Slome
03-09-2010, 11:25
With 10 titles to her name, Germaine de Randamie starting over
If an early childhood choice had gone another direction, Germaine de Randamie might've become a dancer.
Instead, she turned to something no less focused on movement but a touch more violent.
http://mmaggregate.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/untitled19.jpg?w=300&h=443
"When I was 8, my mother said I could choose between dancing and kickboxing," "I went to the first kickboxing class, and I never even made it to dancing. I told her I had found what I wanted to do."
Forty-five professional kickboxing fights later, de Randamie is looking for another new opportunity. The 26-year-old Dutch native has turned her attention away from the sport that saw her go 45-0 during a career that made her one of the most significant female kickboxers in the world and to a new challenge.
Next week, de Randamie will make just her second mixed-martial-arts appearance (and first since December 2008), when she faces Nicole Johnson at 135 pounds in the Playboy Fighting Championships promotion bout at the Playboy Mansion.
De Randamie is much more prepared for her second MMA shot, considering that in 2008 she had virtually no ground training and lost to an experienced Vanessa Porto by first-round submission. Since, she has been able to acquire much more MMA training, mixing it with her vast kickboxing experience and some boxing she tried years ago.
But de Randamie's move to MMA isn't all about simply trying something new, she said. Even more, she loves MMA, and she wants to prove that she has become more than just a standup fighter.
She's training so much, in fact, that she will soon leave Holland and her job as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital to move to the U.S. to undertake fighting full time. She's hoping the upcoming fight will provide some momentum for that effort.
"I don't want to stay a standup fighter, but I know that takes time," de Randamie said. "MMA is not simple, and I know you can't just start it one day and become good. But I'm working hard, and I want to prove I can do it. I just love the sport."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigV6oyKnsw
First, a soccer star
De Randamie comes from a family with plenty of fighting experience, with her mother once training in kickboxing and her father and a few uncles were boxers for a time.
But the sport in which she first made her name didn't involve combat. From a very young age, de Randamie was a soccer player, and she was so good that by the time she was 11 years old she was awarded a place on the Dutch national team in her age group.
"I could play almost any position," de Randamie said. "Even if they put me in the front, I would run to the back to get the ball. I could run very fast, and when I was playing with my club team I was around almost all boys. I had to be good to make it there."
De Randamie dabbled in kickboxing from age 8 on, taking a class a few times a week and then going periods away from the sport.
When she was 15, de Randamie had a friend convince her to commit again to kickboxing, which came at a time when her enjoyment of soccer was waning. She woke up one morning, she said, and realized she was no longer as passionate about soccer.
But it didn't take her long to find competition in her new athletic focus. After stopping her soccer career to again train in kickboxing, de Randamie took just a few months to find her first kickboxing fight, which began the internationally notable career.
Taking a fighting chance
The move to MMA isn't de Randamie's first away from kickboxing. She did have that one professional boxing match.
The match was put together for a television show, and de Randamie was set to fight a man who was known mainly in other athletic pursuits. Like her, he trained briefly for the fight, and he came in weighing much more than she did.
It didn't matter.
"I knocked him out," de Randamie said.
Through some connections, de Randamie tried initial MMA training, and she attempted her first MMA fight against Porto at a Revolution Fight Club show. The experience was enough to convince her to train more, especially in her ground game.
There are advantages to being a world-renowned kickboxer, certainly, but imagine the effort involved to change training techniques and learn to operate on the ground after so many years of fighting only standing up. In kickboxing, after all, she won 10 championship belts in three weight classes.
But it's not only a change to MMA which will be different for de Randamie. Because her associates and trainers in the U.S. have been so impressed with her improvement, they've made arrangements for her to move to the San Francisco area within the next year and become a full-time fighter.
First, de Randamie hopes to gain some momentum for her new career.
"The training is extreme, but that's why it's such a big test," de Randamie said. "I like to do extreme things, and this is everything I expected."
If an early childhood choice had gone another direction, Germaine de Randamie might've become a dancer.
Instead, she turned to something no less focused on movement but a touch more violent.
http://mmaggregate.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/untitled19.jpg?w=300&h=443
"When I was 8, my mother said I could choose between dancing and kickboxing," "I went to the first kickboxing class, and I never even made it to dancing. I told her I had found what I wanted to do."
Forty-five professional kickboxing fights later, de Randamie is looking for another new opportunity. The 26-year-old Dutch native has turned her attention away from the sport that saw her go 45-0 during a career that made her one of the most significant female kickboxers in the world and to a new challenge.
Next week, de Randamie will make just her second mixed-martial-arts appearance (and first since December 2008), when she faces Nicole Johnson at 135 pounds in the Playboy Fighting Championships promotion bout at the Playboy Mansion.
De Randamie is much more prepared for her second MMA shot, considering that in 2008 she had virtually no ground training and lost to an experienced Vanessa Porto by first-round submission. Since, she has been able to acquire much more MMA training, mixing it with her vast kickboxing experience and some boxing she tried years ago.
But de Randamie's move to MMA isn't all about simply trying something new, she said. Even more, she loves MMA, and she wants to prove that she has become more than just a standup fighter.
She's training so much, in fact, that she will soon leave Holland and her job as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital to move to the U.S. to undertake fighting full time. She's hoping the upcoming fight will provide some momentum for that effort.
"I don't want to stay a standup fighter, but I know that takes time," de Randamie said. "MMA is not simple, and I know you can't just start it one day and become good. But I'm working hard, and I want to prove I can do it. I just love the sport."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigV6oyKnsw
First, a soccer star
De Randamie comes from a family with plenty of fighting experience, with her mother once training in kickboxing and her father and a few uncles were boxers for a time.
But the sport in which she first made her name didn't involve combat. From a very young age, de Randamie was a soccer player, and she was so good that by the time she was 11 years old she was awarded a place on the Dutch national team in her age group.
"I could play almost any position," de Randamie said. "Even if they put me in the front, I would run to the back to get the ball. I could run very fast, and when I was playing with my club team I was around almost all boys. I had to be good to make it there."
De Randamie dabbled in kickboxing from age 8 on, taking a class a few times a week and then going periods away from the sport.
When she was 15, de Randamie had a friend convince her to commit again to kickboxing, which came at a time when her enjoyment of soccer was waning. She woke up one morning, she said, and realized she was no longer as passionate about soccer.
But it didn't take her long to find competition in her new athletic focus. After stopping her soccer career to again train in kickboxing, de Randamie took just a few months to find her first kickboxing fight, which began the internationally notable career.
Taking a fighting chance
The move to MMA isn't de Randamie's first away from kickboxing. She did have that one professional boxing match.
The match was put together for a television show, and de Randamie was set to fight a man who was known mainly in other athletic pursuits. Like her, he trained briefly for the fight, and he came in weighing much more than she did.
It didn't matter.
"I knocked him out," de Randamie said.
Through some connections, de Randamie tried initial MMA training, and she attempted her first MMA fight against Porto at a Revolution Fight Club show. The experience was enough to convince her to train more, especially in her ground game.
There are advantages to being a world-renowned kickboxer, certainly, but imagine the effort involved to change training techniques and learn to operate on the ground after so many years of fighting only standing up. In kickboxing, after all, she won 10 championship belts in three weight classes.
But it's not only a change to MMA which will be different for de Randamie. Because her associates and trainers in the U.S. have been so impressed with her improvement, they've made arrangements for her to move to the San Francisco area within the next year and become a full-time fighter.
First, de Randamie hopes to gain some momentum for her new career.
"The training is extreme, but that's why it's such a big test," de Randamie said. "I like to do extreme things, and this is everything I expected."