(Reuters) – Jeet Toshi’s eyes glaze over as the blood flow to her brain begins to slow. She claws at
the arm clamped around her throat but Nicole Chua’s choke is sapping her strength, and the rising panic in Toshi’s chest
tells her she will black out in seconds.
Brutality is blind to gender in mixed martial arts (MMA).
While
abhorred by its critics as a celebration of violence, MMA’s explosive growth shows no signs of tapering off. It does not shy
away from its violent image but rather embraces it as the ultimate sporting evolution of hand-to-hand combat.
Male
fighters enjoy the lion’s share of exposure and reward, and while women’s MMA does have a following, it struggles due to a
shallow talent pool and poor financial backing.
Discrimination has also been difficult to overcome, and while the bias
may be based on outdated notions of gender roles in society, some people just are not ready to see women fight.
Not so
in Singapore, it seems.
Some 8,000 fans watched Chua become the city-state’s first female professional MMA fighter
with her debut as part of ONE Fighting Championship’s recent “War of the Lions” event.
What Chua and Toshi lacked in
polished talent and experience they made up for in heart, battering each other with kicks, knees and punches before Chua took
the fight to the ground.
Slithering across Toshi’s body, Chua slams sharp elbows into the Indian’s forehead, then
rains down a hail of punches forcing Toshi to turn onto her stomach to escape. Chua sinks in a rear naked choke and squeezes
for dear life. Toshi taps.
Despite the risk of personal injury involved in MMA, neither fighter made much money.
Neither fighter seemed to care.
Toshi walked away with $600. Her manager, Prashant Kumar, told Reuters that was three
times the sum Toshi had earned for her debut with India’s Full Contact Championship in February.
“This is a passion,
not a job,” Toshi said in an interview. “I’m not doing it to make a living. If I wasn’t fighting I really don’t know what
I’d be doing.”
Legs dangling from a pool-side chair that threatened to swallow her whole, the seven-times Indian
kickboxing champion said MMA had given her the chance to inspire her countrywomen.
“I want to be an example for girls
in India who don’t really participate in combat sports. I want to set an example so that we can spread awareness of the
sport.”
Kumar was immensely proud of Toshi irrespective of the loss, and said he had a stable of willing women
fighters in India ready to step into the cage.
“This was her first time out of the country and we were running around
trying to get her a passport just before we came,” he said. “She’s such a young girl but she was so composed despite the
fact she was fighting a Singaporean in Singapore.”
NUMBER CRUNCHER
Chua’s story catapulted her into the media
spotlight in Singapore, a bustling island hub more renowned for its safe streets and conservative values than a burgeoning
MMA scene.
A full-time accountant, Chua convinced her company to let her train for the fight on condition she made up
lost hours after the gym.
Sitting cross-legged on the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu mats at Evolve MMA Academy where she trained
before dawn each day, Chua recalled the reaction when she asked for permission to fit work around her training
schedule.
“My manager got a shock but he gave in eventually,” the muay Thai specialist said with a wry
smile.
The pixie-like Chua said she too was not in MMA for the money. With several years of muay Thai fighting under
her belt, she wanted to test her limits in the sport.
Part of the test was coming to grips with the vicious techniques
of MMA. Her training routine with no-gi Brazilian Jiu-jitsu world champion Takeo Tani saw her practice kicking a grounded
opponent’s head like a soccer ball.
“I hope I don’t have to do that,” she said with a nervous laugh, “but in a fight
if I don’t hit her she will hit me. Inside the cage its competition, you win or you lose.”
Tani said Chua’s
personality changed as soon as she stepped into the cage for sparring.
“I have to look at her like a man. You can see
in her eye she is not a normal girl,” he added. “She’s a fighter.”
Chua’s manager and Evolve founder Chatri
Sityodtong said women’s MMA was still in its infancy in Asia and that the financial incentive had to be there before women
could make a career out of fighting.
“I don’t think women can train and fight full-time right now because the
financial rewards aren’t there yet,” he said. “(But) MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and it is only a matter
of time for the financial rewards to skyrocket as it gains in popularity all over Asia.”
WHAT A WAY TO MAKE A
LIVING
Earning a living is just as tough for women getting started in the sport in the United States.
Olympic
judoka Ronda Rousey, who became the new face of women’s MMA after her stunning Strikeforce title win over Miesha Tate last
month, said there had been little financial incentive for her when she made her pro debut last year.
“I made $800 out
of it,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“But it was a hell of a lot more than I made for my first three
amateur fights because I got nothing. I was just happy I was getting anything from doing MMA after doing it without making a
penny.”
Victor Cui, the CEO of ONE Fighting Championship, declined to put an exact figure on how much Chua and Toshi
were paid for their fight, but said ONE FC stacked up favorably compared to other MMA promotions.
“Absolutely. And
it’s not just about pay, fighters want to fight on ONE FC because we are an organization that treats them very, very well,”
he told Reuters.
“The contracts include not only guaranteed fees but a win bonus, flights, accommodation for them and
however many cornermen they want to bring in.”
Cui said Chua was a fantastic story and could encourage more women to
take up the sport. While not everyone is sold on the concept of women fighting, Cui said anyone who stepped into the cage
deserved the utmost respect.
“This is a sport of professionals that have dedicated their lives to it, put in decades
of training in multiple martial arts whether it’s muay Thai, taekwondo, BJJ, karate or sanda.
“So the message that
has to come across is that whether it is a male fighting or a female fighting, they are professionals and the very best of
the best.”
(Editing by Ossian Shine)