My very first & fabulous MMA experience

So here's me, all smiley posing in front of the cage, me and my 2 girls who trained with me, and have no idea what's coming. I was so crazy excited and nervous, that this combination of feelings made me all over-hyped jumpy annoying happy state! I was all over the place!

Anyway, I finally decided to write about my MMA experience and to share one of my greatest adventures of my life!

It all started when i accidentally saw an add on Facebook, which said i can get free MMA training, so i was immediately interested. Free MMA training for 8 weeks??! I thought there must be a catch, nobody gives you free stuff these days. I looked into it and the terms for 8 weeks free training was that you have to do fundraising for Cancer Research UK and fight in the cage in a massive black tie event. I was even more interested than before, you get free training, do a good deed and have a chance to kick someones ass in the cage in front of hundreds of people! Sign me up!

So i did. I started my MMA training, 3 times a week. People were quite skeptical about this blondie learning to fight, they didn't actually believe i was going to do it till the end, but i decided to show them how wrong they are! And guess what? From all 67 people that signed up and turned up to the first session, there were only 18 of them standing strong in the last session together with me.

Oh man, training was tough, i mean, really tough, cardio, moves, techniques, submissions and drills made me sweat like i've never sweated before. Submissions were the most difficult part to me, it was like a really difficult dance - you have to learn all the steps, remember correct order and do it with great power. Oh yeah, and do all of that while you "dance partner" is trying to escape and dance his own dance. This is the part where i bruised a lot, my legs, back and especially arms were covered with new bruises every week. Not so girly look, hey? I was actually pretty proud of my bruises, they showed my hard work and progress.

It was even harder when i booked few 1 to 1 sessions with my trainer. One thing is to train in a group and there's the whole new level when you train 1 to 1. That means trainer gives you all the attention and pushes you even harder. And when i mean harder, i mean, after first 20 minutes of warm-up cardio it feels like you been through hell already. This followed up with submissions and sparring, that drained me with sweat from head to toe. I swear, sometimes i thought i was gonna pass out or throw up and just die on the sweaty floor. But i didn't! I carried on, pushed myself, got physically and mentally stronger.

In total, i have raised £130, maybe it's not a lot, but for me it was great achievement! Also, i sold 12 tickets to the event (£20 for a ticket), which means another £240 went to the charity!

Bellow you can see my whole team ready to kick some ass!

There were only 3 girls in the team, so the management team had to find another girl, to fight with me. The annoying part was that i haven't been training with her so i had no idea what is she like and what's her fighting technique. As i found out later she fought at this event before and had 2 or 3 years jiu-jitsu experience, which was a total slap in the face after a fight. Obviously, i didn't win, but it would have been nice to have equally experienced opponent, as i was completely new to this, and she was an experienced fighter.

Below you can see me and my opponent who nearly killed me in the fight (i'm joking, she wasn't anywhere near killing me, but she did choked me real good).

Anyway, even though the fight wasn't very long, i did get a chance to fight in the cage, which is a great achievement to me!!! That feeling can't compare to anything!

The most fun part was to walk in to the cage on the catwalk while the entrance music was playing in the background, mine was Christina Aguilera - Dirrty. I was buzzing in the moment, walked in with all the confidence in the world, even did few dance moves on the catwalk.

Below you can see few pictures from my fight that i haven't posted anywhere before, no pretty faces there, but pretty damn good memories!

In the end, i lost to my opponent in the guillotine submission, when she choked me and i was about to black out, so had to tap out :(

Even though I've lost, i am very proud of the whole MMA journey - I've met amazing and inspiring people, was trained by international MMA champions, learnt some killer MMA moves, fought in a cage in a fancy event, had the best supporting team shouting and cheering for me and, most importantly,became physically and mentally stronger that now everything seems possible!

Challenge yourself in the ways you might not be comfortable with and in the process you gonna learn so much, discover your real potential and, the things you will be able to accomplish, oh man, you'll be surprised!

Anyway, thanks for sticking till the end of this massively long post, hope you enjoyed it and maybe even got inspired to challenge yourself too (not necessarily in MMA)!

Peace & love, stay tuned!