Charity Event – 101 Rounds of MMA
One of Wales’ top female martial arts fighters has fought 101 rounds against men in tribute to her father who died of cancer when she was young.
Sabrina Cohen raised money for a cancer charity during the five-hour Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) challenge.
The 22-year-old firefighter, from Cardiff, had been training three times a day, five days a week to prepare.
It is thought to be the first time that such an event has been staged in the sport.
Sabrina Cohen fought 101 two-minute rounds as part of her challenge – a normal MMA fight has three rounds between three and five minutes long.
“I watched my father fight so hard to spend as much time as he could with his family, and so I want to fight hard as a tribute to him,” she said.
“He was a huge inspiration in my life.”
Sabrina’s father Meir died of a brain tumour when she was nine years old. She had planned to fight 100 rounds, but in the end did 101, saying the final one was dedicated to her father’s memory.
“The idea of staging this event came as a bit of a daydream to me, I was doing rounds with some of the guys and thought it would be cool to do 100… so I did” she said before the event at the Cardiff MMA in Ocean Way.
“I just thought it would be an excellent way of raising money, so every penny I get will be going to Macmillan Cancer Relief and the firefighters’ benevolent fund. The other reason I wanted to do it was to get some positive publicity for MMA. We have too often read about the “brutality” of the sport written by journalists who have already decided the spin before researching the subject, even swaying some councils to ban cage events. We have all felt the pressures of negative publicity at some point and we all know this really sucks. I get really pissed off with it sometimes. We had some major coverage on the local news, making front page news in one of the papers, and I think we hit the headlines about 7 times with full page articles both before and after the event. We were on BBConline, Real Radio, Red Dragon Radio, Radio BBC Wales and my phone is still ringing so we have more publicity in the pipelines and it is ALL positive publicity and because it’s such an interesting sport it has really caught the attention of the public in a good way.”
Speaking on Monday, Sabrina said she was “battered” but happy with the outcome of the event.
“It went really well. I’m bruised this morning, completely battered. I’ve hardly made it out of bed this morning, that’s without taking into account the hangover!
“It looked like I had been in a car crash.”
She spent five-and-a-half hours in the ring in total, fighting about 30 challengers, for one or more rounds at a time, despite sporting a knee injury before the fighting began.
“Some of the more hard-core guys I train with regularly did about 10 or 11 rounds with me. The thing that kept me going after about round 76 was the prospect of getting very, very drunk afterwards. A few of us went to watch a cage event straight after, I couldn’t even hold my pint with my left hand it was so painful. I spent the night cuddling a glass of rum and an ice-pack… very lady-like!
“It looks like I’ve raised £800-£1,000,” she said.
She now plans to hold the event annually.
“I’d definitely do it again – maybe not this week though! I feel great that it’s done but I cant wait to do it again next year.”
Sabrina is now being sponsored by an American company, ScientificStreetFighting.net, and Sabrina is the first woman the firm has sponsored. They are going to be helping her pursue her career in the States.
Sabrina said: “I am so grateful that Scientific Street Fighting have sponsored me. It is such an opportunity and means all my kit is paid for and I will get to fight in America later this year.”
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