My Mom’s Awesome: Twelve Examples Of Great MMA Moms In And Out Of The Octagon

Happy Mother’s Day, fight fans! Moms sure are great, aren’t they? Everyone’s got one, or at least a gestation facilitator. Even scary people like professional fighters have some kind of human mom, or a MMAma. Let’s take a look at the three kinds of fighter’s moms.

Moms that Fight

Michelle Waterson, Cat Zingano, and Sara McMann aren’t the only mixed martial arts moms, and they even aren’t the only moms in the UFC, but this trio is very high level. Zingano and McMann are former bantamweight title challengers, and Waterson, now a strawweight, is a former Invicta FC atomweight champ.

Adorable Moms

There’s nothing better than a Fighter Who Loves His/Her Mom. While a guy like Benson Henderson celebrating wins with his mom is great, some fighters go a step beyond to show their appreciation.

Anthony Pettis and Alex Oliveira, after big wins, both said they would be putting their winnings towards buying a house for their mom.

Makwan Amirkhani, after his UFC debut, said he’d buy his mom a luxurious bed, because she gave hers up and slept on the floor so Makwan could have it after his training sessions:

“There’s me and my sister and my mom living in the same house, and we have only two rooms. So my mom gave the rooms to us, and she sleeps in the living room on a mat. And, it’s not nice, but what can I do?”

She gave the bed for us. Now, when I go home and I move to Stockholm, I will give her the room, and I will buy a – I think with $10,000 – a bed that flies.”

Cowboy Cerrone and his grandma might be my favorite parent/child relationship in MMA. The fact that this extreme athlete that does SICK ASS STUNTS as a hobby and cage fights for a job still goes back to Colorado to hang out with his grandma is really endearing. Plus, he always sews a patch his grandma made into his shorts, at least until Reebok yelled at him to stop.

Embarassing Moms

Sometimes a mom can get way too emotional and protective over their kid, even if that kid can beat up 90 percent of the general population. While it’s admirable to defend your kid, sometimes a fighter’s mom can make situations really embarassing.

Ronda Rousey’s outspoken mom, AnnMaria De Mars, is not a fan of Ronda’s head coach and trainer, Edmond Tarverdyan. I’ll just let her describe her feelings towards the man:

“I would run over him with my car if there wasn’t a law against it… Every time I go in his gym, he used to say, ‘How are you?’ And I’d say, ‘How the f*ck do you think I am? I’m in your f*cking gym and I f*cking hate you.’ So now he doesn’t ask me how I am anymore. I hate that guy. He’s like the most worthless human being God ever put on this Earth.”

Let’s also not forget the times AnnMaria has gone after Cris Cyborg:

Alex Gustafsson’s mom said she wanted to punch Jon Jones in the face after seeing her Swede baby boy in the hospital following his razor-thin decision loss to Jones.

Suddenly, we get a text saying we should come to the emergency room where both Alex and Jones were. So we took a cab there and the first thing I saw when I got there was Jones – completely scarred and bruised, with his foot in a bandage. I was so pissed off! I could’ve gone over there and just knock him out cold. But the others held me back and told me to calm down.

When we left I took the same way back and I saw Jones again. And he just looked at me and nodded his head like this. And I was all black in my eyes. I was so mad I could have just as easily punched him then and there. You do everything to protect your child, it doesn’t matter the opponent. You just defend your kid, that’s the instinct. I didn’t care about if they’d gone a match for the belt. It wasn’t at all in my head, at that point.

After TJ Dillashaw dropped a very close decision to Dominick Cruz, losing his bantamweight title in the process, his mom, Janice, took to Twitter, demanding a rematch from Dana White.

Janice also jumped on Instagram after the fight, yelling at people in the comments of TJ’s posts. The full quote is as follows:

(T)his is not wrestling if your going to follow Mma you need to know the rules a take down only counts if you are controlling the fighter how can you have control in 4 or 5 seconds and not landing a punch when TJ took Cruz down he took his back and landed some punches also cage control is TJ chasing Cruz for 18 minutes when you fight a champion you have to totally dominated Cruz did none of that. He had to limp or be carried out of the cage TJ walked out with his head held high knowing he won that fight no damage was done to TJ with Cruz’s 40% landed. I have been a wrestling mom for over 27 years and my kids have never been disrespectful I think very highly of wrestlers and what the work so hard for TJ never trash talks anyone to get attention I’m so proud to be TJs mom and the way he conducts himself

The most dangerous part about fighting Joe Fisher is when his mom jumps into the cage after you choke him out.

Vitor Belfort’s mom said that her precious baby boy couldn’t fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 37 back in 2002 because he had the sniffles. Please remember, that while Vitor did enter MMA at 19, he was 25 at the time. In a letter from Vitor’s lawyer, John F. McNaughton, to the UFC, he conveys the following information from Jovita:

Jovita Belfort called me yesterday to tell me that Vitor required medical attention last Friday evening. She said he had complained that he felt weak and his blood pressure was high during his recent training periods. She was concerned because as you may not be aware, Rio de Janeiro has been undergoing an epidemic of ‘dengue,’ a mosquito transmitted disease similar to malaria or yellow fever which symptoms include general weakness and lassitude. He was examined by his private doctor, who, according to Jovita, stated that he was suffering from an allergy and treated him with cortisone and other medication. She also prescribed a special diet and rest.

…

Therefore, Jovita decided over the weekend that Vitor should not engage in the 10 May bout with Chuck Liddell and has requested that I formally notify you and UFC of the same.

…

With regard to Vitor’s participation in a popular Brazilian television show, Jovita stated that they had contacted her on Sunday in this regard, since there are occasional openings and new participants are introduced as the turnover demands. Since she decided that Vitor would not engage in the 10 May bout, she accepted for Vitor to participate in the show, provided that a doctor is on hand to treat him and his prescribed diet is followed, to which the program agreed.

BJ Penn’s mom made a plea to the Nevada Athletic Commission when Georges St-Pierre got too greasy about how close Baby Jay came close to dying, apparently:

“During the rounds that followed, I was shocked to see that B.J. appeared to be helpless, as well as defenseless in his attempts to grasp and hold Georges St. Pierre while on the ground. I silently kept screaming and asking myself, ‘What is wrong? Why can’t B.J. defend himself?’

I was horrified with fear. My son was going to be seriously hurt because he could not defend himself.

…

I heard loud voices yelling that GSP and his cornermen were caught by the Nevada (State) Athletic Commission for applying Vaseline on his body during the rounds and in violation of the rules.

Although still in shock and fearful for my son, it then made sense to me why B.J. couldn’t defend himself. Georges St. Pierre used a greasy substance on his body, therefore giving St. Pierre an unfair advantage over my son, B.J. Penn.

…

The Nevada State Athletic Commission failed in their duties by not immediately notifying the Penn corner of the unfair use of greasing and Vaseline applied on St. Pierre, by not allowing the Vaseline to be removed properly off of St. Pierre, and by not taking the necessary procedures to protect my son from being seriously injured or killed.”

There are of course tons of other moms that fit into these categories, so feel free to talk about your favorite MMA moms that didn’t get covered here.