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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
If you speak to enough professional fighters, you'll quickly realize that it takes a unique mindset to step in the cage. Everyone takes their own path to get into that space as well, with a number of factors influencing their decision to fight people for a living.
So it is for Roufusport's Kali Robbins, who will make her professional MMA debut this Friday night for Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA) against fellow debutante Corrie Ward. What began as a simple desire to get into shape several years ago ultimately turned into a steady job at Milwaukee's premier MMA gym, a love for a certain martial art, and an opportunity to take on a new career.
"I just wanted to do kickboxing for fitness," Robbins told MMATorch this week ahead of her first professional fight, "and I had heard through a friend that [Roufusport] were the best, so I figured if I was going to waste anytime doing anything I'd go to the best place possible."
While it was kickboxing that drew her in, she saw a chance to get in even more training in when she took note of all those coming in to roll around in "funny pajamas." Robbins started without any knowledge of what she was getting herself into, though she quickly took to jiu jitsu, and found herself consumed in a new passion.
"I didn't even know what jiu jitsu was," Robbins says. "Had zero idea, wasn't watching the UFC or anything like that. I had a girl go in with me; I bought the gi, I bought everything, and I took the first class or two, and then she disappeared. I [thought] 'well, I have to stay now otherwise I'm going to look like a punk.' So I stuck with it, and really ended up falling in love with jiu jitsu. I spent a lot of time focusing on that, stepped away from kickboxing a little bit, started working there, and it's just sort of morphed into things."
These days, in addition to training with the Roufusport fight team under Duke Roufus, Scott Cushman, Daniel Wanderley, and Ben Askren, among others, Robbins has become a self-professed "jack of all trades" at the Milwaukee location. But while she's become an important part of day to day life at the gym, she's excited to make her mark as a pro fighter on Friday night, and hopes to pick up a submission win over Ward.
"I try not to obsess [over what an opponent may have done previously], because in the end somebody is going to evolve and change. So I pick up my few tips or get an idea of someone so I'm not just totally shocked when somebody's standing across from me," she said. "We're both really new to it, and it's my first pro fight, so it wouldn't really matter who's in front of me, I'm going to do what I do best."
"I'm prepared as much as I can be for anything. I love jiu jitsu, obviously I would love for a submission. It's the first martial art I fell in love with completely, so that's what I'm looking to do. That's where I like to be, but I can do everything else as well."
Robbins vs. Ward kicks off the pro card for Friday's RFA 24 event, emanating from the Mystic Lake Casino in Minnesota. The night's main card will air live on AXS TV.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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