Martial Edge is pleased to talk to Rosie Sexton, Britain’s top female Mixed martial artist. She is a formidable fighter with a brain to match, as Lesley Jackson discovers.

Nobody can multi-task quite like Dr Rosie Sexton. Not only does she have a PhD from Cambridge University in Theoretical Computer Science, as well as currently studying for another degree in Osteopathy at Oxford, she is a mother, runs a gym and is the UK’s most successful female professional Mixed Martial Artist. One could easily miss this last fact when speaking to her as her manner is quiet and approachable, yet sharply articulate in all aspects of her involvement in martial arts. At less than nine stone and 5 feet 4 inches, don’t be mislead into thinking she is just playing at this sport as she is both a formidable fighter and highly skilled technician. Her most recent victories have included Brazilian Carina Damm, to whom Rosie defeated the Jiu Jitsu specialist at her own game with a skilful arm-bar submission and Japanese Windy Tomomi whose ankle broke during an unfortunate take-down. Dr Sexton currently lives and trains in Manchester, with partner and trainer Karl and son Lewis.

Entering the Arena

First of all, can you tell us about your martial arts background, what did you start with and why?

I started Taekwondo when I was about 13. At the time it was just a class around the corner from where I live, I got a leaflet through the door and it was something I felt I wanted to try. I started out of curiosity and but once I started Taekwondo I really enjoyed it. It was the first time that I’d really done a physical activity I enjoyed with any degree so I kept on doing it and it went from there really. Then I wanted to break out into a few other martial arts and I think it was in about 2000 I first found out about Mixed Martial Arts and I wanted to give it a try.

What was it about the martial arts that inspired you?

It was a number of things but mostly it was the element of competition. I’ve always been a competitive person and there’s the attraction of the self defence aspect as well, which I think is less so these days. When I first started that was important to me, I wanted to feel I could hold my own in a physical confrontation. I think it was a combination of those factors really and also that I enjoyed the actual activity of doing it, going there and training. I came away feeling really good about it afterwards, it was that physical buzz I got that kept me going really.

What led you to become involved in Mixed Martial Arts? What was it that caught and held your attention, particularly as there were very few women involved?

By 2000 I’d been doing martial arts of one kind or another for around 10 years. At that time I was going through a crisis of confidence as it had occurred to me that I’d learnt all this stuff and all these techniques but as I was starting to teach it myself I didn’t have the confidence I could actually make it work if someone really attacked me and was really trying to hurt me. I asked myself, could I make this stuff work? As I’d never been in that situation I didn’t have the confidence to say, yes I can, and that bothered me. I felt that didn’t really know if I was wasting my time here; that was about the time I saw the programme about Mixed Martial Arts and as soon as I saw it I thought that was something I wanted to do. I wanted to know if I could fight, could I do it when it counted, when somebody else out there is trying to hurt me. This counts not just on a physical level but on a psychological level as well; can I feel that pressure? I didn’t think I would really know until I’d been in there and done it. That’s what got me into it in the first place. Originally my plan was to have just a couple of fights just so I could say that I had done it. Somewhere along the line I got hooked on it and I’m still here!

There were very few women competing in Mixed Martial Arts when I started in 2000 with the very occasional female fight in the US but there were no women fighting in Mixed Martial Arts over here in the UK. This didn’t put me off though, I always had this feeling that it was going to come along when the time was right. A couple of years after I started training an opportunity came along for a fight at short notice and we took that and not really looked back since

Recent Events

You originally trained in TKD but you defeated Carina Damm using a Jiu jitsu technique, what styles of martial arts do you favour in the ring, or what works best when?

I like to think of myself as an all rounder, I think it’s important to have a good grounding in all the disciplines. You need to be able to strike, wrestle and you have to be able to fight on the ground. I think my preference in training is towards the grappling side. I love to grapple because it is so technical. It’s a life time study in itself and I think that does come across in the way I fight as I do tend towards the ground fighting. But the fight depends on a lot of factors; it depends on who I’m fighting, what their strengths are and what their game plan is in that particular fight.

In a recent fight, your Japanese opponent Windy Tomomi broke her ankle. How did this make you feel and has it affected your own approach or performance at all?

It was a very strange sort of feeling at the time. In the fight you’re that hyped up with so much adrenaline going through you that there was a feeling of unreality about it. What had happened didn’t hit me until much later on. I didn’t see it close up, I heard a snap as I went for the take down and obviously I had an idea something wasn’t right and then the ref pulled me away. I didn’t really see any more from there but afterwards it was a strange kind of feeling. On the one hand I obviously feel bad that it happened because that’s not to me or what the sport is about; no one likes to see anyone else get injured. Yet at the same time there’s a sense that it could happen to anyone of us and we know that when we go in there. We’re all professionals and we all know the risk we are taking but it did bring it home in quite a dramatic way that, yes, we’re are not playing here. You know what the risk is and I think you’ve got to accept that. At the same time it is the kind of injury that could just as easily happen in another sport such as Judo, Wrestling or Rugby. It’s not unique to Mixed Martial Arts but seeing that sort of thing does affect you. When you’re just starting out it’s easy to get in there and you don’t really have an awareness of what could happen. You know it could in theory but it’s an abstract idea; but once you’ve been in a few fights and you’ve been hurt and you’ve hurt your opponent, then you know what it’s really like. Knowing what can happen brings a whole new set of feelings to you but ultimately it is part of the game and you have to deal with it.

You currently fight in an American league and your matches are usually abroad. How do you see British Mixed Martial Arts developing?

In the last few years it has expanded massively and it is much more popular that it used to be. You have got some of the bigger events coming over here to the UK now and you could go to a Mixed Martial Arts event most weekends. The UK talent is developing but I’m not sure it is at the same rate as the increase in the number of shows over here, but it is definitely moving in the right direction. You’ve got British people who are now fighting on a world level and holding their own and that’s fantastic.

What are your future goals in Mixed Martial Arts? Is there anyone you would like to fight next?

There are some excellent international fighters in the 125 pounds division, which is the division I am fighting in at the moment. I think there are a few good fights out there for me right now or in the near future so it really depends who bodog puts in front of me. They are talking about putting in a title at 125 pounds at some point and that is definitely something I’d like to see myself working towards.

Keywords : Bodog Fighter, Bodog Fight Leauge, Martial Arts, MMA, Rosie Sexton, Female, martial arts student, contact, blood, mixed martial arts

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