By Shellie Miller-Farrugia
When asked what she was thinking, when she realized she’d won the title, Kayla tells us, “Well, my opponent tapped out five seconds before the end of the second round, and” she pauses thoughtfully. “I think I was just grateful. Lots of overwhelming gratitude and disbelief and joy. It’s hard to put it into words… and then I’ve got Dana White putting a belt on me, the President of the United States kissing my cheek, and Mike Tyson is there sitting in a corner.” One gets the impression that it was somewhat surreal, and certainly Kayla was overwhelmed, and reflecting on her personal priorities:
1. God 2. Family, 3. Fighting
Faith is a very big part of her life, and she attributes her successes to her beliefs, and the tribe of people that have helped to make her overwhelming success possible. Kayla’s favorite Bible verses are “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Before her second Olympic Games, she knew that she was getting burned out with Judo, because she had been doing it for decades and conquered it. She tells us, “I had won everything there was to win, most of them twice, and I just knew I was done.” She tells us she was suffering a little bit of post-Olympic depression, and then a friend of hers invited her to a MMA striking class. It felt good to her to be “back in her body,” and she continued the classes until a sparring match where she got kicked in the face. “I thought, whoa! This feels good! This is hard! It just excited me! I felt like I still had something athletic left in the tank.”
Raised in Middletown, Ohio, she lived and trained with the Pedro family in the Boston area for an extended period before she started shopping for gyms for her MMA career and settled on American Top Team (ATT) right here in Coconut Creek. She decided that it was where she wanted to do her training and become great at MMA. In searching for a new home gym, she tells us, “It was like Goldilocks and the three bears. One was too hot, one was too cold, and one was just right.”
Always wanting to have a little more space than a standard-sized home, when she adopted her kids, she started looking around the area and found a great spot in Parkland where she could attain some room to garden and have lots of animals. “My aunt had a horse farm in Ohio and I loved spending time there. I thought I would have to wait until I retired, but then I realized, with two kids, why not do it now? Me finding this house was totally a God thing.” She goes on to remind us of what many parents feel when they are first raising a small family. She talks about being terrified of doing something wrong, and says she was “white knuckling” her way for the first year. Today, Kayla says she realizes that all her children need is unconditional love, and that she is blessed beyond measure to have a full family life surrounded by her kids, faithful friends, and animals.
Caught now and again in the neighborhood running with her dog, Acts, she says that running is both for her and him. He is an interesting combination of Boerboel (a large African mastiff) and Belgian Malinois (known for their high-energy action). Named for a book in the Bible, we joke that his name SOUNDS tough, like an axe, but he’s just a big baby. She says, “He’s scared to death of thunder, but my Chihuahua is a killer!”
Claiming that she has no social life outside of the gym, Kayla jokes that all of her friends are always trying to fix her up with somebody. Being a parent is her focus, and she feels so blessed to have been able to adopt her niece and nephew when they were still very young. Her sister was having trouble with drug addiction, and their mom, who was watching the kids, had had a stroke and experienced the loss of her partner. Kayla realized that this was a God-ordained moment, and an opportunity for her to have family around her all of the time. She also says that being a mom grounds her.
“Yes, I won the UFC bantamweight championship, and then came home the next day to my son, yelling, ‘Mom! Where’s my toothpaste?!‘”
When asked about some of the funniest moments of parenting, she shares some bathroom humor about potty training, and then talks about a time when one of the kids didn’t want to eat meat protein, the other one didn’t want to eat vegetables, and meanwhile she’s trying to maintain a fighting weight … and that concluded with all of them crying at the table at the same time. Given a couple of emus by a former boyfriend, they wreak a lot of havoc around her little farm. She tells us, “Oh my goodness! They will get out, I don’t know how, and then the next thing I know, me and the neighbors are all trying to round them up and get them back into the yard.”
The church that she and her family attend is Parkridge in Coral Springs. She really enjoys worshiping there, and learning in small groups. Both Kayla and her children are happy to call them their church family.
Since she began working with ATT, she has assembled an amazing tribe of coaches, sparring partners, friends, and what she calls, “the team behind the team.” She goes on effusively about how wonderful the people are that she is surrounded by. From her neighbors to her dietitian to her chef and many others, she feels humbled and generously blessed.
When asked about her world champion belts, gold medals, and other prestigious awards, Kayla says, “My gold medals are in my sock drawer. It’s not about the belts or the trophies, it’s about the woman that I’ve become through this process.”
Aside from being a mother and a fighter, Kayla feels strongly that God has put her in a position in life where she can make a huge difference for others. She encourages everyone to visit www.fearlessfoundation.org, an organization she founded to shed a light on child sexual abuse and support fellow survivors.
