Issue 181

August 2019

Not many ring card girls make the switch to inside the Octagon, but Michelle Waterson is far from ordinary as both a fighter and a mother. And now she's ready for her UFC title shot

Michelle Waterson

• UFC Strawweight
• Age: 33
• Record: 17-6-0
• Team: Jackson-
• Wink MMA
• From: Colorado, United States

The UFC strawweight division is heating up and a long line of new contenders are eyeing up a shot at the champion. Tatiana Suarez and Nina Ansaroff will look to put

themselves at the front of the queue when they face off at UFC 238 later this month, but one woman already right in the thick of the title talk is the former Invicta FC atomweight world champion, Michelle Waterson.

“The Karate Hottie” started her 2019 with a bang when she defeated former title contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC on ESPN 2 in March. The victory was her third in a row following wins over Felice Herrig and Cortney Casey in 2018 sails she’s targeting a title fight when she returns to the Octagon later this year.

Waterson’s latest winning run came off the back of her losing two consecutive fights for the first time in career. Her losses to Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres in 2017 saw her fall down the rankings and prior to her bouncing back in a big way in 2018, critics were questioning whether the former 105-pounds Invict a champion was big enough to contend with the elite fighters in the UFC’s strawweight division.

With those questions now answered, Waterson is able to reflect on the changes she made at the start of last year to turn her form around. Speaking exclusively to Fighters Only, Waterson said a lot of it was to do with things that are going on outside of the cage and how she was mentally preparing for her fights.

“The biggest thing that changed was my mental shift,” Waterson said. “I understand a lot more why I fight and my passion for martial arts. Just working that out and working on my everyday life and routine, I feel like I’ve now got everything down with all the people around me and coaches. I’m just enjoying what I do a lot more right now.

“I just feel like there are so many elements when it comes to winning fight that people just don’t see,” she continued. “You have to be both physically and emotionally on point. Even the small details like your nutrition and things going on outside of your life. All these things have to be aligned. There are a lot of things that come into play.”

The pressures and consequences of losing in the UFC have never been more real with fighters with only two defeats in a row losing their spot on the roster. Whilst rankings and job security are often at the forefront of any fighter’s mind, the size of the paycheck they receive at the end of the fight is often dependent on whether they get their hand raised or not. It’s a burden that Waterson admits weighs heavily on her mind each time she steps inside the Octagon.

“I don’t know if this is the same for other fighters, but with me, I think there’s a lot of pressure surrounding whether or not you win,” Waterson said. “For me, it matters so much in terms of the well-being of my family, not just my fighting career. The difference between whether you win or you lose is whether you go up and down the rankings and whether you pick up a full paycheck or half a paycheck.

"The difference it makes is incredible,” she continued. “I think that sometimes we give in to these pressures and we don’t perform at our best. I’m not saying the UFC is wrong to do it the way they do with the show and win bonus because it keeps the fighters hungry. I just think there could be other ways to do that instead of just cutting their pay in half. I don’t have a solution to suggest myself, but it makes thing very stressful.

Much of the stress for Waterson comes with wanting to provide the best life possible for her family. Alongside her husband Joshua Gomez, Waterson balances her fighting career with raising her eight-year-old daughter, Araya. Taking on motherhood as well as the best fighters in the world isn’t an easy challenge and as her daughter gets older, Waterson has to make different adjustments.

“In some aspects, it has got easier and in some, it has got harder,” Watterson said. “My daughter is now lot more independent and she can work things out a bit more on her own; I’m not constantly having to supervise her. She’s so smart and she’s aware of her surroundings. She comes down the gym with me and she just keeps herself busy.

“It has got harder with her getting older though because I do have to spend time with her doing homework and she does a lot of activities of her own that we have to take her to,” she continued. “She’s heavily involved in gymnastics and Girl Scouts and we have to make sure that she does all the things she wants to do without my career getting in the way of that.”

Whether Araya follows in her mother’s footsteps or not remains to be seen, but at the present time, it looks unlikely. Much like every parent, Waterson doesn’t want to force her child down any career path and she ultimately just wants her daughter to be happy.

“I don’t think she’s into martial arts that much at the moment; she’s more into gymnastics,” Waterson said. “She’s a big supporter of mine and she’s always at my fights. I know she likes MMA at the moment, but when it comes to fighting herself, I don’t think so.

“I just want her to do what she wants to do,” she continued. “She understands that nothing is going to get handed to you if you want to do anything special in this world and it takes determination and commitment. I think those are all really important things for her to learn. Whatever she decides to do we will be behind her 100-per cent.”

Mackenzie Dern’s recently announced pregnancy took much of the MMA community by surprise given her rapid rise up the UFC rankings. Being a mother and a fighter isn’t the usual path that most women take during the fighting careers, but Waterson believes that it is possible to balance both and that one particular aspect of motherhood puts into perspective the physical pain that fighters go through.

“It’s certainly different, but is it harder? Yes, it is,” Waterson said of labour. “It’s worth it though and I think our children learn from our actions more than our words. If your dream is to fight then you should continue to pursue those dreams. I think for a long time it was really taboo to talk about this and I think some girls felt ashamed to have a child in the middle of their careers, but that’s what our bodies were meant to do.

“It makes you a stronger person,” she continued. “I’ve never experienced any other pain that can measure up to childbirth. Nothing else can prepare you to be battletested like giving birth. The pains of labour can’t be escaped and you need more mental toughness to do that than fight. If you can do that you can get through any 25-minute fight.”

With three wins a row and 2019 starting off perfectly with a dominant win over Kowalkiewicz, Waterson now has the UFC strawweight title in her sights. Whether she gets the next shot and who that would be against remains reliant on the results of upcoming bouts, but for Waterson, who stands across from her in the Octagon next matters very little.

“I would like to fight Rose again because I think any time you lose a fight you want to get that back,” Waterson said. “You just got to be ready for anybody though. The landscape of this division changes with every single fight. We will have to see what happens when Rose fights Jessica and then Tatiana [Suarez] fights Nina [Ansaroff].” [At time of going to press, Jessica Andrade had decisively defeated Rose Namajunas.]

Competing for the UFC title is all Waterson is now focused on and she feels likes she has earned the right to fight the champion given the challenges she has overcome. As a role model fighter both inside and outside of the cage, it’s hard to denythat Waterson deserves her very first shot at a UFC title and if things fall her way in the comings months, it could become a reality.

“I really feel like I’ve earned this now,” Waterson said. “I think I’ve shown everybody that I have what it takes to bounce back. “Since moving to the UFC and coming up from 105-pounds and going through the journey that I have, I now feel ready to fight for the title here.”

“Not many fighters can say that all of their opponents apart from their UFC debut came against top-10 opponents and I’ve just beaten some of the best fighters in my division. I’ve got the best people and coaches around me. I’m the best I’ve ever been. I want the title shot next.”