By Neil Davidson
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Soccer player, nurse, fighter. Germaine (The Iron Lady) de Randamie has packed a lot into her 27 years already.
The Dutch middleweight looks to add Canadian Julia (The Jewel) Budd to her “done that” list when the two meet Friday night on a Strikeforce Challengers card at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.
De Randamie can already say that in a way, given that she stopped Budd in the first round in a 2009 Muay Thai fight.
But now both are campaigning in the world of mixed martial arts where Budd is 1-1 and de Randamie is 2-1.
“I expect her to be on top of her game,” de Randamie said of her Port Moody, B.C., opponent. “I feel good, I feel comfortable. I will be on top of my game too. So I think we’re going to make a hell of a fight.”
They meet in the first female bout under the Zuffa banner since the UFC’s parent company took over Strikeforce in March.
In a bid to improve her MMA skills, de Randamie — who recently upped her Muay Thai record to 46-0 with a win in the Netherlands — left Utrecht last year for the U.S., where she trains and teaches at Combat Sports Academy in Dublin, Calif.
“I still have to learn a lot in the MMA game. I want to continue to make my ground game better and better so I try to stay focused on my MMA game right now,” the personable Dutchwoman said.
De Randamie says she loves learning grappling and other skills.
“Definitely, it challenges me. I’m like a newborn, a baby, that needs to learn how to walk. I feel very good. Every day I go to the gym with a smile. I learn so much every day. I’m enjoying it very much.”
De Randamie started fighting at 15 — after being part of the Dutch youth soccer team. She has won pretty much ever since.
“I’ve been beaten once,” she corrects a reporter. “In my pro debut in MMA.”
That was in December 2008 when she was submitted via armbar in the first round by Vanessa Porto.
“The thing is you learn so much as a human being,” de Randamie said of such setbacks. “You grow too. You’ve got to face a loss.
“I know — and I’m very realistic — there’s always a day that somebody comes that’s better, faster and stronger than you. Especially in the MMA game.”
She combined her Muay Thai fight career with nursing in the Netherlands but has focused on fighting since moving to the U.S. to train.
She now feels split when it comes to where home is. She went back to Utrecht recently for a Muay Thai fight and felt at ease. But she had the same feeling last weekend when she returned to the Bay area, which is home to such star fighters as Jake Shields, the Diaz brothers and Gilbert Melendez.
She picked the Bay area because it had gyms with good reputations for the ground game. Plus she was offered a job as an instructor.
She initially trained under Canadian Shawn Tompkins at the Tapout gym in Las Vegas, moving there in March 2010, but had difficulty finding a teaching job. She headed west to San Francisco last August.
So is she having fun now?
“I’m blessed that I’m able to live my dream — and train and fight,” she said. “To do the things I love to do the most. I better have fun with it while I’m doing it.”
The Bay area may be beautiful but de Randamie says she rarely sees the sights.
“I’m very focused,” she said. “I train a lot. I like San Francisco, I’m having a great time with it and it’s a nice city definitely. But I don’t do sightseeing and all of that. … I want to work on my career and become an MMA fighter.”
And life can be hard despite the surroundings, she admits. Training is tough and cutting weight isn’t easy. But she says when she gets grumpy, she takes stock and quickly refocuses.
“I’m thinking ‘Germaine, you’ve got to have fun with it.”‘
De Randamie got her nickname years ago from a coach after she kept knocking out male training partners.
“He always said: ‘You have real dynamite. You knock people out. You’re made of iron. You’re a beast.”‘
In the main event of the Strikeforce developmental card Friday, Caros (The Future) Fodor takes on lightweight James Terry. Lightweight Ryan Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, meets undefeated Matt Ricehouse.
