Sarah Kaufman: Former Strikeforce Champion Sits Down for an Exclusive Interview

Quote :: Looking to once again work her way to the top of Strikeforce’s
women’s welterweight division, Sarah Kaufman is currently slated to
return to action against Liz Carmouche on Saturday, July 22, as a part
of the Strikeforce Challengers: Bowling vs. Voelker III card. Kaufman,
who made her professional debut in mid-2006, first came to prominence
in the sport after notching an upset-victory over Miesha Tate in May of
2009. After besting Tate, Kaufman beat Shayna Baszler and was
subsequently given the opportunity to contend for the Strikeforce
Welterweight (Women's) Championship against Takayo Hashi in February of
2010. Kaufman would go on to register a five-round, unanimous-decision
victory over Hashi and was thereby named Strikeforce’s first 135-pound
champion. After defending her title with a win over Roxanne
Modafferi, Kaufman was submitted by Marloes Coenen and lost her
championship in late-2010. Kaufman, who holds a professional
record of 13 victories with only one loss, has since registered a win in
her native Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and, in a match she
feels will put her back into title-contention in Strikeforce’s 135-pound
division, is set to return to action against Carmouche. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Sarah Kaufman about, among other topics, the prospect of competing on Dancing with the Stars, her early days in mixed martial arts, and her forthcoming match. Ed Kapp: Were you involved in any martial arts growing up? Sarah Kaufman: No. I was a full-time dancer growing up and didn’t get started until I was 17. When did you begin dancing? I
started when I was two and then moved into a number of different styles
after that. I joined a dance company when I was eight and danced until I
was 19. Were you always passionate about dance? Absolutely.
With the personality that I have, once I find something that I really
enjoy doing, I want to put everything that I have into it and get as
good as I can at it. That was the case with dancing and kickboxing and
grappling—once I got started, one class a week wasn’t substantial enough
for me; I had to do, you know, 20 hours. Do you see any other parallels between dancing and MMA? There
are definitely some parallels, but I wouldn’t say it all crossed over
perfectly. Some of the balance and the core work and even picking up
different styles—because I did a number of different types of
dance—might transfer over. For the most part, though, I think they’re
two entirely different sports. Are you partial to one over the other? No. I probably still watch as much So You Think You Can Dance
as I do mixed martial arts [laughs]. I enjoy both. I would love to be
able to go back and dance just for fun, but I’m not very good at just
doing things for fun [laughs]—I like to try and excel. It was a part of
my life, and I’ve moved on from it. But I definitely appreciate it and
love watching it. Would you be interested in going on Dancing with the Stars? Absolutely. How much fun would that be? I’d be able to blend the two together. I’d be into it, for sure [laughs]. What was it that inspired you to try your hand at mixed martial arts to begin with? I
didn’t start with the idea or even the notion that I would be
fighting—at any level. I just started the Muay Thai for a great workout,
and I just fell in love with it. I just wanted to do more and more and
more of it. The next step with it was fighting, and I did okay with it. What were your first impressions of the sport? Just
the challenge: I think it’s such a great sport with so many aspects
that you never really know anything in terms of what you could
know. I think that is amazing—that you could be in the sport for five,
10, 15 years and still [be] learning new things all of the time. If someone told you in your youth that you would be fighting for a living, what would you say to them? I
would’ve laughed in their face. I was really shy—and I’m still quite
shy—but I was really into math, science, and books and dance—the total
opposite of any type of aggressive sport, really. What was it that inspired you to set a date for your first match? It
really was just a transition of moving on from pad-work to sparring to
doing some small tournaments to trying out the grappling, doing some
tournaments for the grappling and then the opportunity came about and I
said, “Yes.” Were you at all apprehensive about your first match? I
wouldn’t say apprehensive about the fight, itself—in terms of the sport
or anything like that—but it’s very hard to know what to expect for
your first fight. I was apprehensive in the sense that I wanted to show
Adam [Zugec] that all of the work that he had put in had been worthwhile
and that I was going to do well—I just didn’t want to let anybody down.
After the first fight, it was, “Oh, I can do this—I can get a
knockout.” Were you at all surprised by your early success in the sport?I
always have confidence in what I do. Did I ever think that I’d get a
knockout, though? No. Did I ever think that I would win my first seven
fights all by knockout? No. I always just took it one fight at a time
and, eventually, they started to add up and I thought, you know, “Oh,
I’m actually okay at this.” [Laughs] I was doing alright and obviously
Adam Zugec and the team at ZUMA were doing some good things and leading
me down the right path. When did you realize that this was something that could potentially be a career for you? I
think it’s still a work-in-progress; it’s still going on. It’s a little
bit surreal to think that this is my life now; this is my full-time
gig. It’s pretty amazing and, as I said, it’s surreal. Do you ever think about where you might be—had you not come across that class? I
do, but I don’t know. I was heading toward cardiovascular surgery and
that was my goal from the time I was 10 years old. Once I got into my
second year of university, though, I realized that I want to have kids
and I want to have a family and I didn’t think it was the right career
path for me anymore. I stopped school and once I stopped, I started
training a bit more because I had more time and that’s, kind of, what
led me to the fighting. As they say; everything happens for a reason and
I don’t know where I’d be without the team and without fighting.Do you have any intentions of going back to school in the future? Not
to go back to school for the purpose of school, but if there was a
career path—or even an interesting course that I wanted to take—I
absolutely would. I love learning; I’m always reading to continue with
my education. What do people generally say when you tell them what you do for a living? Most
people that I know personally already know what I do for a living, so
they get excited every time I have a fight; they want to know who I’m
fighting and what it’s going to be like and how I’m going to fight
[laughs]. They want to know everything and it’s pretty awesome.For the most part, though, people are usually quite shocked because I am quiet, and then they’re excited to learn more about it. Do you feel fighting at all runs counter to your personality? I
guess I’ve always had a very analytical side to me, and I view fighting
as a very analytical sport. Something about the aggression also lured
me towards it, and I can be somewhat of an aggressive person, I guess. I
guess it’s something that could be there, but wouldn’t come out
normally.

BleacherReport

Wait... was Tate brought up? Cause I can post a few of her....

Ok that's cool too but lets be honest; it's womens MMA. Pics are important.

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