Not only did Sharice Davids become the second openly gay women and first Native American woman to ever be elected to the House of Representatives, but she also has dabbled in professional MMA.
Sharice Davids was one of 29 seats in the House of Representatives that flipped from Republican to Democrat, giving the Democratic Party a majority in the House. The lawyer and former MMA fighter defeated incumbent Kevin Yoder, who had been in the position since 2011, by just over 28,000 votes.
Davids’ MMA career was short and sweet, going 1-1 from 2013 to 2014. She made her professional debut in Bellator-feeder promotion Shamrock FC and won via first-round triangle choke. The strawweight then headlined Legion Combat 18 in Wyoming, losing by unanimous decision to Rosa Acevedo. Acevedo would go on to fight in Invicta FC and made headlines by wearing a cat-face singlet.
Davids was 5-1 as an amateur, and attempted to join the cast of the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter, which crowned Carla Esparza champion. Despite submitting current strawweight contender Nina Ansaroff in the tryouts, Davids did not make the cut, thus ending the MMA career of the congresswoman.
Davids’ MMA journey took her from Team Bombsquad in upstate New York while she studied law at Cornell University (former gym of both Jon Jones and Aljamain Sterling), to Team JacksonWink in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she trained for The Ultimate Fighter. Now her place of work has changed from the cage to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The Kansas native is not the first MMA fighter to dabble in politics. Former UFC fan-favorite Chris Lytle ran for Indiana State Senate in 2012, but unfortunately did not win the election.
In addition to her historic accomplishments by winning the election, Davids is now the lone Democratic representative from the state of Kansas. Her district is one in which six of the past seven representatives have been Republicans, dating back to 1961.
