The Women Who Fight Podcast

Emma Thomas is a former Muay Thai fighter who's been living in Bangkok for 10 years. She's also the creator of the blog Under the Ropes where she writes about her experiences as a woman in Muay Thai and gender inequality in the sport. Her article about being sexually assaulted by a trainer has ultimately led Emma to become a public speaker and activist working for the elimination of gender-based v...

Dr Anna Kavoura is a sport psychology specialist and a postdoc researcher. Her research has focused on issues related to gender and sexuality in sport, in particular combat sports. Anna is interested in identifying approaches that contribute towards more inclusive, ethical and safe sport cultures. Anna is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Anna Kavoura Sound Ed...

Sky has been coaching for seven years now as a PT and became a certified nutritionist three years ago. Sky setup soci.eaty, which has three main services, online training & nutrition coaching, business mentoring & public speaking. She works predominantly with women, coaching them to have a better relationship with food, exercise & themselves.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Sky Elizabeth Asquith So...

Jenny Valentish is a journalist and author, including the books Everything Harder Than Everyone Else: Why Some of Us Push Our Bodies to Extremes, and Woman of Substances: A Journey Into Addiction and Treatment. At 46 she had her first amateur Muay Thai fight as part of her immersion journalism quest to understand the fine line between hedonism and endurance. Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Jenny Val...

Lesley Sackey is a former EU gold medalist and Team GB boxer. On Friday 13th of May Lesley will be fighting on an all female boxing show, The Fight Back, at Allstars boxing gym in west London. This will be her final amateur fight as she turns 40 this year and amateur rules prevent her from fighting after this age. The Fight Back event launches Fight Forward, a social enterprising aiming to educate...

Victoria Team USA Wrestler, 2x World Team Member, 2x US Open Champion, 3x Pan American Champion in Women's Freestyle Wrestling, Judoka and now pursuing MMA.  Victoria radiates joy and warmth in this eye opening conversation about her experiences and personal development through training and competing throughout her life. Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Victoria Anthony (Vortex) Sound Editor and Comp...

Mackenzie Dern is a former world no.1 ranked IBJJF competitor and an ADCC world champion. She had her first MMA fight in 2016, and in 2018 entered the UFC. She had two fights before becoming pregnant - she returned within 4 months of giving birth Mackenzie won her recent fight against Tecia Torres and is currently ranked 4th in the female divisions.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Mackenzie Dern So...

⁣Jamie is a Professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter, Domestic Violence Advocate, Keynote Speaker, and Head of Operations for PHILLY Airbnb. With 10+ yrs of experience, Jamie is a former World Champion, a UFC Contender Series veteran, and a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. She is still actively fighting today.⁣ We had the pleasure of speaking to her as part of our series with Venum for Internatio...

Ava knight is a former 7 time belt holder including 2 world titles with a record of 20 wins 2 losses 5 draws. she is a formidable boxer and hugely inspiring. She's known as "The Lady of Boxing". She is now fighting MMA for Bellator. We had the pleasure of speaking to her as part of our series with Venum for International Women's Day.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Ava Knight Sound Editor and Compo...

Kiana is a black belt in Karate, she was top in the USA in the 2018 Karate World Championships, and is a weapons pro - she's incredible! We had the pleasure of speaking to her as part of our series with Venum for International Women's Day.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Kiana Akira Sound Editor and Composer: Will Grant

As a lifelong, blue chip athlete Tiffany Van Soest is also quite literally a Martial Artist as she expresses herself through the mediums of fighting along with poetry and painting using her greatest tools- the eight limbs which have been sharpened over the span of her on-going career as a 9-time World Champion prize fighter in the disciplines of Muay Thai and Kickboxing on the sports' biggest stag...

