Tanner Rhoden
01-17-2003, 10:39 AM
UPDATE: Ladies Top Competitor DEBI PURCELL
Submitted by: Keith Mills www.adcombat.com
Posted On 01/17/2003
As far as the women’s divisions in MMA in 2002 arguably it was the year of Debi Purcell. Prior to HOOKnSHOOT Revolution in April not many fans were familiar with the women of the sport in general beyond maybe Jennifer Howe and Judy Neff and did not realize she had picked up a quick TKO in Ultimate Wrestling or that she trained with Marco Ruas and previously with Chris Brennan. Although Debi has been lifting weights and learning martial arts for over half her life she was still a relative unknown.
That all changed with the historic all-women’s Revolution show and the emphasis on the women of the sport. Debi headlined that show when the Neff/Howe bout was cancelled due to Howe’s ACL recovery, beating Christine Van Fleet relatively early in the first round by rear choke in what has become the best selling HOOKnSHOOT video in history. Two and a half months late Debi returned to Ultimate Wrestling to pick up her second MMA TKO and their women’s belt, becoming the main name people speculated about for a shot at the more prestigious first HOOKnSHOOT 135 lb belt in the process surpassing even Howe, Neff, and Angela Restad in popularity. For the rest of the year most of the attention was on the 135 lb division with Erica Montoya fighting in Japan in Ax at 125 and a cancelled Mexico bout that was to feature Olga B. and Jennifer Irons about the only news-making bouts outside that weight class.
With other fighters debuting at 135 including Amanda Buckner, Laura D’August, and Shannon Logan and other Revolution vets like Tara LaRosa and Christine Van Fleet continuing to slug it out in smaller shows Debi moved on, first to what would have been her cage debut in IFC just two weeks after the UW show until an injury forced her to cancel and then having her perseverance with promoting the sport to outsiders pay off with a debut in King Of The Cage for their first women’s match on a non-PPV show in October, the single highest achievement in the women’s divisions so far, picking up almost as much press as Erin Toughill in the process. Remix vet Toughill, although not fighting MMA in 2002, is one of the best spokespeople for the sport as evidenced by the ESPN Outside The Lines episode that aired in December where she spoke for the women’s divisions. It was live footage of Debi that they showed between clips of Erin talking.
Although the KOTC show meant she had to give up her chance at the first HOOKnSHOOT women’s 135 belt originally scheduled for last November the postponement of that belt when Judy Neff picked up an injury meant Debi ended the year as the success story in the women’s divisions.
Now as we go into 2003 the downside of Debi’s success is kicking in with few women wanting to take her on or promoters being able to book her. Debi is somewhat used to this as she explains, “it’s been like that before I did my first interview. From day one back when I was training at Chris Brennan’s, I had like three people I was supposed to fight (none worked out) and I had a hard time finding fights because basically if they know you are training, a lot of it has to do with where I train and if people know you train with someone like Marco they know that Marco is a hardcore trainer. He won’t train anyone that doesn’t want to fight. They are already afraid of that anyway.”
Debi is next scheduled to make another leap forward in May when she returns to KOTC in Las Vegas, this time for the first women’s PPV bout, but the time between now and then is currently open. Until another fight for Debi is formed she is taking this time to start training with a higher level boxing coach and like several other women is seriously looking at dropping down to a lower weight class. “I think it’s good,” says Debi of the recent divergence in weight classes, “I think the more weight classes you have the better. It’s just evolving with the sport.” Debi is currently walking around at 130, a fact that must be giving nightmares to several of the women that recently dropped from the 135 range to fight at 125 partly to escape Debi’s power. “I was 145 pounds last week. I’m on a serious diet first of all. I’ve been doing cardio 6-7 hours a day and then the sauna every day. Sauna boxing sauna boxing just like back and forth. When you see me I’m not going to look as muscular. That’s where all my weight comes from and for boxing you really don’t need it as much. Right now I’m not feeling the healthiest.” Debi remains in good spirits and when the point was brought up now was the time to dump on her because she couldn’t beat this reporter as bad she laughed and responded, “Bull. I’ll just knock you out instead of tap you out.” Regarding the effect this weight difference might have on her ground game Debi replied, “Strength is good, I’m not going to lose my strength. I’ve been lifting weights since I was a kid so I’m not going to automatically lose all my strength and not be strong. It’ll actually probably make my ground game better. Lighter is going to be faster, I’m going to be a lot faster.”
For three weeks now Debi has also been training more in boxing. “I just want to fight and that’s why I’m doing the boxing. If I have to box to fight then I’ll box to fight. But I’m not stupid enough to think that I can’t train in boxing and then go box, you have to train in what you fight in.” Debi’s choice of Battalia Balamoundo, a three time Olympian from Italy who runs a gym called Battalia Olympic Fitness in Yorba Linda. “He’s the same style of trainer that I am used to having in Marco, he’s very hardcore.” This doesn’t mean she is turning her back on MMA. “I’ll be training boxing in the morning and vale tudo at night,” says Debi, “I’m seriously considering crossing over to both. I’m having a hard time getting fights. I want to keep active and want to keep fighting so if I can fight in both I’ll fight in both.”
