilee House, it’s a rehab centre for injured firefighters, but they also look after disabled children of firefighters. It’s the kind of charity you hope to God you’ll never need, but it’s nice to know it’s there. Even though the risks in our job are minimised by our working practices, it’s still a dangerous job.” 

Under the guidance of her coach Mike Swambo, Sabrina has only been training MMA for just over one year. “She is a phenomenal natural athlete, she picks things up so quickly,” he explains. “Her work ethic is amazing; she works harder than a lot of the people at my gym”. Was he surprised when she announced she wanted to do this event? He smiled and replied: “Not really, we’ve come to expect things like this from Sab.”

Fighting fit

With a year or so kickboxing experience prior to embarking upon her MMA career, the obviously gifted athlete has picked up her new sport well, and was declared the victor in the first amateur ladies fight held in Wales, after beating Hartlepool’s Lisa Newton in only 50 seconds. “I’ll admit I felt sorry for her opponent,” says Mike. “We’re sharing a dressing room and she had to watch Sab hitting the pads and choking the guys out in the warm-up. What chance did she have?” 

With submission grappling experience in both the UK and the US under her belt, Sabrina has won the Welsh Open Submission Grappling Championships in Cardiff and the International Submission Grappling Championships 2004 held in the Midlands. While travelling around the world as part of a research project on violence against firefighters, she was fortunate to train with stand up maestro Rodney King in South Africa and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) legends Renzo Gracie in New York, Carlson Gracie in Chicago and Ralph Gracie in San Francisco. 

While in California Sabrina showed her willingness to try her hand at anything — she fought in the Charles Gracie BJJ Invitational after only one week of gi training at Ralph Gracie’s school, placing third in her weight division and third in the open class. “I hate training in a gi,” she said, laughing. “If I hadn’t had that bloody gi on I would have tapped them all!”

Equally happy tussling with guys as well as girls, Sabrina counts her training partners as instrumental in her success. “I’m so lucky to be at Cardiff MMA. I train with the best guys in Wales — they are so supportive and no one treats me any different. If they did though, they’d get a kick in the arse!”

Training for the fight of her life

With such experience, it’s clear that Sabrina was well qualified to take on the challenge of fighting 100 men, but I was keen to find out exactly what preparation she had put in for such an unusual event. “Basically, I’ve been training five hours a day, five days a week, fitting training sessions in around my shifts. Obviously I did lots and lots of sparring, especially with the bigger, heavier guys! Mike puts us through some killer cardio sessions at the gym — loads of different drills and stuff — but we also use the footy pitch out back for running.”

As with all athletes, her nutrition and her strength training were paramount. Aided by her sponsor Vydex, The Edge Gym in Caerphilly was put at her disposal and she had all her supplements provided for free. Most importantly, she was lucky to get a personal trainer in the shape of Aleks Georgijev, also known as Hawk from the TV show Gladiators. 

The challenge begins

With the support of her gym mates, friends, representatives from the charity and attracting a fair bit of media attention, the challenge went underway just after lunchtime on Sunday, April 3. The clock started and so began 100 two-minute rounds, with only a one-minute rest period in-between. All toilet breaks and injury management had to take place in the designated rest periods, though every ten rounds Sabrina was permitted a two-minute rest. 

Going into the challenge with an injured knee (picked up just a few days prior to event), Sabrina sparred almost exclusively with men bigger than herself, with the exception of training partner Rachel, another female athlete from Cardiff MMA. In some cases, the weight difference between Sabrina and her opponents was in excess of 30kg, but this didn’t stop her from constantly looking for a way to win. Though the sparring was controlled — it was fought under fight conditions using standard MMA rules — and even with a very bruised knuckle and a twisted knee, Sabrina didn’t stop punching, kicking or looking to tap her opponents out until the very end.  

There was a constant flow of people in and out of the gym all day, as her training partners arrived to help her complete the challenge, and in some cases people were queuing up to put their name down to spar with her! Around 30 people stepped in the ring, with some ‘nipping’ in for a quick round or two, others making sure they were there from start to finish, completing up to ten rounds or more in support of her goal. 

Though a little psychologically frazzled nearing the 60-round mark, Sab benefited from the calming influence of coach Mike Swambo and remained strong throughout the rounds until the very end. He stressed the importance of keeping her focussed. “Years ago when I did karate, I did my 50-man knockdown kumite and it was hard, really hard, but the hardest thing was the mental side of things. You can’t see it so much, but she’s really suffering in there right now, but she’s strong, she’ll make it,” he says. 

The gruelling challenge took over five hours to complete, though she extended the total time by a further two minutes when she decided to go for 101 rounds, with Mike as her opponent for round number 101. “I got to 100 and thought ‘why not’? One more won’t hurt!” she explains. 

Looking forward 

Her efforts have raised approximately £800–1000 for the chosen charities and Sabrina couldn’t be happier. “It’s been amazing — the media attention alone has been great. I’ve had all the local papers contacting me. They all did stories on me in the run-up to the event, and now they want to do follow-ups. I’ve been featured on the BBC News Online website, I’ve been mentioned on BBC Wales radio, Red Dragon FM… everyone wants interviews with me — my phone hasn’t stopped ringing!” 

“You know, even though I’m doing this for charity, I’m doing it for MMA too. This is great publicity for the sport and, to be honest, I think that’s what we need. People don’t appreciate the technical aspect of MMA, they just think of it like they do pitbull fighting — you know, two blokes in a cage. MMA has a bit of a delicate reputation and this is exactly what the sport needs. Hopefully we can help persuade councils that it’s not as bad as they think.”

And what of her plans for the future? “Well, I’m definitely going to do it again next year! I’m going to have to do something special though aren’t I — maybe 150 rounds? We’ll see!” explains Sabrina. Q

In the more immediate future, Sabrina will be taking a very short rest before commencing her training for her first semi-pro fight against Cherie Buck, to be held at Grapple and Strike in Ebbw Vale on May 21. “I can’t wait,” she says. “Hopefully you’ll be seeing me fight pro later this year.”