Marloes Coenen retires with great dignity, a pioneer and role model

Women’s MMA pioneer Marloes Coenen began fighting at 19. She turns 36 this month, and retired when the physical pain never stopped.

I’ve hurt my body too much, for too long, said Coenen to Ben Fowlkes for MMAjunkie.

She came of age during a time when the promotion of WMMA was too often about combining hot women, blood, and sports bras. She leaves a quiet legacy of finding a dignified path through a tawdry approach to the sport.

Marloes was one of the ones who showed us that this could be done a different way,” said Shannon Knapp. Prior to founding the all-women Invicta FC, Knapp served in executive positions with King of the Cage, World Fighting Alliance, International Fight League, Affliction Entertainment, UFC, and Strikeforce. And it was Coenen who convinced Knapp WMMA could be a great thing.

Back then whenever anyone talked about putting female fighters on the card, it was never about the talent, explained Knapp. It was always, ‘Shannon, find us some hot girls.’ That’s always what they said. So I didn’t have a great feeling about it, just because of the way it was billed, and I didn’t want to give up a spot for serious male athletes to a circus show of pretty girls. But Marloes, when I saw her, she changed my mind. Here was this woman who was attractive but never tried to exploit that. She worked just as hard as the men. She was smart. She was passionate. She changed my whole perspective on women in the sport.

Coenen’s career was an example, and she made it explicit in the interview with Fowlkes.

I hope they see that they don’t have to pretend they’re not women, but it’s good to realize that you’re a fighter first, said Coenen. It’s nice to be marketable, but don’t sell your soul. That’s not just fighting, but for a lot of parts of our society. You want to make decisions that you’ll feel good about in 10 years. I know I’ve learned my lessons in this sport, but now I’m done. I’m OK with that.