SABINA MAZO CONNECTS WITH A PUNCH . . .
S
. . . AND A KICK WHILE SPARRING AT KINGS MMA
MO N TH X X –X X , 2 014
| OCWEEKLY.COM |
abina Mazo’s nails are painted a candy-apple red. Typically, a 22-year-old’s new manicure or pedicure wouldn’t garner that much attention in Huntington Beach. But then most young women don’t chip the polish away by striking people across the face with guttural punches and kicks. That’s just part of the job when you’re one of the bright new faces of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) flyweight division. Mazo has spent most of her adult life either in the cage or preparing for a fight. Whether it’s the hours she spends training at Kings MMA or the tight regimen she keeps away from the gym while preparing for a fight—including her diet/weight cut, healing from that day’s bumps and bruises, and keeping her sanity by partaking in more relaxing activities such as getting her nails done—mixed martial arts is the only lifestyle she knows. In her hometown of Medellin, Colombia, Mazo decided as a young teen that if she were going to fight for a living, she would commit to it entirely and enjoy every minute of it. Over the past five years, the “Colombian Queen” has moved to Huntington Beach and rattled off six straight victories— including two highlight-worthy head-kick knockouts—on her way to winning and defending the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) championship belt. Although her UFC debut on the promotion’s second ESPN-televised event in March didn’t go as planned, the evolving martial artist can’t get enough of her daily grind. “Ever since I started training, it’s been my priority,” Mazo says. “I didn’t grow up doing martial arts. My parents never put me in boxing or judo or any of the ones that little kids do, but I knew when I took my first boxing class that I wanted to do it every day. I knew there were so many other things like jiu jitsu and muay thai, but I’d never had any interest in them or watched fights or anything like that. As soon as I left the first day, I knew I wanted to go back. I still really love to train. There are some fighters who just like to compete and don’t really like to train, but for me, I just compete as part of it. I enjoy the sacrifice. For me, it’s not even a sacrifice; it’s just part of my life. If I don’t train, I don’t feel comfortable with myself.” For those who knew Mazo growing up, none of this is surprising. After living in Miami for a few years as a kid, she moved back to Medellin and her family’s property in the woods, surrounded by animals. Although not opposed to playing with dolls, the 20-ish dogs and other woodland critters became Mazo’s favorite things to play with when she wasn’t playing soccer or riding motorcycles—which happened to be the first sport she ever competed in. Her self-described “wild” childhood turned into a teenage love for martial arts when Mazo found a second home at Muay Thai Medellin to indulge her passion for competition and controlled aggression. After spending the latter half of her teens building herself up among Colombia’s top kickboxers, Mazo participated in her first professional MMA fight. Despite her opponent being 4-0 at the time, the debuting teenager won the fight with relative ease and followed it up by traveling to Costa Rica to knock off an 8-0 fighter in her second fight.
9