Debi is not pleased the boxing fight on a pay-per-view boxing card with Tanya Harding, the Tank Abbott of the skating world, fell through just a couple days ago. “She won’t fight me,” states Purcell, “I am entirely pissed because it’s complete crap. I got down to 129 lbs so I was going to make weight, no problem. I’m 0-0 in boxing, what does she want? Why even be on the card? Why even say you are going to box? You can’t let someone in there that knows nothing, that doesn’t even know how to throw a punch because it will kill our females as fighters, you can’t do that. Supposedly the words were ‘she doesn’t want to lose her first fight’. I can understand that but you know what, I’m 0-0 in boxing pro and amateur. I don’t have a boxing record. Yes, I’m a fighter, a trained athlete, big ****ing deal. Aren’t I supposed to be? Why is this girl fighting? She won’t fight someone with an 0-0 record, why is she fighting at all? I can see if I had one fight, two fights, any kind of fights at all be she won’t do it.”
Tanya just seems to be in it for what is perceived to be an easy paycheck, cashing in on her infamy. “That’s fine if you want to do that but don’t do it on a pay-per-view Showtime real boxing card, go do it on the other kind of bull****. It’s like if you want to be fake and don’t really want to fight do pro wrestling, if you want to fight go on MMA. I don’t knock that she wants to make a paycheck, I’m just saying what is the whole point of wanting to box if you don’t want to be in there against someone that look good. I would make her look better than if she goes in there with someone who is going to flail around looking crazy. The whole image of females fighting, it makes us look like morons. Whether it’s boxing, kickboxing, MMA, it’s all the same to me. Not the same but still fighting in general. Every single time one of those girls steps in the ring and they make us look bad I’m going to do **** like this.”
With Debi’s next MMA fight scheduled for May in KOTC on pay-per-view in Las Vegas Debi has plenty of time to accept another fight, but whether it could be boxing or MMA is up to the offers she gets. For more on Debi either check out Ruas Vale Tudo’s website at http://www.marcoruas.com/fighters.htm or Debi’s website on the women of the sport at http://www.fightergirls.com/home.htm .
Submitted by: Keith Mills www.adcombat.com
Posted On 01/17/2003
As far as the women’s divisions in MMA in 2002 arguably it was the year of Debi Purcell. Prior to HOOKnSHOOT Revolution in April not many fans were familiar with the women of the sport in general beyond maybe Jennifer Howe and Judy Neff and did not realize she had picked up a quick TKO in Ultimate Wrestling or that she trained with Marco Ruas and previously with Chris Brennan. Although Debi has been lifting weights and learning martial arts for over half her life she was still a relative unknown.
That all changed with the historic all-women’s Revolution show and the emphasis on the women of the sport. Debi headlined that show when the Neff/Howe bout was cancelled due to Howe’s ACL recovery, beating Christine Van Fleet relatively early in the first round by rear choke in what has become the best selling HOOKnSHOOT video in history. Two and a half months late Debi returned to Ultimate Wrestling to pick up her second MMA TKO and their women’s belt, becoming the main name people speculated about for a shot at the more prestigious first HOOKnSHOOT 135 lb belt in the process surpassing even Howe, Neff, and Angela Restad in popularity. For the rest of the year most of the attention was on the 135 lb division with Erica Montoya fighting in Japan in Ax at 125 and a cancelled Mexico bout that was to feature Olga B. and Jennifer Irons about the only news-making bouts outside that weight class.
With other fighters debuting at 135 including Amanda Buckner, Laura D’August, and Shannon Logan and other Revolution vets like Tara LaRosa and Christine Van Fleet continuing to slug it out in smaller shows Debi moved on, first to what would have been her cage debut in IFC just two weeks after the UW show until an injury forced her to cancel and then having her perseverance with promoting the sport to outsiders pay off with a debut in King Of The Cage for their first women’s match on a non-PPV show in October, the single highest achievement in the women’s divisions so far, picking up almost as much press as Erin Toughill in the process. Remix vet Toughill, although not fighting MMA in 2002, is one of the best spokespeople for the sport as evidenced by the ESPN Outside The Lines episode that aired in December where she spoke for the women’s divisions. It was live footage of Debi that they showed between clips of Erin talking.
Although the KOTC show meant she had to give up her chance at the first HOOKnSHOOT women’s 135 belt originally scheduled for last November the postponement of that belt when Judy Neff picked up an injury meant Debi ended the year as the success story in the women’s divisions.
