Name: Megan Anderson Age: 25 Weight Class: Featherweight Record: 4-1 Fighting Out Of: Gold Coast, Queensland (Shindo New Breed MMA) Next Fight: Cindy Dandois (Invicta FC 14) Things have progressed rather quickly for featherweight Megan Anderson ahead of her Invicta FC debut on September 12th, but that’s nothing new for her. The Queensland native only started training martial arts two years ago shortly after she attended her first local MMA event. “I actually always wanted to get into boxing.” Anderson told MMAOddsBreaker. “So I used to go to a lot of boxing fight nights with my friends. We thought how about we go and [watch] a MMA fight. I picked up tickets from a local promoter who was also the coach of a gym. He convinced me to come in and have a trial before I actually chose boxing, I did and I loved it. That pretty much going on two years ago. So I’ve been doing it for a relatively short time.” Many fighters who got involved in MMA come from a solid athletic background whether it’s wrestling, boxing or football. As the 25-year old bashfully admits, athletics wasn’t something she thrived in growing up. “I was very un-athletic as a child if you could put it that way. Like I played a bit a bit of soccer and I played a bit of AFL. I was so injury pronged it was ridiculous. Like I’ve broken so many fingers, bones and all that kind of stuff. I kind of just gave up on sports. This is something that I’ve actually kind of transitioned really well, it’s come really easily to me. It’s almost kind of natural, its kind of a good thing.” Anderson (4-1) lost her professional debut in 2013 against Zoie Shreiweis but has since won four straight fights. Suffering a loss that early in her career proved to be a valuable learning experience> “I think it’s good for people coming up in MMA, their first one or two [fights] to have a loss. It definitely makes you get all those emotions and how you feel from a loss [out]. I know after that loss even though it was such a learning experience, it showed me what I needed to work on. What my strengths were and what my weaknesses were. It also made more determined never to feel that again. I think it’s quite important.” Along with her impressive record, it was her social media presence that caught the eye of Missouri based management company “Poster Boy Fighters” who signed Anderson this past April. Posterboy represents such talent as UFC standouts James Krause and Zak Cummings. The Shindo New Breed product couldn’t be happier with her decision to work with them. “[Everything came together] through Twitter. I never was on Twitter because I don’t understand how it works [laughs]. Someone was like ‘you need to get on Twitter’ and so I did. I started just getting myself out there I guess. Ended up speaking to Adam Martin and ended up signing on with Poster Boy Management. It’s one of the best decisions I made.” Thanks to the help of her management company, Anderson signed with Invicta Fighting Championships earlier this month. While she was open to fighting anywhere, Anderson is happy to have joined the worlds premier women’s MMA organization. “I definitely didn’t expect [things to} move this quickly. I was so excited [when I got the news], I almost cried. Because my last fight, my opponent didn’t turn up. I prepared, I cut the weight and I weighed in and she didn’t turn up. We still don’t know what happened to her. I prepared for that fight and I just wanted to fight again. I was lucky enough to be able to be signed with Invicta. When I got told [they had] a match, they were just waiting to confirm. I was like ‘YES! Finally’ I was just so excited. My coach just looking at me like some crazy person.” Like many fighters looking to get to the next level, Anderson has gone all in with MMA training full time in the sport. Despite fairly fairly getting by financially, she believes the sacrifices she makes now will prove to be beneficial in the future. “I’m training full time so I’m not working. I rely a lot on my parents; they don’t pay for a lot. But they pay for my shopping; my groceries and they give me a place to live, a room. They’re really good there. I get enough money to be able to pay for my training and my coaches. It is hard until you kind of break into that level where you’re able to get sponsors to help out with that. It’s what you got to do to be able to reach your goals. You have to go through the hard times to be able to reap the rewards.” Anderson makes her promotional debut on September 12th at Invicta FC 14 against 5-2 featherweight Cindy Dandois. The Belgian fighter lost to Tonya Evinger by second round submission in her Invicta debut this past December and will look to avoid back to back losses for the first time in her career. While Anderson respects her opponent, she’s more concerned with what she’ll bring to the cage and doesn’t believe tape study is a huge factor. “I think I match up pretty well. I don’t see anything that she’s got that I’m threatened by. I don’t really feel like there is anything in her game that I’m worried about. I do like to watch some [tape] of my opponents. But in the end, it’s your game you’ve got to implement. You’re always going to prepare for whatever they throw at you. You’ve got to be able to adapt to everything regardless of your opponent. I think it’s more about fine tuning your game, making your game better and implementing your will on your opponent.” Standing at 5’11, Anderson comes into the promotion as one of the largest featherweights on the roster. Because of her stature, diet and exercise are crucial in keeping her weight down to the 145-pound limit. “I’ve got to be strict on my diet. I’m lean when I’m walking around at my heaviest. I put on muscle really easily; I have to watch how much I put on post-fight. So when then I have another fight it’s not hard for me to cut the weight. It’s not pleasant, but I always make weight. It’s something I pride myself on. No matter how many times I’ve got to get in the bath or the sauna, like I’ll get in there and on weight. Like I think it’s more of a respect thing. You’re opponents made the weight, you make it too. I’ve been watching [my weight] for two weeks now. I weigh so much outside of fighting I’ve got to start a bit early. I make sure I drop down [in a healthy way] I’m not doing it in two or three weeks.” Anderson believes her height and reach advantage will play a factor in this fight, so much so that she’s predicting an early finish in this featherweight showdown. “I’m a very technical striker. I like to use my range, I’m not afraid of the clinch or being in the pocket. I’m going to play to my strengths. She’s going to have to get on the inside and that’s just not going to happen, she’s going to pay for it. I honestly think that when I hit her, she’s going to wish she was never in the cage with me and it’s going to be finished in the first round.” The end goal for Anderson like any fighter is to end up with the UFC but right now that’s not a reality unless the Las Vegas based promotion adapts a female 145-pound division. Because of her large frame for the division, Anderson doesn’t ever see a future at bantamweight. “I’m just praying they bring in a featherweight division because there is definitely no way that I could drop another ten pounds to make [bantamweight]. I’m almost skeleton at 145-pounds when I weigh in, I definitely couldn’t drop another ten pounds.” You can follow Megan on Twitter @MeganA_mma and on Facebook at Megan Anderson MMA. You can listen to the full audio version of this interview below (71 mins in)
