Fighting Like A Girl

With all the attention female mixed martial arts has recently garnered from the prime time television debut of Gina Carano, I had the privilege of interviewing promising young talent Angela Magana. She gave me her thoughts on the current state of women’s MMA and her plans for the future.

Angela, who fights at 115 pounds with a professional MMA record of 5-1-1, turns 25 later this year, and has a bright outlook in the sport despite her troubled past. She escaped East L.A. and her heroin-addicted parents’ home by moving to Northern New Mexico to live with her grandparents. Once there, she became an accomplished Golden Gloves amateur boxer amassing over 40 fights. In Junior High and High School, Angela was the only female wrestler on the team and overcame all the prejudice that came with it. However, her drive to be the best propelled her beyond the stereotypes. Angela enjoyed destroying the bias she faced almost as much as destroying her all-male opponents. “Guys quit after I beat them.”

On May 31st, Magana refused to quit in the biggest fight of her career. In Claremore, Oklahoma, before a hostile, standing-room-only crowd, she won her co-main event match for the Freestyle Cage Fighting Women’s Championship by defeating hometown favorite, and so-called ‘first professional female MMA fighter from Oklahoma,’ Nicdali “The Nite Queen” Calanoc.

Angela rotates her training among Greg Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque, Floyd Sword’s Team Four Corners in Farmington, NM, and Durango Martial Arts with pro fighter Chris Jones in Durango, CO. Angela has a five year old daughter, and balancing her fight preparation and personal life offers its own unique challenge. “The guys in the gym don’t realize [my responsibilities]. [My child] has to be in bed my 8p.m., and some nights we don’t even start to train jiu-jitsu until after 8p.m. The guys can leave their kids at home with the wife. Not me! I’m a single mom.” Sometimes, she simply brings her daughter to the gym, and when I asked her whether she would encourage her child to pursue MMA, Angela responded, “She does train a little bit of jiu-jitsu. She doesn’t like to tap out. I think we both have a really high tolerance for pain.”

What does Angela think about the state of female MMA? She is excited about the possibilities and, when I asked what her reaction would be to a promotion’s attempts to turn her into a sex symbol, she added, “If they want to put make-up on me and dress me up cute . . . and use that . . . I mean, what do people love? Sex and violence. I’ll use it. It opens doors. Like Gina [Carano] and American Gladiators. I’ll use it to open doors.”

Angela Magana hopes that the doors to her future in MMA will open even wider in the near future. “Someone from Cage Rage (in England) called and Herb Dean was talking about wanting me [to fight in] Guatemala.” She expects Elite XC to contact her soon, and Angela gets several phone calls per month from other promotions. She is enjoying her success so far. “Now, I don’t have to plan my life around my fights; I can plan my fights around my life.”

When I asked Angela about her ‘wish list’ of future opponents, all she did was call out the toughest fighters at her weight class: Lisa Ward, Megumi "Mega Megu" Fujii, and Yuka Tsuji. She has one other opponent she would love to fight: Jessica Aguilar—whom she has faced twice. Each fight ended controversially, and Angela wants another shot, “I would fight her for no money.”

Angela Magana has unquestionable toughness. She takes great pride in refusing to quit. After breaking her back last September, she proved her mettle to everyone by taking three fights in the six months since having her body cast removed. Angela realizes that the sport has evolved and constantly seeks to improve her skills. She said, “There are a lot of girls who think they are ‘tough,’ but they are not very technical. They are good at a lot of things but not great at anything. That doesn’t work [anymore]. You have to be great at more than one thing.” Finally, I asked her to rate her chances for success in MMA. Magana replied, “I’m going to do good [because] winning isn’t always about winning. It’s about never giving up. I don’t give up. I live my dreams.”