Over at Watch Kalib Run, there’s a good interview with the newest star in women’s MMA Sarah Kaufman:

We’ll start with the ubiquitous first MMA interview question: when did you first become a fan of Mixed Martial Arts?

Well, I started doing Muay Thai with my coach, Adam Zugec, in late 2002. I had never watched a fight, or even been interested in combat sports, but it seemed like it might be fun to take. I was immediately addicted. I probably didn’t start watching any MMA until about 2 years later. I specifically remember watching a fight where Bas Rutten badly broke his nose, was asked if he wanted to continue, and went back in. I think he won the fight. From there MMA grabbed my attention and I began following more of the events.

What was the progression between that initial interest and where you are now? How did you go from taking a couple classes to becoming a fighter?

Originally, I only took 1 class per week - as I had prior commitments with dance, school and work - but after a year, I jumped into as many classes as I could. Then another year later, I started grappling. I didn’t have any ambition of fighting, I just wanted to be as good as possible. As I am an extremely competitive person (even playing dodgeball in the kids’ classes that I teach at ZUMA), as my technique improved, I wanted to try participating in some local tournaments. I did my first tournament in late 2004 and had a great time. At one tournament, I had a grappling match with Liz Posener. A few months later, Adam got a call asking if I would like to fight Liz Posener in MMA. It sounded fun to me, so I trained really hard, fought hard, and came away with a 3rd round KO! That was June 3, 2006, and I haven’t looked back since.

Sitting down with Sarah Kaufman @ Watch Kalib Run