Posted 10:11 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014
Cindi Bottelberghe, ’09, encourages other women to join the sport not only for the positive physical and mental benefits, but also for personal safety. Mixed martial arts has already paid off for her in that regard.
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Cindi Bottelberghe, ’09, of Milwaukee, pictured right, started on the road to mixed martial arts by joining a kick boxing class at a gym in San Diego in 2011. Bottelberge compares her training to studying in college. “The more you work, the better you get,” she says.[/caption]
As Cindi Bottelberghe, ’09, steps into the fighting cage, she gives herself a mini pep talk.
“You have to be your best out there,” she tells herself. “Everything you’ve done before.”
She stretches and breathes deeply. Her mind turns to her training: the hours of lifting, cardio and kicking bags of sand.
When the buzzer screams, the adrenaline explodes through her body. She can’t even feel her opponent’s blows against her skin.
“I broke my nose in my last fight,” she says. “It didn’t hurt. It didn’t really faze me.”
Bottelberghe, an amateur mixed martial artist, says people call her tough. She calls herself confident. That confidence comes from her training, she adds. She encourages other women to join the sport not only for the positive physical and mental benefits, but also for personal safety.
Mixed martial arts has already paid off for her in that regard. In fall 2013 Bottelberghe’s boyfriend at the time pushed her into a wall in her Iowa apartment. She fought back with a targeted kick and punch, which she’d learned in a kickboxing and jiu-jitsu classes at her gym.
Cindi Bottelberghe, ’09, of Milwaukee, pictured right, started on the road to mixed martial arts by joining a kick boxing class at a gym in San Diego in 2011. Bottelberge compares her training to studying in college. “The more you work, the better you get,” she says.[/caption]
As Cindi Bottelberghe, ’09, steps into the fighting cage, she gives herself a mini pep talk.
“You have to be your best out there,” she tells herself. “Everything you’ve done before.”
She stretches and breathes deeply. Her mind turns to her training: the hours of lifting, cardio and kicking bags of sand.
When the buzzer screams, the adrenaline explodes through her body. She can’t even feel her opponent’s blows against her skin.
“I broke my nose in my last fight,” she says. “It didn’t hurt. It didn’t really faze me.”
Bottelberghe, an amateur mixed martial artist, says people call her tough. She calls herself confident. That confidence comes from her training, she adds. She encourages other women to join the sport not only for the positive physical and mental benefits, but also for personal safety.
Mixed martial arts has already paid off for her in that regard. In fall 2013 Bottelberghe’s boyfriend at the time pushed her into a wall in her Iowa apartment. She fought back with a targeted kick and punch, which she’d learned in a kickboxing and jiu-jitsu classes at her gym.
“I was able to get him away from me and stay safe,” she says. “When I was leaving that situation, I thought ‘thank God I know what I know.’”Bottelberghe says at the time she wasn’t yet competing as an amateur mixed martial artist. She’d only been taking jiu-jitsu and kickboxing at the gym since fall 2011. After the domestic incident, Bottelberghe move back to La Crosse in fall 2013. She kept training — this time at a mixed martial arts gym, Ironworks Training Center, in Holmen. When the owner asked Bottelberghe if she’d consider amateur fighting, she says the decision wasn’t hard. It seemed like a natural step. She’s fought three amateur fights so far through Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts, winning two of the three. Her goal is to become a professional fighter, competing in the UFC — Ultimate Fighting Championship, the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world. That dream is becoming closer to a reality. When a pro-fighter from Milwaukee visited her gym in Holmen a few months ago, she invited Bottelberghe to come back with her and start training at her gym. The gym, Roufusport Mixed Martial Arts Academy, is home to some of the top UFC contenders. Going pro would require a good amateur record. So Bottelberghe is focused on the short-term goal of winning more amateur fights. Her next match is the 3 Rivers Throwdown April 25, 2015, in La Crescent. “I plan to take this as far as it can go as long as my body allows me to,” she says. Her college degree — in sociology — comes in handy every day, she adds. It was key to landing her first two jobs out of college in admissions at Ashford University in San Diego, California, and then as a membership manager for Girls Scouts of America. Bottelberghe would eventually like to turn mixed martial arts into a career — starting a non-profit or similar venture to get more females involved in the sport she’s learned to love.