Former All-American Hailey Cowan Ready To Become 'Female GSP'
Former All-American Hailey Cowan Ready To Become 'Female GSP'
Former Division I athlete Hailey Cowan returns to the cage Friday, Dec. 1, at AKA: Rite of Passage 2, bringing plenty of hype and promise with her.
The buzz surrounding MMA prospect Hailey Cowan is no accident.
She is just 1-0 as an amateur fighter, and the 25-year-old's time inside the cage is limited at best ahead of her flyweight title bout at AKA: Rite of Passage 2 in Bossier City, LA, this Friday.
Athletically, however, her accolades are endless.
A three-time cheerleading world qualifier, competitive cheer champion, and Division I All-American as a member of Baylor University's acrobatics and tumbling team, Cowan has devoted her life to athletics, racking up two decades of training, practice, and competition to date.
While gymnastics largely consumed her life during that stretch, the seed of MMA was planted in 2006, and it fully blossomed after her college career came to an end.
"In 2006, I watched Matt Hughes vs. Georges St-Pierre with my dad, and I told my dad I wanted to be GSP, but the girl version," Cowan told FloCombat. "I didn’t know anything about Gina Carano or any of them yet, so I didn’t really know girls could do it. Plus, I was still stuck in gymnastics and I was so competitive and I was a very good gymnast, so I didn’t really have time to pursue that.
"When I graduated (from Baylor in 2014), I actually finished my senior season with a really bad shoulder injury. I didn’t get to compete. I had reconstructive shoulder surgery, and I didn’t want to go out of athletics like that. I wanted to go out on my own terms. So I was sitting there thinking, I developed all these skills since I was 5 years old, but what can I do with them? And MMA seemed like something I could do."
Cowan went to a local Texas gym to begin her training, only to find the doors locked and the lights off. Undeterred, she tried the next closest establishment, Blitz MMA, and her foray into the world of combat began on the spot.
"I walked in, I was muscular, so I saw the coach kind of got excited about that," Cowan said. "I was really athletic, and this sport is still so new to women, there aren’t really a lot of athletes. They’re really skilled women, but now the athletic women are starting to get involved and it’s skilled and athletic women. So I think when he saw me, saw that I was athletic, and saw that I wanted to learn and had a gymnastics background, he got really excited."
Cowan's amateur debut at AKA: Rite of Passage against Anel Cantu on August 18 justified her coach's excitement.
In that fight, a decision victory for Cowan, fans saw a little bit of everything you'd want to see from a hyped prospect. She didn't dust her opponent in 30 seconds. She struggled early, made adjustments, landed a huge shot, and dominated the later stretches of the fight.
Cowan showed composure and calm beyond her years, and now she looks to build upon that at AKA: Rite of Passage 2, where she faces Christina Ricker for the amateur flyweight belt.
"I was actually disappointed in my performance [in my debut]," Cowan said. "I was very thrown off. I thought I’d have the advantage being left handed. The entire camp, every combination we worked was winning to the outside of a righty and landing straight punches and landing shots that don’t work on lefties. So the first round, I was thinking a lot. My coach, my corner was just like, ‘Hailey: basic strikes.’ So I was kind of able to chill out in the second round and stop thinking and just ‘do.’
"I sparred a ton. I sparred hundreds and hundreds of rounds, but we still didn’t know how I would respond exactly in a fight. I’ve seen so many fighters go for the finish and gas themselves out, so I kind of restrained. I’m kind of glad that I did, and I think, in the long run, having that extra round of experience will be more beneficial than getting that head-kick knockout. Obviously, I wanted that, but I think in the end what I did is probably better for my career."
Years on the mats and in arenas across the United States have also taught Cowan a valuable lesson in controlling and harnessing competitive pressures, something she plans to fully utilize as she moves forward in her MMA career. Where some fighters become overwhelmed by the moment, she finds tranquility in the chaos.
"I didn’t get nervous for my last fight. I don’t know why. I’ve done a lot of grappling tournaments, and I never got nervous for those," Cowan said. "My coaches always said, ‘It changes. You’ll get nervous, you have to be ready for that.’
"I think just years and years competing in gymnastics, an individual sport where if you mess up, you blew it. It’s nobody else’s fault. I think that kind of prepared me a little bit. I really didn’t get nervous. In gymnastics, you compete a lot — so you lose a lot. And you kind of learn and you’re not scared of losing. I love winning and I don’t want to lose, obviously — but I’m not scared of it. So I think that’s actually working to my advantage now in MMA. I love the adrenaline rush, but I haven’t had to deal with nerves yet."
Watch Cowan's title fight live on FloCombat Friday, Dec. 1, beginning at 8 PM ET.
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