In sports, whether a stick and ball sport or a battle waged inside a fighting circle we applaud excellent performances regardless or origin or race, but it’s just amplified when it’s a sporting member of your nation flying your Countries flag.
In combat sports it’s no different, this sports star rose massively in Japan becoming one of the hottest things in Japanese pop culture and it was all piggybacked from professional-wrestler-turned-fighter Kazushi Sakuraba conquering the Gracie family and avenging what Nobuhiko Takada failed to do years prior.
Not to mention, today Brazil is the hottest market for the Ultimate Fighting Championship with millions of people tuning in to watch their national heroes fight at ridiculous hours and thousands of partisan audience members packing arenas on each visit, largely because four UFC champions fly the Brazilian flag high.
In Australia, we have failed to find our national hero – Fighters like George Sotiropoulos, Kyle Noke, James Te Huna and now Hector Lombard have shown promise but haven’t broken through the mould to be the top of their divisions.
In the early shades of next year another Australian gets the opportunity to make an impact in North America, but this time it’s a little different, this time it’s a female.
“Rowdy” Bec Hyatt has only been in the hurt business for a year and change but she has already made a bigger impact than girls with three-times her experience. Since losing her professional debut from a devastating head kick she has got back up, dusted herself off and impressively won four-straight fights since.
The strawweight from Brisbane soon became a household name on the local scene and before she knew it Shannon Knapp, Invicta Fighting Championship’s President was getting in touch with her.
“We had heard from Invicta a few months ago and they said I was on their radar and I just had to keep winning fights and they’d eventually want me so I went on a rampage and won four fights in a row and eventually they put up a post asking who people wanted to see so I sent the ‘Rowdy War Wagon’ who flooded their post until they eventually called and said they’d be keen to have me on” she sated
Australian fight fans are loyal like no other. UFC President Dana White’s @-box on Twitter was blown up with calls for Hector Lombard to join the elite 185-pound mix for a long time before it happened, and now local heroes like Soa Palelei and Gustavo Falciroli are at the forefront of their praise.
Hyatt, who proudly boasts over 21,000 fans on Facebook, has each and every one of her supporters to thank for this big opportunity, and she knows it.
“It’s absolutely awesome, my fan base is so supportive, all I have to do is chuck up one status and ask them to go there and they were all over it. I wouldn’t be able to get onto Invicta and have the opportunities that I do without my fans so I love them to bits” she says.
Competing for Invicta, the highest level for women of her weight-class one would be foolish to think she would get an easy task out of the gates. Joanne Calderwood, the swimmer-turned-Thai-stylist-turned-MMA-fighter is a great athlete who can cause a lot of pain from her barrage of punches, knees and kicks.
In her last fight the Scottish fighter handed Ashley Cummins her first professional defeat with a nasty knee to the body that sent her crashing to the canvass and wincing in pain to give Calderwood her fourth victory in as many fights and a ‘Knockout of the night’ award.
“She’s got quite an extensive record, a former Muay-Thai champion and has a pretty impressive record in Muay-Thai and is undefeated in MMA. She’s a youngster in the world coming up and ranked ninth in the world so it’s gonna be awesome to test myself against her and prove to my haters that I can back my mouth up [laughs]” she exclaimed.
While this is a noted step up in competition for the Impact MMA product, Hyatt is confident that she is ready to tussle with the best at 115-pounds.
“I’ve been ready for the past six months and the people I wanted to fight just wouldn’t step up so I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to go over to the States and really put my skills on show and show that I can fight these good girls with good records a lot of experience behind them” she said.
The 23-year-old mother-of-two has made a large impact on Australia in a short span of time and now she has an opportunity to test her might against the best in the world and the journey all begins on January 5.
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