LaRosa raises the bar for women’s MMA
Some of the world’s best MMA fighters aren’t receiving the attention, money and sponsorship as their male counterparts.
For example:Tara LaRosa (18-1), one of the best pound-for-pound women in the world, who will fight Friday at the DCU Center in Worcester for Moosin. The New Jersey native, who will be taking on Roxanne Modafferi in a rematch, hasn’t lost a fight in seven years.
In fact, this pay-per-view match up will take place nearly seven years after LaRosa’s lone loss (May 24, 2003), yet she finds herself without a permanent home.
“It’s good and bad,” LaRosa said about being one of the top female fighters. “It’s great because I’m living the dream but again it’s so frustrating because the women’s side of the sport is still in development. It’s still, I hate saying this, in its infancy. It’s frustrating because I’ve been fighting for 10 years.”
LaRosa has trained in martial arts for 14 years. She’s always been a gifted athlete, earning a field hockey scholarship to Catawba College. She studied judo and competed across the country for six years, eventually graduating into grappling and Muay Thai. The 31-year-old has a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt under the legendary Royce Gracie.
The stymied state of female MMA makes LaRosa’s fight with Modafferi even more important. This is the first pay-per-view card to come to the Boston area and a good fight in the eyes of others could vault women’s MMA up a few steps.
“There are a lot of women who have been in this sport for so long and have put so much hard work in and will be retired before they see it come to fruition,” LaRosa said. “We’re going to rock the house. I’m really psyched to be on this card and to be on pay-per-view. It’s going to be fight of the night. (Last time) it was awesome, it was back and forth. We knocked each other completely loopy.”
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