Gina Carano Fan

Gina Carano; making her place in an “extreme” male dominated sport.

Gina Carano; making her place in an “extreme” male dominated sport.

As the freshest face in the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), Gina Carano, currently 4-0, is certainly bringing a lot of publicity to the sport. The MMA, which debuted in 1993, was originally an effort to determine which fighting system would be the most effective in an unregulated combat situation and pitted opponents of different fighting styles against each other. While the earlier bouts had minimal rules, today’s competitions have added a few safety precautions while struggling to maintain as much of the original concept as possible.

MMA competitions have grown tremendously over the past ten years and most recently played host to EliteXC, (Elite Extreme Combat) a new MMA promotion that debuted in February and showcased the first female match-up on Showtime. Carano, of course, was featured in that bout and soundly defeated her competitor Julie Kedzie, despite her lack of experience. Carano is currently undefeated and is scheduled to fight again on June 9th
in the second EliteXC promotion.

While the MMA continues to shatter Pay-per-View records, the emergence of women like  Carano in a sport traditionally dominated by men promises to bring not only a wider but also a more diverse audience to the ring. While Carano is definitely not the first woman to fight in the MMA, she is one of the first women to fight for EliteXC and Showtime. She and Leiticia Pestova were the first women to participate in a NSAC-sanctioned female fight and she was the first woman to fight and win for the Strikeforce Promotion in December of 2006.

Despite the fact that her quick move to the top may irritate a few of the more seasoned female fighters in the MMA, Gina seems more concerned with the advancements that she believes she can bring to the sport than the negativity her fame may generate among her fellow competitors. In a recent interview with Mick Hammond of MMA Weekly, Gina said, “I have no idea how they’re going to react. Maybe it’ll be a good thing, maybe it’ll be a bad thing, and honestly, I don’t even really care. I just want to live up to those expectations and do my best to be that or beyond whatever I can be.”

Gina’s transition from Muay Thai to the MMA has been quick but not easy. Gina is currently training 6 days a week and preparations right before a fight can be extremely grueling. She often spends whole days in the gym and a minimum workout is at least four hours long. Possibly the most difficult transition seems to be the length of the bouts in which she is now fighting. While Muay Thai competitions usually consist of either 5 or 3 rounds of three minutes each, an MMA bout is comprised of three 5 minute rounds.

Gina originally began fighting in the 141-145 pound category but dropped to 140 for the fight against Kedzie. She still plans to drop a few more pounds and would actually like to compete at 135 pounds. One of the reasons she dropped a weight class was that a greater number of women fighters compete in the 135-140 category than in the higher class. At 5’8 inches tall, Carano is extremely attractive and is already fending off questions from reporters about a possible acting career. While she’s not ruling it out in the future, she is adamant about continuing the work she believes she has ahead of her in the MMA. It’s quite likely that we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the future

A virtual newcomer to the world of Mixed Martial Arts

A virtual newcomer to the world of Mixed Martial Arts

Gina Carano is a name that no one had heard of just a few years ago. Today, however, to fans of the MMA, she’s quickly becoming a household word. Originally trained in Muay Thai Boxing, the 24-year old native of Nevada won her most recent MMA bout on Showtime on February 10th, guaranteeing that millions of people would be talking about her on Feb. 11th.

A virtual newcomer to the world of Mixed Martial Arts, Gina defeated veteran fighter Julie Kedzie by unanimous decision to bring her MMA record to 4-0. Previously, however, she had already established herself with a 12-1-1 record on the Muay Thai Boxing Circuit. She began her Muay Thai training at Master Toddy’s Muay Thai Academy in Las Vegas and still trains with the Grand Master as she continues to break barriers in the world of mixed martial arts.

Muay Thai is currently one of the fastest growing sports in the world and a discipline that has proven extremely effective in mixed martial arts competitions. Native to Thailand, Muay Thai is known as one of the most powerful forms of martial arts and according to historical reports, began as a skill used in close combat fighting on the battlefield. Muay Thai is currently taught and used by the CIA, Secret Service and the Navy Seals.

While there is little information about how it actually evolved, Muay Thai seems to have been incorporated into the culture of Thailand from the very beginning. Muay Thai contests go back as far as the reign of King Rama V. Muay Thai was taught to soldiers as well as students and was actually a part of the curriculm in Thailand schools until the 1920’s.

The current standards in Muay Thai evolved in the 1930’s when the regulations that are used today were actually introduced into the sport. Some say this evolution was a response to the success that Thai Boxers were having in international boxing championships. It was at this time that those training or fighting in the Muay Thai discipline began wearing gloves and weight classes were introduced in competitions. While most believed these changes were for the betterment of the sport, Muay Thai lost many of it’s more traditional students.

Current Muay Thai rules include five three-minute rounds and fighters are given a two minute recovery period between each round. Known as the “science of 8 limbs”, Muay Thai uses not only punching and kicking with the hands and feet but includes many strikes with the knees and elbows as well.

Gina Carano trained with one of the world’s best Muay Thai teachers at Master Toddy’s Muay Thai Academy in Las Vegas and has actually fought in Thailand on three separate occasions. Grand Master Toddy, her instructor, has trained over 40 world champions in the United States alone and actually had a part in the “The Man with the Golden Gun.” and “Austin Powers.“

Master Toddy spent sixteen years as an instructor in England before moving to Las Vegas Nevada. In addition to Carano, Master Toddy has also trained several other newcomers including; Angela Rivera, Tito Ortiz, Kit Cope, Melchor Menor, Shannon Singleton, Ben Garcia, and Marvin Eastman. World Champions include Howard Brown, Kiyotaka Kato, Kash Gill, Lisa Howarth, Ronnie Green, Dale Cook, and Maurice Smith to name just a few.