Fighting Misconceptions

Professional MMA can be brutal. Tune into Ultimate Fighting Championship channel and you’ll likely see two hulking men beating each other to a pulp inside a giant cage. There’s often blood and broken bones, which is the attraction for much of the audience on TV. But Mixed Martial Arts is a broad church and away from the bombastic televised pro circuit, you’ll find many practitioners who treat it more like an art form than a battle to the death. The contemporary Mixed Martial Arts scene evolved from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo events in Brazil, where fighters have few rules but can draw on moves from a wide range of disciplines, from boxing, wrestling and Muay Thai, to Judo, Karate and Capoeira. Fights begin with both adversaries standing, punching and kicking, while trying to throw their opponent to the floor, where the grappling begins. The fight is won when somebody is pushed to submit.

“Egos get quashed very, very quickly here because although we’re very friendly, the level of our senior fighters is very high,” explains Darius, who co-founded The Fighting Arts Academy with his partner Marco Nigliazzo in the early 2000s. “You’ll have macho guys who come in from weightlifting gyms who don’t want to fight with women. But then they’ll get their ass handed to them by a teenage girl who’s a quarter of their size. Either they never come back again or they become totally humbled and stay.”

Suzy battled through her frustration at not picking things up as quickly as she had hoped, but with encouragement from Darius and the group, she stuck at it, put in the hours and carried on pushing until, little-by-little, she started to see progress. Now, she’s an increasingly confident fighter, has set her sights on getting her blue belt at 55 and has brought her daughter along to train as well. Young or old, you can bring baggage to the ring – and fight your way through it.

Martyna Przybylska was born in Poland and has already had to deal with more than most other 16-year-olds, such as being bullied and caring for her mother through illness. “People at school, especially the boys, would be nasty about the fact that I’m tall and a bit different,” she explains. “But now everyone knows I train in MMA and I’m bigger than most, so the boys are genuinely scared of me. I’m not aggressive, I don’t go around picking fights, but it does feel good to be respected now.”

At the time of writing, Ayesha is now in her second year studying medicine at St George’s, University of London but will occasionally come back home to train, so that she can maintain a connection to her extended MMA family – and expel the stress of studying. “You forget about all the pressures of the outside world and just focus on your breathing, body and techniques,” she said. Whoever they are, whatever reasons each woman might have to come and train, and whatever they hope to get out of it, the group is united in their determination to make Mixed Martial Arts inviting and accessible to all. “Once you join in, everyone feels welcome,” Ayesha reflects. “But having this diversity makes people feel more comfortable about turning up to give it a go. If you don’t think there’s space for you, you won’t even consider joining.” So, does she hope that seeing her train and compete will encourage other young women like her to get involved? “I’m not sure how much impact I can have,” she says. “I just want to tell my story: anybody can do MMA. It’s open to everyone.”