BAC Magazine Ball Bro Issue!

Michelle
Waterson
No goal is big to accomplish!
BY GARY BREWER
Michelle Waterson
believes that no goal is too large to accomplish
so long as you attack it indigestible
parts. Such was the case for this diminutive
young lady who had been doing martial
arts since the age of 10 years old. Waterson’s
lifelong love for martial arts would
force her to give up on cheerleading in high
school and later even college had to take a
back seat as Waterson balanced the challenge
of being a full-time student with her
serious skill for fighting.
“I was getting good grades (in college),
but I just wasn’t happy with my life”, said
Waterson. When an illness struck her
grandmother, Waterson and her mother
decided to move to Thailand for a while
to tend to grandmother’s health. “When I
went out there, I fell in love with the more
combative side of martial arts. I wanted to
take a real crack at fighting, so I came back
(to America) and took some smokers (a
fighting term used for the formerly smokefilled
rooms common to unofficial beginning
fights)”, Waterson said.
“I really liked the challenges it presented
and how it made me face my fears. Right
then I knew that martial arts were something
I wanted to do for the rest of my
life”, said Waterson. From
that point on, her goal in life
became crystal clear. “I figured
then that pursuing my fighting
career would be just as
valuable for me as going to
college- so that’s when I moved
out to Albuquerque, NM and
got my degree in fighting from
Jackson/Wink. Basically, I’m
still working on it (my MMA
degree) right now”, Waterson
jokingly stated.
Jackson/Wink training academy represents
the finest of MMA training in a town infamous
for high-quality MMA athletes. For
years, the town of Albuquerque, NM has
developed a strong reputation for producing
some of the best of the best that MMA
has to offer, and trainers Greg Jackson and
Mike Winkeljohn are two key reasons for
what’s happening in Albuquerque. Winkeljohn
is a former fighter turned trainer
who is most recently known for training
Holly Holm, the first fighter to upset Ronda
Rousey, one of Albuquerque’s finest and
currently among the best women MMA
fighters in the world.
Waterson explains her infamous adopted
fight town and the reason for its MMA
notoriety.
“Coach Jackson was the coach for Diego
Sanchez who was on the first Ultimate
Fighter. Sanchez ended up winning, and
a lot of the guys who were fans of the
show ended up coming to see what all the
fuss was about with the coaches and with
Albuquerque. On top of that, Albuquerque
does not have a football or a pro baseball
team or anything like that, so it’s certainly
become a fight town”, explained Waterson.
Champion
“What we do have is high altitude which
is good for training. And there’s really
not much to do out here, so you can’t get
distracted or get into trouble”, Waterson
added.
Speaking of trouble, Waterson came into
popular notoriety as a part of the MTV
show Bully Beatdown, a reality show in
which professional fighters were enlisted
to take on bullies who were brought on
the show to be held to account for their
intimidating behaviors. When a smaller
woman was selected as the bully for an
episode, Waterson was called because the
shows referee was friends with Waterson’s
trainer, Greg Jackson. It was Jackson who
suggested Waterson’s name for the show.
Yet, the show was nothing more than just
a way to promote herself at the time. “I
fought before it was popular for women
to fight MMA. A lot of people think
Ronda Rousey was the person that led the
charge when it comes to the evolution of
women’s MMA, but there were dozens of
women that fought women’s MMA before
Ronda was even fighting” shared Waterson.
“When I think of those girls that are
pioneers to me, I think of Julie Kensey,
Gina Carrano, Sara Kaufman, Shayna
Baszler, Leslie Smith. These girls fought
when nobody knew it was even allowed for
us to fight, and we did it because we had
a passion for it.” As sports pioneers go,
Waterson’s name belongs among them.
During a recent interview conducted by
BAC magazine, Colorado MMA fighter,
Grace Cleveland credits Waterson and her
Bully Beatdown exploits as her inspiration
for joining the sport.
These days, Waterson eats goals for
breakfast along with a daily 2-4 mile
run that happens each day after getting
her daughter Araya off to school.
What follows is a morning combat
training session, lunch and errands,
before picking up Araya prior to
afternoon strength and conditioning
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BAC Magazine