UFC strawweight Michelle Waterson celebrates her thirtieth birthday today. For those who don’t know who she is, she’s a total bad ass.
Waterson made her professional mixed martial arts debut in 2007, having skipped over amateur competition. She won the fight by decision for Colorado’s Ring of Fire promotion. Over the next five years, Waterson would fight eleven more times, amassing a overall record of 9-3 before signing with Invicta FC.
Waterson debuted in Invita FC with an impressive win over Lacey Shuckman and then captured Invicta’s first ever strawweight title, defeating Jessica Penne by arm bar submission in the fourth round. Waterson would next defend her title against Yasuko Tamada in 2014 which she won by TKO, before losing her title to Herica Dos Santos at Invicta FC 10 by guillotine choke.
Waterson was then signed to the UFC to bolster the ranks of their strawweight division. She made her UFC debut at the Ultimate Fighter 21 finale event, defeating Angela Magana by rear naked choke submission.
Waterson was then scheduled to fight at UFC 194, but unfortunately was forced to withdraw after suffering an injury in training. It is expected she will return to the UFC Octagon in early 2016.
About Michelle Waterson
A karate student since the age of 10, Waterson holds a Black Belt in American Free Style Karate and has also trained in WuShu, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Boxing and wrestling.
Waterson rose to fame as a contestant on the Muay Thai-themed Fight Girls reality show on the Oxygen television network. She was also featured as one of the fighters in the MTV/MTV2 reality show Bully Beatdown.
source: wikipedia.com
About Invicta FC
Invicta Fighting Championships, the world’s largest, all-womens mixed martial arts organization, began in 2012 as the vision of longtime industry veteran Shannon Knapp. It was clear to Knapp that the sport of MMA lacked a major platform for professional female fighters to compete on a consistent basis.
In April of 2012, the promotion hosted its first event from its base of Kansas City. The event streamed live and free on InvictaFC.com and proved to be a huge success. A second event followed in July of that year. The year ended with a major milestone as the first Invicta FC champion was crowned at Invicta FC 3 in the atomweight division.
After a successful first year of operations, the organization continued to grow exponentially in 2013. Invicta FC 4 kicked off the year as the first event to air via online pay-per-view and featured the promotion’s inaugural strawweight title bout. In the spring, a flyweight champion was crowned, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.
source: invictafc.com
