Fighting female crusader Ottawa mma combatant smiles through matches, male-dominated sport

Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:56am

April 9, 2010OTTAWA – Even while absorbing facial flurries does female mixed martial artist Anna “Smiles” Barone keep a frown turned upside down. ‘You know when you smile the world smiles with you,” said the cheery Barone (0-1), an mma newcomer who will fight Tannaya Hantelman (1-3) of Halifax in the lone female bout among 10 scheduled at the Unite for Brian’s Fight event next Friday in Gatineau, Que. Barone , who lost her first professional match Dec. 12, 2009 at WreckMMA’s Fight for the Troops, learned in her first amateur bout that taking blows can bring out her best. “I had one of my coaches scream ‘stop smiling when she punches you!,’” said Barone. “But I couldn’t stop. I was so happy.” The native of Sault Ste. Marie picked up the sport 15 months ago after completing her first marathon. She said the euphoria of mma fighting is akin to success in any sport. “Mine just happens to be putting some disciplines together and breaking someone’s will,” she said. “When you are in the cage .. pretty much you are challenging yourself.” A successful Ottawa land development and construction consultant who trains at Ottawa’s FIT MMA, Barone also sees herself as a rare female crusader within the heavily male dominated sport. “In many cards when there is a female fight often the female fight steals the show,” said Barone. “There hasn’t been someone who brings a lot of attention … and is trying to promote it and develop more females to get into the sport.” WreckMMA’s April 16th event will raise money for the family of Brian Dyck, an Ottawa police officer and former member of the Canadian military diagnosed last fall with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Dan Carle
Sports – Media – Strategy – Marketing
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