Terri is former WBC and IBO super featherweight boxing champion of the world. At 25 years old Terri remains one of the most exciting female prospects across the sporting landscape in the UK. Terri lives with her partner Jen in a small village called Denaby on the outskirts of Doncaster, South Yorkshire. In 2018 Terri achieved a degree with honours from Sheffield Hallam University in Sports Coachin...

Michelle Waterson "The Karate Hottie", is a professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the UFC Women's Strawweight Division. She is the former Invicta Atomweight Champion and was ranked as the No. 1 women's atomweight fighter in 2013-2014. She holds a black belt in American Freestyle Karate and a Brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She is a loving mother, wife and professional badass....

Lily is a purple belt in BJJ and coaches adults and children at Rebellion gym in Sheffield. Lily recently graduated in psychology and spent a lot of her degree researching the mental health benefits of BJJ.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Lily Hunt Sound Editor and Composer: Will Grant

Talida is the face behind Hazel & Cacao a blog focused on healthy whole food and plant based recipes with an emphasis on hormone balance. Talida's passion for this grew from her own traumatic experience of hormone imbalance caused by her contraception.  It was a joy to hear her story, we learnt so much! Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Talida   Sound Editor and Composer: Will Grant

We had the pleasure of speaking to Laurien and Alex, founders of Off The Zone which teaches coaches to be trauma informed. Laurien and Alex explain what trauma is, how it works and the great potential of martial arts to be part of the healing process.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Alex & Laurien Sound Editor and Composer: Will Grant

"Navigating your hormones on the journey to menopause" Maisie hill’s book Perimenopause Power is the sequel to her fantastic book Period Power. Here we uncover the realities of menopause, understanding its impact and strategies in how to mitigate symptoms, dispelling myths and fundamentally taking control over our own experience of it. This is our second podcast with Maisie and as with the first i...

For this episode we had Hayzia and Jorden from the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation - IMMAF. Hayzia is the Chairwoman of IMMAF’s Women’s Commission and Jorden is their Member Development Consultant. Both work to develop women’s MMA and improve their participation in IMMAF Championships and at the national level through their national federations.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest:  Hayzia B...

In this episode, we are talking to Nicole Strock, breaking down a scientific study about female Judokas and their wellbeing called: Eating Attitudes, Body Esteem, Perfectionism and Anxiety of Judo Athletes and Nonathletes. Scientific journals can be so hard to decipher for the layman, and with Nicole we were able to break down and understand what this paper was telling us. This is the first of thr...

Helene is the founder of WILD.AI, an app to track women’s menstrual cycle and build a nutrition, rest and recovery programme around your physiological needs. It makes adjustments to its recommendations as you input your data, helping you to see patterns and mitigate symptoms. It supports menstruating women and those on birth control, as well as peri and post menopausal women. It is still in its in...

Luiz Faye trains in adaptive boxing and has her own business called Kronik Warrior UK. We spoke about her journey and how she is developing adaptive boxing to make it a recognised sport. Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest:  Luiz Faye Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant  

Nicky is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Medicine at University College London and Research Fellow in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University.  She conducts clinical research in sports and dance endocrinology and is a member of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the British Menopause Society.  Her aim is to redefine optimal health and fitness for...

We had the pleasure of speaking with Phathokuhle Zondi and Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi about an editorial they co-authored called 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Invisibility of Female African Athletes in Sports and Exercise Medicine Research'.  Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guests: Phathokuhle Zondi and Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi  Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Janay Harding is a professional MMA fighter based in Sydney, Australia. Janay fights as a featherweight in the Bellator promotion and is ranked number 7 in the Women's Featherweight Division (at the time of recording in June 2021).    Hosts: Shanti & Marina Guest: Janay Harding Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Nicole is a PhD graduate working at the Women’s Health and Exercise Lab at PSU (Pennsylvania State University) and is the Coordinator for the non-profit organisation The Female and Male Athlete Triad. We first reached out to Nicole's team last year after finding a paper her group had written about menstrual disturbances in athletes. We formed a partnership with their group and collaborated on a pr...