Putting the ‘Ass’ in ‘Classy’

Be careful what you sign contracts for because shady promoters and conniving opponents only after your money exist. They will sacrifice it all in lieu of your safety in order to make a buck off of your face. This is partially my fault, for ignoring every red flag I saw and all of the warning bells going off in my head that something surreptitious was brewing. They say you should always listen to your gut instinct, but I allowed my heart rather than my brain to make the decision for me of working the hardest I have ever worked for 9 consecutive weeks and all the sacrifices I had made to allow me to continue forward with a fight I knew the promotion wanted me to fail. They wanted to hype up the ‘adult film star turned fighter’ and made a mockery of the whole sport of MMA, thinking I was some low-tier fighter just by glancing at my record, ignoring the accolades I accrued at the amateur level and my BJJ record as well. While the past may be the past, I planned on eviscerating an “alleged” Nazi dating scumbag with former racist tweets dating back to her pornstar days. Like it’s so hard to not be a shitty person or something. But tell that to the promotion who booked our flight weeks in advance, only to have our return flight home be on the morning of the fights, meaning we would have left before fighting, not reimbursing us for scrambling to purchase tickets last minute, and also not paying me my percentage of PPV streams and ticket sales. Super high on the integrity scale.

A professional fighter’s job first and foremost is to show up and make weight. In fact, that is exactly what you get paid to do. You do not actually get paid to be in the cage (only the results after if and when you win), but you get paid for meeting your contractual obligations of the required weight limit set into play. On the day I signed my contract, I remember telling my coach that I knew my opponent would not be disciplined enough to make weight. However, I did expect her to try and (improperly) use techniques to achieve this such as a water load and cut, and calorie deficit. What I did not expect was for her to sashay into the weigh-ins over an hour late, fraternize with everyone in the promotion taking selfies, and then be 2 lbs over the contracted weight limit and not even be hydrating after. When I am at a weigh-in, I barely have enough energy to lift my head for conversation due to depletion and am counting down the seconds until I get off the scale to have my water, pedialyte, and banana so then I can feel good as new. Not only that, but we were offered the scale beforehand to check our weight (my coach had actually been incorrectly told this was a requirement), and then the opportunity to try and lose any excess before officially weighing in. I do not understand why any ‘professional’ would not seize the chance to double check in case their home scale was calibrated incorrectly. Both my scale and the commission’s scale read the exact weight of 110.8 for myself. No one else missed weight and some were even under. Yet my opponent had the audacity to claim the scale was wrong and she was on weight at her house. Funnily enough, I still hadn’t seen her take one sip of water.

Imagine showing up to your office job and telling your boss you hadn’t completed your project. There would be repercussions. My coach was once again told incorrect things about repercussions taking place. No punishment was upheld, nor attempt to lose anymore weight, just a measly 20% of her pay. In my heart I knew this was done purposely to try to have the edge over a much stronger and much more skilled opponent of myself, but I still wanted to fight after all the time I put in. I just promised myself I would make her regret trying to cheat her way to an advantage and I knew that this proved the lack of discipline and work ethic on her part leading up to the bout. I love going into a fight knowing there is zero chance I had been out-worked, or worried that I could have practiced and prepared more, or that I should have done certain things leading up to the bout. I’m telling you, I went into that night feeling on top of my game, sharper than ever, strong as fuck, and ready to do work. What’s funny is my husband even told me to watch out for dirty and cheating tactics, as he wouldn’t put it past my opponent or the promotion to put what is essentially my life and livelihood in danger all to benefit their pockets. I should have listened.

Right from the get-go things weren’t right. We were told so many wrong things, to the point where they started my music and told me to get out there without any warning. On the big screens, my weight was displayed incorrectly to make it look like I had missed weight. My opponent’s weight was displayed to make it look like she had made it (pic at bottom of article). They rushed me to the cage, filmed zero of my walkout, yet allowed my opponent a fully choreographed and lengthy walkout that they then displayed on the PPV stream. My name, though pronounced correctly by the same guy the day before at weigh-ins, was pronounced incorrectly multiple times as was my fight name, and it kind of makes you wonder a bit. I also found out later on that this promotion has gone through several name changes, making you question what exactly is trying to be covered up and concealed. I understand my opponent had fought for this promotion several times before and this is her hometown, but I have fought for a number of promotions in many of my opponent’s hometowns and have never experienced such egregious bias and disregard for my well-being before whilst ensuring their meal ticket was always at the forefront. In fact, I had several promotions I fought for in the past contact me afterwards at how deplorable and downright criminal this one behaved.

It is up to the commission, the promotion, the referees, and the medical staff to ensure the fighter’s safety. The medical staff and the referees were fantastic and extremely professional in their endeavors. Dr. Sadler and Dr. Lenahan were my pre-fight doctors and were so friendly and courteous during all medical assessment. My referee, Chris Molina, handled controversy and illegality with exceptional professionalism and was stoic and calm. And my post-fight doctor, Dr. Boccia was extremely apologetic when he said he had to call the fight even though I had begged him to let me continue. I told him through tears I would rather die in the cage but he said he was sitting right behind the cage when he watched the knee thrown to my head whilst grounded and could not in good conscious let the fight continue. I was crushed and heartbroken. From the opening bell I had smothered my opponent with an onslaught of wrestling and grappling, almost sinking in 2 near submissions as I hear her gurgle through chokes and throwing a vicious elbow to lacerate the bridge of her nose for good measure. I felt the energy and deftness flow through my veins and was so ready to make her regret not taking the fight or the weight cut seriously and being more focused on her theatrical displays instead. I was sure I was going to end this fight in the first round, and I barely had 2 minutes to show for it, although they were pretty dominating in my favor. The promotion just wants to hype up a rematch, they could give two fucks about their integrity or my safety as long as they can keep making dollars off of my body. Well, there was only one person in the cage that night who is content with being used in that way and it sure as shit ain’t me.

I always respect anyone willing to put their safety at risk in pursuit of this sport, because it normally takes lots of hard work and paying your dues to reach this level. When you skip all these hard parts, it shows. So much disrespect and lack of morale and ethics were on display, and I feel disgusted at having been used as a pawn this whole time. I came to brawl and throw hands, not prance down a runway and talk shit on social media (which, while they rushed me to the cage and didn’t film my walkout at all, allowed her several lengthy minutes of a completely choreographed walkout they streamed on the PPV). This is why respect is earned, and not given. I can call myself a queen all day, but that does not make me any more of a royal. She can call herself a fighter all she wants, but that does not make her hands any less pillowy or her grappling nonexistent. Let me continue to occupy the space in her mind with countless posts, videos, and online bashings that the promotion is also taking part in, but ya girl has screen shots of every defamation of character and transgression they try and fail miserably to cover up while everything I have stated is just the truth. To me, she is irrelevant, not worth one more iota of thought past this article. Her minions can say all day that she has more of a following, but to me, it is quality and not quantity that counts and those that support me are top tier. I do wish they would stop harassing my supporters though (again, I have screenshots). I will make sure that everyone knows to steer clear of a criminal promotion who ignores fighter safety, is in cahoots with those that should enforce rules (always wanted to use ‘cahoots’ in an article), doesn’t pay fighters what they’re owed, and continues with libelous online slander. Grow up, pay up, shut up, and stay classy.