Jemyma Betrian in de LA Daily News (uitslag met video en foto's)
Vannacht, Nederlandse tijd, zal Jemyma Betrian in Los Angeles, USA, de kkoi betreden voor haar tweede MMA partij. Vandaag op de dag van de wedstrijd verscheen er een artikel in de LA Daily News met Jemyma Betrian.
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/2015...ortsmens-lodge
Jemyma Betrian ready to play in the cage at Fight Night at Sportsmen’s Lodge
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WBC Muay Thai bantamweight champion and MMA fighter Jemyma Betrian will face Chandra Engel during Fight Night at The Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City on Friday. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
Trying a new sport is hard enough. Tack on the challenge of being thousands of miles away from home. On top of that, now tell the athlete they can’t play this new sport for several months. Just practice. Yes, we’re talking practice. Weeks upon weeks of practice. But now Jemyma Betrian finally gets to play. And she can’t wait to punch another woman in the face.
The WBC Muay Thai bantamweight champion, with 42 fights to her credit, will enter the cage for her second pro MMA fight when she faces Chandra Engel on Friday night at Fight Night at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.
The Curacaoan native, 24, returned to Southern California three weeks ago after two weeks visiting her parents in Curacao and another two weeks visiting family in Hollland.
“Of course I miss my family, but all these things help me to grow mentally and to be a strong woman. And sometimes you can find yourself,” the strawweight said. “In Holland, if I need something I just call my brother or my sister and they will do it for me. But now I have to do my thing by myself and, of course, I have my gym family and they help me with everything.”
The gym family to whom she is referring is Edmond Tarverdyan’s Glendale Fighting Club, where Tarverdyan oversees Betrian’s transition to MMA. The biggest change, after Betrian (35-2-1 Muay Thai, 3-0 boxing) spent nearly nine years solely striking and kicking in the ring, is to get Betrian proficient on the ground.
Working on the ground has been the primary class when school is in session in Glendale. Three-time Olympic wrestler Martin Berberyan has been mentoring Betrian, and all the time is paying off, according to Mike Polanen, Betrian’s trainer the past six years.
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Jemyma Betrian, seen with trainer Mike Polanen, hasn’t lost a fight since she was 16 in 2007. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
“I came in the last fight she did here. And I saw that the girls were shooting her easy,” Polanen said. “And I came in last week, and I thought, ‘What happened?’ I talked to Martin. Martin said, ‘Mike, it’s not normal how easy she picks up things.’ “
Betrian’s last fight actually wasn’t even a fight. She was scheduled to take on Catalina Madril in December at Gladiator Challenge at Sycuan Casino in El Cajon. Only Madril never showed up.
“Either they heard it was Jemyma or she was afraid of getting knocked out, but there was some reason behind it,” Tarverdyan said. “OK, we didn’t fight. It’s OK because in my mind I already thought of bringing in Jemyma to get experience. It wasn’t only about getting quick fights.”
Betrian, who hasn’t lost a fight since she was 16 in 2007, needed only 47 seconds in August to knock out Hadley Griffith at Chaos at the Casino 5 at Hollywood Park Casino.
But for Betrian to not fight for six months is an eternity. In the first six months of 2014, she won five Muay Thai bouts -- three knockouts and two decisions.
Tarverdyan says there is no hurry.
“All I’m thinking is for her to wrestle a lot with Martin. She’s been doing that, looking great,” Tarverdyan said. “That’s what I need. I really don’t need so much of the ring experience because this girl has 40 professional fights already. She knows how to handle herself in any fight.
“It’s about feeling comfortable in the grappling area, the wrestling area.”
Everyone has to start somewhere, which Tarverdyan knows all too well. His prized pupil -- UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey -- went from winning bronze in judo at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to having three amateur MMA fights in a six-month span in 2010-11.
“I told her it doesn’t matter who you’re fighting, it’s the same attitude and approach Ronda had,” Tarverdyan said. “She needed that ring professional experience of fighting without head gear. For Jemyma, it’s a different area we have to focus and concentrate on.”
And there are few better teachers when it comes to submissions than Rousey (10-0), whose vaunted armbar ended 10 of her first 11 pro and amateur fights in the first round.
Betrian says being able to watch Rousey roll on the mat and learn from her is invaluable.
“When I need her, I can ask her to help me and she is willing to help,” Betrian said. “That is the reason why I have so much respect for her, because she is working so hard for all her fights and she’s still herself, and that is the most important thing that you can have.”
But that’s just part of MMA, and as Betrian points out, she doesn’t want to go to the ground. But if she does, she wants be ready.
Her preference, of course, is to keep the fight standing.
The first time Tarverdyan sparred with Betrian, her jab caught his attention. Then came the rest of her arsenal.
“Jemyma is ... whew ... relentless. Nonstop, relentless fighter. She goes for it,” he said. “This girl can punch. She can kick. I love the way she goes down to the body. You don’t see a lot of girls doing that. She has has a lot of spectacular knockouts with the liver shot.
“She’s an animal, man.”
The ultimate goal is to get Betrian signed to the UFC’s newest division, where she can battle the top 115-pounders in the world.
Betrian hopes it happens this year, perhaps after she get a couple more wins. But she and her team anticipate that day.
“She’s getting hungry, you know? She sees the girls in the UFC and she knows, ‘Oh man, I’m gonna eat them.’ “ Polanen said “But you have to follow the rules and the way, and she cannot wait to get into there.”
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