
Women Who Fight supports female fighters, collecting specialist advice and sharing current research from the experts. We are passionate about creating a space where women can find answers in a supportive and safe environment, promoting equality in the gym, on screen, in research and in prizes, as well as sinking our teeth into the best ways to optimise our health and training. We believe that our training should work with our unique and dynamic bodies, building on our strengths to help us grow and evolve in our field. In a male dominated sport, women need to support each other as we develop within it, and Women Who Fight aims to bring knowledge to the people who need it.
Episodes

Thursday Sep 30, 2021
#48 IMMAF: Developing women‘s MMA on an international level
Thursday Sep 30, 2021
Thursday Sep 30, 2021
For this episode we had Hayzia and Jorden from the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation - IMMAF. Hayzia is the Chairwoman of IMMAF’s Women’s Commission and Jorden is their Member Development Consultant. Both work to develop women’s MMA and improve their participation in IMMAF Championships and at the national level through their national federations.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Hayzia Bellem & Jorden Curran
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Thursday Sep 16, 2021
#47 Research on female Judokas
Thursday Sep 16, 2021
Thursday Sep 16, 2021
In this episode, we are talking to Nicole Strock, breaking down a scientific study about female Judokas and their wellbeing called: Eating Attitudes, Body Esteem, Perfectionism and Anxiety of Judo Athletes and Nonathletes.
Scientific journals can be so hard to decipher for the layman, and with Nicole we were able to break down and understand what this paper was telling us. This is the first of three we have planned. Thank you to Nicole for sharing her knowledge.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Nicole Strock
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
#46 WILD.AI: The app for female athletes
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
Helene is the founder of WILD.AI, an app to track women’s menstrual cycle and build a nutrition, rest and recovery programme around your physiological needs. It makes adjustments to its recommendations as you input your data, helping you to see patterns and mitigate symptoms. It supports menstruating women and those on birth control, as well as peri and post menopausal women. It is still in its infancy (relatively speaking) and Helene has big plans for it.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Helene Guillaume
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Friday Aug 27, 2021
#45 Luiz Faye: Kronik Warrior
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Luiz Faye trains in adaptive boxing and has her own business called Kronik Warrior UK. We spoke about her journey and how she is developing adaptive boxing to make it a recognised sport.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Luiz Faye
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
#44 Nicky Keay: Female Hormone Mapping
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
Nicky is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Medicine at University College London and Research Fellow in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University.
She conducts clinical research in sports and dance endocrinology and is a member of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the British Menopause Society.
Her aim is to redefine optimal health and fitness for the individual.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Nicky Keay
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Wednesday Jul 14, 2021
#43 The Invisibility of Female African Athletes
Wednesday Jul 14, 2021
Wednesday Jul 14, 2021
We had the pleasure of speaking with Phathokuhle Zondi and Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi about an editorial they co-authored called 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Invisibility of Female African Athletes in Sports and Exercise Medicine Research'.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guests: Phathokuhle Zondi and Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
#42 Janay 'Hollowpoint' Harding
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Janay Harding is a professional MMA fighter based in Sydney, Australia. Janay fights as a featherweight in the Bellator promotion and is ranked number 7 in the Women's Featherweight Division (at the time of recording in June 2021).
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Janay Harding
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Thursday Jul 01, 2021
#41 Nicole Strock: Female Specific Research
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Nicole is a PhD graduate working at the Women’s Health and Exercise Lab at PSU (Pennsylvania State University) and is the Coordinator for the non-profit organisation The Female and Male Athlete Triad.
We first reached out to Nicole's team last year after finding a paper her group had written about menstrual disturbances in athletes. We formed a partnership with their group and collaborated on a project called 'Meet The Fighters' where athletes shared personal experiences about health-related and performance-related issues as combat fighters.
Nicole talks about her research regarding the Female Athlete Triad which is the evidence-based cornerstone of the more recently introduced model of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).
https://www.instagram.com/theathletetriad/
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Nicole Strock
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
#40 Rosi Sexton: UK's First Female UFC Fighter
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
Rosi Sexton was is a Mixed Martial Artist and the first British female fighter to compete in the UFC back in 2013. She is also a Cambridge graduate with a PhD in Computer Science, and now works as an Osteopath and is the Green councillor for Solihull.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Rosi Sexton
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant

Friday Jun 18, 2021
#39 Simona Soukupova: MMA Fighter
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Simona is an MMA Fighter based in London. She started training Muay Thai when she was 28 and was training MMA before women were in the UFC. She has seen the evolution of MMA as a sport for women, and we are excited to share our conversation with her about her experiences.
Hosts: Shanti & Marina
Guest: Simona Soukupova
Podcast Editor and Music Producer: Will Grant