Interview with Tuff Nuff’s Cathy Snell

I wasn’t sure what to expect when dealing with a female MMA fighter, but I guess what stuck out the most was just how nice Cathy Snell, mother of 2, is. When exchanging text messages to arrange the interview, she recommended that I check out some of her youtube videos. I said that I had seen them and that she was quite the bad ass, to which she responded, “Awwww, thanks.” I just loved that because it is certainly not the response you would get from a male fighter, but it was typical of just what a nice person she seems to be.

However, make no mistake, this chick can kick some serious ass . . .

Click on the arrow to hear the first part of our interview!
Cathy Snell Interview Pt1
In part one of our talk, Cathy tells us that she got into MMA as a means of getting in shape, since she used to weigh over 200 pounds before MMA training, and now she fights at 115 pounds! She then lets us know more about her training process, and evidently she trains with primarily men, one of which gave her a black eye in practice, to which she responded by giving him two bloody noses. On accident. So she says. She stresses that she hates it when male trainers take it easy on her simply because she is a female.

We then talked about the differences between male and female fighting, one of which is prefight pregnancy tests to ensure that there are no accidents to unborn children during the fight, which got us on the topic of the children of her own. She has a six-year-old girl (who is scared to death of her mom getting hurt) and a four-year-old boy (who loves the fact that his mom kicks butt for a living.) The sweetest thing about her talking about her son’s appreciation of what she does is her saying, “He really wants to see mommy fight.” It’s not something you hear every day, but if you’re a fan of MMA and as passionate as Cathy is about fighting and parenting, you know exactly what she’s talking about.

Click on the arrow to hear the second part of our interview!
Cathy Snell Interview Pt2
In part two, Matthew jumps right in with the question about kicking in the crotch, which is just as illegal as it is in men’s fighting, but apparently boob punches are not off limits – it’s just not all that effective. Then, Cathy responds to the critics of women’s MMA, and she goes on to talk about some of her personal strengths in the ring. In fact, in a recent fight she submitted a woman with an arm bar and broke the poor woman’s tendon! She came up as more of a striker, so scoring a submission is something that she is really proud of.

She then discusses her upcoming fight next week with an opponent who should prove to be her toughest challenge yet, and if she wins that, she will go on to fight for the Tuff-n-uff belt in May. This championship is a huge goal of hers, and apparently, she is a “mom on a mission,” wanting badly to bring that belt home to her eager son.

It’s hard not to cheer for a fighter with a great attitude and work ethic like Cathy Snell, and we here at Fight Trader will be pulling for her to win these next two matches and many more to come, and we hope you will be pulling for her too, fight fans! Oh, and don’t disrespect this woman fighter or any other. Watch the videos: Cathy and many others are the real deal, folks . . .

Here is a documentary about Cathy.

By: Matthew J. Swanson

Matthew J. Swanson is a playwright, fighting enthusiast, and author of all sorts of other “stuff.” Get a look at his writing with links to other publications to which he contributes at his blog page updated every day (mostly) at www.thegancer.blogspot.com.