KAYO – Women’s MMA

KAYO – Women’s MMA It has been known for the girls to steal the show and the KAYO-MMA event of Sunday 22nd November 2009 was indeed one of these occasions.

Not only that, but it was the Amateur bout that caught the audiences interest! This was between Anoushka Morse of Team Crossface and Sarah Hunt of Blaze Martial Arts who were both making their MMA Amateur debut, it seemed the fight was weighted in favour of Anoushka who had a slight weight advantage over Sarah and what was thought to be more experienced on the ground. The fight started quite even with both fighters trading strikes, and then Anoushka attempted several unsuccessful take down attempts which resulted in Sarah taking mount.

KAYO – Women’s MMA

Sarah who plans to try out for the 2012 Olympic Taekwondo Team, has been training Free Style Kickboxing since she was 11yrs, now 18yrs and taking her first steps in the world of MMA, showed how powerful those kicks really are by connecting a few precise strikes to the head resulting in Anoushka receiving a prominent black eye. The match was stopped on two occasions to put Sarah’s fingers back in the gloves as her tiny hands kept slipping out, which sent the audience into roars of laughter as both women couldn’t wait for the ref to continue the fight! Anoushka was a worthy opponent taking the strikes un-phased and continued to battle through the rounds, eventually Sarah won by unanimous decision. Sarah’s confidence in her skills and ease in the ring is refreshing to see and at the ripe age of 18yrs I think she’s definitely one to watch out for in 2010.

KAYO – Women’s MMA

The second female fight of the night was the Semi-Pro bout between Kianna Mann of EBMAS and Cheryl Flynn of Caged Steel, it was a debut for both women. Kianna who has trained Wing Chun for many years was so keen to test her skills in the ring she researched the event and flew in from Turkey specifically for it! Cheryl who had several months to prepare for the fight had been waiting for an opponent and was excited to finally be given the chance to showcase her skills. The fight started with Kianna initiating the strikes in the first few seconds only to be shut out by Cheryl’s impenetrable guard, the following minutes Cheryl dominated the fight with a great display of stand up striking, Kianna defended with a few great front kicks but it wasn’t enough. The fight was kept standing for its entirety, It went the full 2, 5 minute rounds which consisted of a constant barrage of powerful strikes from Cheryl, Kianna took everything she had and was still standing at the end of the second round. Cheryl won by unanimous decision, although it probably should have been stopped early; I could see Kianna would not give up!

We had been expecting a Pro fight on the night along with the Amateur & Semi-Pro but unfortunately there was a cancellation to the Pro fight due to Sarah Moras falling victim to a stress fracture only a few days prior to the event. Sarah Moras who is originally from Canada and is currently training with Rosi Sexton in the UK, has also trained with many notable names from America – Japan, was due to face Danielle West of Masters MMA (2-1-0-0) in her debut Pro MMA bout and both women had been really looking forward to the event, there was obvious disappointment all round, but the organisers of KAYO-MMA are keen to have a rematch and there’s hope for March 2010. This is a great event for UK Female MMA with the organisers giving full support, and planning to hold many more female bouts on their Fight Cards. At the event, there was also mention of Rosi Sexton fighting again in the early part of 2010 in the UK, nothing is confirmed as of yet but there is definitely hope for confirmation as it would be another great step forward for the UK!