After a long time coming, it would seem that Christmas is coming about three months early for former top five boxer and newbie MMA fighter Holly Lil’ Bear Lawson (0-0). After many years of toiling in the salt mines of amateur and professional boxing, Lawson, with no MMA fights under her belt, has on the basis of her reputation and work ethic as a professional boxer (5-2-0, 1KO) earned a coveted contract with Bellator.
In a bid to redo and improve upon past success as the CEO and founding father of the hugely successful Strikeforce, new Bellator President Scott Coker is looking to infuse new life, new action and new blood into Bellator by creating a new women’s division. Accordingly, Ms. Lawson is thrilled to be the first to helm the division’s maiden voyage as the first scheduled fight of this new world order with her battle against Jozette Cotton (4-0) as part of Bellator 129, scheduled for October 17, 2014 at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Ms. Lawson was almost giddy as she described her enthusiasm for her impending battle and performing for what she believes is one of the most receptive and appreciative audiences when it comes to professional fighting and not needing to be the proud owner of a Y chromosome in order to deliver lights out hard core style.
“This is a big deal for me,” Ms. Lawson enthused. “ I’m really honored that Bellator showed so much faith in me. I just couldn’t get a fight in boxing… so I decided to try training (in MMA)…. I really fell in love with it…. In MMA they look at women as and asset not a liability … to me I think it’s fantastic.”
While it’s true that Scott Coker has indeed showed a lot of faith in Ms. Lawson, signing her with no record shortly after she approached him cold at a fight event for her friend and Body Shop training mate Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Ms. Lawson also had some help from another very influential friend – namely her head wrestling coach, The Body Shop’s own Antonio McKee.
Indeed, it was McKee, upon taking Ms. Lawson under his wing as the Body Shop’s only female fighter, who pointedly urged Lawson to aim higher in seeking out her first MMA fight. As Ms. Lawson breathlessly recalled in her recounting of how her multi-fight contract deal came to pass, a promotional entity of the likes of Bellator wasn’t even conceivable to her before Mr. McKee himself suggested it based on her training ethic and affinity with her all male teammate brethren at The Body Shop. “ My brain was like, oh, I’ll get a local fight… build up my record,” said Ms. Lawson. “Bellator’s a huge promotion… so it wasn’t in my head… Antonio, he was pushing me…he was the one who was like, no – this is what we are going to do.”
It was about a week after Ms. Lawson introduced herself to Mr. Coker after recognizing him at Rampage’s event, that her coach Mr. McKee followed up with Mr. Coker and sang the praises of the young woman who had introduced herself to Coker as she took his money and others’ as while working the door for Rampage’s fight. “ I just always introduce myself to everybody,” Ms. Lawson explained fecklessly with a laugh. “ That’s how I figure you are going to open doors.”
It would appear that this is something at which Ms. Lawson is literally and figuratively quite adept.
One of Ms. Lawson’s other trainers, James Lawson, who specializes in working with Ms. Lawson on her grappling skills, was quick to underscore that this unique blend of confidence and humility is exactly what has allowed Ms. Lawson the boldness to approach the likes of Mr. Coker as well as the humility to move so far so fast in adapting herself to the foreign world of MMA fighting:
“The key to her…success,” Mr. Lawson stated, is none other than Ms. Lawson’s adaptability and facility in “working with what she already has… she’s up there with one of the best of them when it comes to striking but what I really appreciate is the mind set to understand and realize that this is not a boxing match and to learn these new and uncomfortable and unfamiliar things that are the mixed martial arts.”
Indeed, Ms. Lawson will find no novice in her undefeated opponent, Omaha born and bred brawler Jozette Cotton. Both Ms. Lawson and her coaches unequivocally agree that Ms. Cotton, who’s comfort zone is playing “the bully,” by leading first as the aggressor will need to be broken early and often in order to steal momentum from the more seasoned opponent from the Iowa venue’s own backyard.
Given that Ms. Cotton is also known for her striking and using her hands, the paring up of Ms. Cotton and former pugilist Lawson has the potential to be a highly volatile and explosive first fight for the fledgling new women’s division. This could certainly be revealed to have been a very smart move for Coker and Bellator should these makings for a real clash on paper actually produce a living breathing bust up on fight night. In keeping with these two women’s strengths, things might actually end up looking more like a traditional boxing match versus MMA battle when the starting bell rings.
However, as Ms. Lawson’s go to training home is a den of wrestling based strikers of the likes of Rampage and Cheick Kongo, Ms. Lawson is eager to take things to the ground and show off her new skills there – which to hear her coach James Lawson tell it might end up being to Ms. Lawson’s advantage. Mr. Lawson’s words in describing Cotton’s ground skills in comparison to Ms. Lawson’s have been somewhat desultory, describing Cotton as a floor fighter who in his professional opinion “needs a lot of work.” However anything and everything is possible until the real fighting begins under the bright lights in the big city on fight night.
One thing that will not change for Ms. Lawson, regardless of how the cards fall in Iowa on October 17, 2014 is how much she feels that she has accomplished against certain odds that are all to familiar to more women than many of us inside and outside of the fight universe would like to admit:
“ I was in a really shitty relationship. The (guy) almost killed me…. I left and I lost my whole life in the process… it took me a long time….he kind of tried to shut down my dream… I had been through all this physical stuff, emotional stuff and then finally … I thought that I could do it…. I know there is so much riding on this fight, there’s a lot of pressure but there’s also I have a lot of people who have faith in me too…and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that before… I’m pretty encouraged.”
This is the sort of encouragement that everyone should be able to get behind in support of the belief that everyone should be afforded the luxury and the opportunity of being able to fight for their own dreams.
