Victoria Chadwick has been a fighter all her life.
But it’s only been in the past year or so she’s channeled that energy into something positive.
After years of schoolyard spats, the 16-year-old decided enough was enough and took up mixed martial arts. On Saturday she’ll become the first female from Thunder Bay to hit the ring when she fights a cage match in Walker, Minn., on the King of the Cage card.
Victoria, nicknamed The Vixen by her coach, Thunder Valley Martial Arts’ Bill Kusznier, said mixed martial arts has provided the release she needed to get by, after a lifetime of being picked on and bullied.
“My mindset is a lot different than it used to be,” the Sir Winston Churchill student said. “I’m not as aggressive as (I used to be). “Well, obviously I’m still kind of aggressive because I’m in this sport, but not to the point where I can’t handle it.
“It calms me down a lot. Fighting with these guys is healthy for me.”
The teen, who sports a butterfly and forget-me-not tattoo on her right arm, in memory of her grandparents, and a breast cancer ribbon on her calf in memory of her aunt, said it feels great to be one of the pioneers in women’s mixed martial arts.
Her fight comes just weeks after Ronda Rousey beat Liz Carmouche in a historic main-event bout in Anaheim, less than a year after UFC head honcho Dana White emphatically declared no woman would ever fight for his wildly popular organization.
It feels great to be one of the first, said Victoria, who hopes to one day follow in Rousey’s footsteps.
Her friends and family are still coming to grips with the idea, she said.
“I think a lot of people, when I tell them I’m an MMA fighter, they kind of look at me and say, ‘Are you serious?’ It feels good to not be all male-dominated. To be in the cage, when I get there, it’s going to be intense,” said Chadwick, who spars with her older sister and specializes in ground fighting.
Her goals are simple.
“I want to go pro. I want to go all the way. I want to go big or go home, kind of thing. It’s going to be a long ways,” she said.
Mom Suzanne, who brought the family to Thunder Bay from Hornepayne, said she’s always watched MMA fights on TV. But never thought her daughter would hit the ring.
“I’m a little nervous about her doing it,” said Suzanne, who originally had no intention of being in Walker this weekend.
She’s since changed her mind, admitting her maternal instinct could cause trouble once the fighting begins.
“Victoria knows what I’m like. And I told her, if the woman is beating on her or something, I’m going to be up at the cage saying, ‘Let my kid go,’ type of thing.”
Victoria’s father, Lee, said he thinks the sport has been good for his daughter.
Like his wife, he’s a bit nervous for fight day.
“I’ll probably be a bit nervous there for her as well. But I’m excited for her at the same time. I’m going to support her 100 per cent and I know she’ll do well.”
Kusznier said Mom and Dad have nothing to worry about. A veteran coach training the next generation of Thunder Bay mixed martial arts fighters out of the Vale Community Centre.
It didn’t take long for him to hang the Vixen nickname on his protégé.
“After a while I saw a little fire in her belly, she’s a little devil,” he said. “She loves it. I think it suits her perfectly.”
