I would venture that most of you have probably noticed that we have a lot of female members at Kwest, probably a higher percentage than the average boxing or MuayThai club. We are very proud of the fact that our club is friendly and welcoming to all fitness levels, genders, etc. and this is something we wouldn’t change for the world.
When it comes to fighting, as with most sports, men tend to dominate the more public position. It’s pretty rare to switch on the tv and see female fighters, but much less so to happen across a male boxing match, or these days a male MMA bout. So this means that I have often had students ask me about female fighters. Do they exist? Who are some good fighters I could look up to? Who can I check out, even if I don’t want to fight, to get inspired as a female in MuayThai? Turns out there are some very good answers to those questions.
One of the best MuayThai fighters you could find is Germaine de Randamie. This fighter was a force in MuayThai for many years and now – for better or for worse, depending on your take on it – has recently transferred over to MMA. Below is a video of de Randamie fighting Angela Rivera-Parr (wife of MuayThai legend John Wayne Parr), as well as a look at de Randamie doing some training. Even online, female fights can be tough to find but if you do a little searching there is some great material out there. Look for Julie Kitchen, Claire Haigh, Julia Budd or Gina Carano (a good fighter, but if you google this one expect some of the other aspects of her “model/actress” resume to come up as well as fighting – a resume that apparently means Carano is the only one of these women who warrants a page on Wikipedia).
If you have a favourite female fighter, let us know and we’ll check her out!