On Friday, England’s Kate Bacik steps into the Invicta FC cage looking to make it five straight wins. While her MMA career doesn’t span all that much more than that, her experience is far greater. Before turning her full focus to MMA, she dabbled in many individual arts that helped her build up her experience for this successful run.
“I’ve been training since I was 17-years old. I just did mostly muay thai and kickboxing – and then I got more into MMA-style training, but I wasn’t really fully MMA,” Bacik explained. “Then I got deep into grappling while trying to still pursue that career in MMA, and then I did kickboxing again.”
However, if you want to peel it back even further, Bacik has an even deeper history with throwing down. From a young age, she’s not one who walked away from a fight.
“I’ve been a fighter my whole life,” she said. “I used to fight a lot as a kid, but not necessarily in a controlled sport settings.”
Those settings could be just about anywhere during her youth. While she didn’t want to give too many specifics on the record, Bacik said that no matter the circumstances, it felt like home.
“That’s probably what my mom would say,” Bacik laughed. “I always liked to scrap. I always hung out with guys and girls who were sort of annoying me, so at the end there were always some situations where you’ve got to fight back. The thing is, I always enjoyed it. I was never scared of the situation. I never felt uncomfortable. I’m probably just a psychopath, so I’m glad I could take it the legal route.”
Luckily that legal route came before too long. One of her friends saw the potential and helped her guide that energy in a more productive way.
“One of my friends invited me to a muay thai gym when I was 17,” sbe said. “I realized it was something that really keeps me going.”
Now she hopes to keep this run going as she faces off with Paula Cristina. That fight takes place on the Invicta FC 56 main card on Friday. The fight card can be seen on CBS Sports starting at 9pm EST.
