On 4 August, France’s original bullfighting arena, the Arènes De Béziers, HEXAGONE MMA 8 will be presenting the highly anticipated women’s strawweight match-up between Karla Benitez (19-16-1, Venezuela) and Stephanie Ielo Page (7-4-0, France), broadcast internationally on DAZN.
On 4 August, France’s original bullfighting arena, the Arènes De Béziers, HEXAGONE MMA 8 will be presenting the highly anticipated women’s strawweight match-up between Karla Benitez (19-16-1, Venezuela) and Stephanie Ielo Page (7-4-0, France), broadcast internationally on DAZN.
The holder of the HEXAGONE MMA world strawweight title, Samantha Jean-François, will be defending her belt on July 28, at the Ancient Theatre of Orange in the co-main event against Argentina’s Laura Balin.
As a female fighter, I am perhaps close to distilling the meaning of fighting for myself, and perhaps even something of my own essence in the ring, but what is the essence of female fighting from a social perspective, and from a gendered perspective?
Kerry Hughes, aka “Rocksteady” is British fighter who fights out of BKK Fighters in Colchester. She’s had a total of 9 fights to date in MMA, K1 and Muay Thai. We’ve met her a few times and one thing that can be said about Kerry, something that we found apparent, is that she’s hungry to fight and push forward to new tougher challenges. We grabbed some time with her to ask about her upcoming title fight on March 12th, and her previous busy months.
We decided to have a catch up with Jorina Baars, just because it was about time! This lady really doesn’t need an intro, we all know who she is right!?
Amber Brown is an MMA fighter from New Mexico, USA. Her current record is 6-1-0 and she’s been on a winning streak since 2013. She’s a lady that really needs no introduction because you the community voted her the ‘Fan Favourite Atomweight of the Year’ in the Awakening WMMA Awards! We caught up with Amber to find out her thoughts on your vote and took the opportunity to ask her a few more questions.
Yolanda Schmidt is a professional Muay Thai fighter from South Africa, she now lives in Australia where she fights out of PTJ Muay Thai Gym. Out of her 18 fights she has only been defeated twice, once as an amateur and once as a pro. Her fights are always exciting to watch, and she’s very active on social media where you will catch her, so we urge you to go like her various pages
Macy Chiasson interview, female MMA fighter from Louisiana, USA and winner of the Awakening 2015 Amateur Fighter of the Year
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu was your winner of the Fighter of the Year Award in the 2015 Awakening Female Muay Thai Awards. We arranged a skype interview with her but unfortunately failed on a few technical issues. Thankfully Sylvie captured her video and caught the audio also. The video is above. You can also see this same interview on Sylvie’s website where she provides a few extra notes.
In Part Three of this Michele Aboro interview we found out about the Aboro Academy and commendable Aboro Foundation. In this fourth and final part we ask Michele about her health, and we also get her thoughts on what needs to happen in the industry to further growth the female side of combat sports.
In Part Two of this Michele Aboro interview we found out about the difficult circumstances surrounding retirement. In this third part we ask Michele about her transition into coaching, the Aboro Academy and the commendable Aboro Foundation.
In Part One of this Michele Aboro interview we introduced the living legend and were told about some of the challenges of training and competing as a female fighter in the 80’s and 90’s. In this second part we hear about the controversial retirement and what it takes to stand your ground in the face of prejudice.
In Awakening’s eyes Michele Aboro (London, England) is female martial arts royalty, a true pioneer of female combat sports. Finding an opponent in today’s world has definitely become easier, but still has its challenges. During Michele’s career, which spanned from 1990 – 2002, she would have faced incredible challenges as a female fighter.
Lindsay Haycraft interview (formerly Lindsay Scheer) from the US, has agreed to take part in the first Awakening event next year in a fight against Julie Kitchen. We need to rally enough support from you the community, in backing our kickstarter to start putting on game changing female muay thai events. We caught with Lindsay and threw a few questions at her, here is the interview…
Julie Kitchen Interview. During our kickstarter campaign which we are sure you are aware about, we wanted to interview both headline fighters to get their thoughts on the idea. Here is the Julie Kitchen edition.
This Saturday Vicky Church faces UK’s #2 Sophie Gallagher to defend her new ranking at Smash 10 in Liverpool. We caught up with Vicky to ask her thoughts on Sophie, Smash and female Muay Thai. Four weeks ago, Vicky Church from Cornwall, England became the UK’s #1 at 60kg after Sheree Halliday unfortunately lost her slot from being out through injury for a substantial amount of time.
An Interview with Jorina Baars – part 2. If you missed it, click here for An interview with Jorina Baars (Part 1) where we spoke to Jorina about her experience with Lion Fight, and her upcoming fight against Anke Van Gestel.
An Interview with Jorina Baars – part 1. Jorina Baars needs no introduction these days. For quite some time she has been respected (and feared) within the Muay Thai community, especially within Europe!
NCWB1 – An interview with Ashley Nichols (Part 2). Do you feel that your experience within Muay Thai and MMA will help you, or would you consider Boxing a completely separate entity that needs a fresh approach?
NCWB1 – An interview with Ashley Nichols (Part 1). On the 15th of August in Quebec, Canada, Ashley Nichols faces Amanda Lovato at the Nordic Coliseum Women Boxing event, NCWB1.
NCWB1 – An interview with Kaliesha West (Part 2). We want to delve a little deeper now and find more out about you. What was it like growing up as Kaliesha West?
