Team England’s Lauren Reay sat down with MMASucka to discuss her upcoming Pallas Athena bout as well as the scheduled IMMAF tournament.
Reay holds an amateur record of 3-3 and has represented Team England at IMMAF for two straight years. Although the 2022 tournament didn’t go her way, 2023’s tournament was far more successful. She reached the final, narrowly missing out to the eventual champion, Hanna Palmquist.
Originally a Muay Thai practitioner, she made the move over to MMA due to the lack of opportunities and the difficulties in finding fights at an amateur level in the art of eight limbs. She discussed the transition stating:
“I think in MMA there’s more opportunities for women to get recognised quicker and get on the bigger promotions quicker. When I got back into Muay Thai I couldn’t actually get matched on anything.”
Discussing her evolution in the ground game she said:
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m learning all the time. I’ve put a lot of work into getting better there because obviously, I’m a striker so that’s where I’m most comfortable. You can see that in my fights but I work all the time on my ground game”.
Talking about going professional, Reay expressed her interest in going pro as soon as possible after her scheduled Pallas Athena bout and the upcoming IMMAF tournament. She recognises that there’s still areas that she needs to learn and improve on, however, is confident of making a successful transition.
You can catch the full interview on our YouTube channel here:
In a recent episode of the Couch Warrior Podcast, host Mike welcomed Charalampos Grigoriou, who recently won a contract during season 7 of Dana White's Contender Series after knocking out Cameron Smotherman one minute into the fight. The conversation delved into Grigoriou's martial arts journey, his feelings on representing Cyprus and Greece, and future plans.