Now as we go into 2003 the downside of Debi’s success is kicking in with few women wanting to take her on or promoters being able to book her. Debi is somewhat used to this as she explains, “it’s been like that before I did my first interview. From day one back when I was training at Chris Brennan’s, I had like three people I was supposed to fight (none worked out) and I had a hard time finding fights because basically if they know you are training, a lot of it has to do with where I train and if people know you train with someone like Marco they know that Marco is a hardcore trainer. He won’t train anyone that doesn’t want to fight. They are already afraid of that anyway.”
Debi is next scheduled to make another leap forward in May when she returns to KOTC in Las Vegas, this time for the first women’s PPV bout, but the time between now and then is currently open. Until another fight for Debi is formed she is taking this time to start training with a higher level boxing coach and like several other women is seriously looking at dropping down to a lower weight class. “I think it’s good,” says Debi of the recent divergence in weight classes, “I think the more weight classes you have the better. It’s just evolving with the sport.” Debi is currently walking around at 130, a fact that must be giving nightmares to several of the women that recently dropped from the 135 range to fight at 125 partly to escape Debi’s power. “I was 145 pounds last week. I’m on a serious diet first of all. I’ve been doing cardio 6-7 hours a day and then the sauna every day. Sauna boxing sauna boxing just like back and forth. When you see me I’m not going to look as muscular. That’s where all my weight comes from and for boxing you really don’t need it as much. Right now I’m not feeling the healthiest.” Debi remains in good spirits and when the point was brought up now was the time to dump on her because she couldn’t beat this reporter as bad she laughed and responded, “Bull. I’ll just knock you out instead of tap you out.” Regarding the effect this weight difference might have on her ground game Debi replied, “Strength is good, I’m not going to lose my strength. I’ve been lifting weights since I was a kid so I’m not going to automatically lose all my strength and not be strong. It’ll actually probably make my ground game better. Lighter is going to be faster, I’m going to be a lot faster.”
For three weeks now Debi has also been training more in boxing. “I just want to fight and that’s why I’m doing the boxing. If I have to box to fight then I’ll box to fight. But I’m not stupid enough to think that I can’t train in boxing and then go box, you have to train in what you fight in.” Debi’s choice of Battalia Balamoundo, a three time Olympian from Italy who runs a gym called Battalia Olympic Fitness in Yorba Linda. “He’s the same style of trainer that I am used to having in Marco, he’s very hardcore.” This doesn’t mean she is turning her back on MMA. “I’ll be training boxing in the morning and vale tudo at night,” says Debi, “I’m seriously considering crossing over to both. I’m having a hard time getting fights. I want to keep active and want to keep fighting so if I can fight in both I’ll fight in both.”
Debi is not pleased the boxing fight on a pay-per-view boxing card with Tanya Harding, the Tank Abbott of the skating world, fell through just a couple days ago. “She won’t fight me,” states Purcell, “I am entirely pissed because it’s complete crap. I got down to 129 lbs so I was going to make weight, no problem. I’m 0-0 in boxing, what does she want? Why even be on the card? Why even say you are going to box? You can’t let someone in there that knows nothing, that doesn’t even know how to throw a punch because it will kill our females as fighters, you can’t do that. Supposedly the words were ‘she doesn’t want to lose her first fight’. I can understand that but you know what, I’m 0-0 in boxing pro and amateur. I don’t have a boxing record. Yes, I’m a fighter, a trained athlete, big ****ing deal. Aren’t I supposed to be? Why is this girl fighting? She won’t fight someone with an 0-0 record, why is she fighting at all? I can see if I had one fight, two fights, any kind of fights at all be she won’t do it.”
Tanya just seems to be in it for what is perceived to be an easy paycheck, cashing in on her infamy. “That’s fine if you want to do that but don’t do it on a pay-per-view Showtime real boxing card, go do it on the other kind of bull****. It’s like if you want to be fake and don’t really want to fight do pro wrestling, if you want to fight go on MMA. I don’t knock that she wants to make a paycheck, I’m just saying what is the whole point of wanting to box if you don’t want to be in there against someone that look good. I would make her look better than if she goes in there with someone who is going to flail around looking crazy. The whole image of females fighting, it makes us look like morons. Whether it’s boxing, kickboxing, MMA, it’s all the same to me. Not the same but still fighting in general. Every single time one of those girls steps in the ring and they make us look bad I’m going to do **** like this.”
With Debi’s next MMA fight scheduled for May in KOTC on pay-per-view in Las Vegas Debi has plenty of time to accept another fight, but whether it could be boxing or MMA is up to the offers she gets. For more on Debi either check out Ruas Vale Tudo’s website at http://www.marcoruas.com/fighters.htm or Debi’s website on the women of the sport at http://www.fightergirls.com/home.htm .