Cagewarriors 40

On Saturday night, I fought Roxanne Modafferi in London on Cagewarriors 40. For me, it was a big night for a whole bunch of reasons. Modafferi’s a very tough, experienced opponent, highly rated and rightly so. It was also the first time I’ve fought in the UK in over 5 years – the last time being Cagewarriors Night of Champions in November 2005.

My first professional fight was in London on Cagewarriors 1, way back in 2002. At the time, I never imagined that I’d find myself where I am now, having had the opportunity to compete all over the world against some of the top women in the sport. To be asked to headline the Cagewarriors 40 card was a huge honour for me, and in a way it felt like coming full-circle. It was also great to be fighting on the same card as Paul McVeigh who’s helped me a lot in training for several of my fights.

The whole night was amazing. The show, the atmosphere, the fight itself. For many of my friends and family, it was the first time they’d had the chance to watch me fight live. I felt under a lot of pressure before the fight, coming in as the underdog in front of a home crowd, but at the same time I was confident that I’d done all the work in the preparation, and I had a great team behind me.

I’ll let the fight video speak for itself. I just want to add a bunch of thank yous.

Thanks to Roxanne for a great, really competitive fight, and for coming all the way from Japan.

Thanks to my coaches, Paul Rimmer, Danny Withington, Pete Irving. My performance owes everything to their strategy, gameplanning, cornering, coaching, motivation and hard work.

Ollie Richardson at Fighterstrength for taking care of my strength and conditioning program.

Thanks to my team mates, all the guys at Next Generation who’ve helped me train for this one. Paddy, for doing a really good imitation of my opponent and kicking my ass in sparring for the last five weeks. Joe, for letting me beat him up in the warm up. Matt, for helping me drill stuff at all hours of the day and night. Gaz for choking me repeatedly in new and interesting ways, Lloyd for always being there to help out.

Thanks to my friends and family for all their help and support.

My sponsors – PhD nutrition, who have supported me for several years now. Their products help me train and compete at my best. Rival boxing and MMA gear.

Ian and Graham at Cagewarriors, for doing such a great job of putting on the show and looking after all the fighters.