A Carlisle-based fighter will represent England at an international tournament and said she is the first female to do so.
Lauren Reay, 29, from Currock, will represent England at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) World Championships, the most prestigious amateur MMA championships in the sport.
Having trained as a Muay Thai kickboxer from the age of 13, her eyes are now set on what will be a significant benchmark in her athletic career.
Lauren said: “I’m really excited for it, I’m feeling the pressure, but I’ve trained really hard and I’m ready to go.
“I’ve only been doing MMA for a year after training in Muay Thai.
“I got back into it a couple of years ago, falling in love with the ground-work game, and I’ve trained MMA in Liverpool last year.”
On the change of pace from Muay Thai to MMA, she said: “It’s a more varied style of training, I do my strikeing and ground-work, and BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), and boxing as well.
“It’s quite full-on, you’ve got to spread your time across the board and I’ve got to stay on weight all the time, diet has to be on point.”
Lauren is a freelance graphic designer by trade, so dividing her time between training and work has been intense too, as she explained: “I train twice a day, in the morning and evening, but ideally I want to go full-time with this.”
Full-time fighting wasn’t in her vision when starting out, as she said: “I don’t think as a teenager I believed in myself as much as I do now.
“I really missed it when I was at uni but I got back into it after I got injured, and it was taken away from me.”
It’s also a milestone for Cumbrian women in the sport, as she said any fighting sport is male-dominated, but added: “MMA is really good for recognising woman, there a lot of female talent coming out of England”
England’s head coach Paul Kelly said: “Lauren is part of a very strong England squad coming off winning eight medals in the European IMMAF Championships in Italy earlier in the year.
“She has travelled the country and committed herself to become an England combat athlete and represent her country.
“There will be nearly 700 athletes from all over the world competing for medals throughout the week-long championships and Lauren will represent in the female senior women’s category.”
Sponsored by Carlisle clothes shop Room 26 and thanking her home gym Radgie Rollers for support, she’ll head to Belgrade, Serbia, for the event which takes place between February 11 to 18 this year.
On her competition, she said: “It’s the best amateurs around the world competing, so every fight is going to be a challenge, but I’m confident.”
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