31 year old mixed martial artist Lauren Murphy is making a debut inside the octagon for the UFC. She will fight at the UFC's Women's Bantamweight division. She is also the former Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion, and is currently undefeated.
Murphy talked about how she started being a mixed martial artist saying "I took my son to a Jiu Jitsu class in late 2009, and I took the class with him to encourage him. I fell in love with it and started going all the time. I began training MMA about 3 months later, and took my first pro fight 3 months after that. I did not have any amateur fights."
But before she even fell in love with MMA, she was not sure where to bring his son to train. She added "I'm being completely honest, I didn't know the difference between jiu-jitsu and karate. I looked in the phone book and I saw a Gracie Barra [jiu-jitsu] academy. I called and talked to them and I decided to enroll Max. I bought him a judo gi, because I didn't have a clue whether they'd be kicking each other or karate chopping or what. I had no [expletive] idea, to be honest."
On the other hand, it was his son, Max, who had no interest in the game. Murphy said "He never wanted to go back after that first day because he was so grossed out. He said, 'They are punching each other and they're so sweaty and they're all up in each others' faces.' He didn't enjoy it at all. Not at all. He was so grossed out."
But she enjoyed it saying "I was like, 'This is awesome. I'm going to wrestle everybody.' So I kept going. There were fighters at the gym. It was this little podunk gym in Anchorage and I was fascinated by what I saw. I began to wonder if I could do it and what it would be like to stand under the lights and get into a big war with someone. I wondered how I would handle that."
Murphy has an 8-0 ranking in MMA. Six of her winds came by knockout while two were by decision. Hse has not lost a fight ever since she started.
Her UFC career will start when she faces former title challenger Sara McMann in a three-round bantamweight fight on Saturday in Bangor, Maine.
According to Murphy "Some days, I ask myself that exact same question: How in the [expletive] did we get here? I don't even know. We could break it all down, but if we did, it'd be prett
