By James Sweetnam
PFL lightweight champion, Kayla Harrison, has been very complimentary towards IMMAF World Champion, Michelle Montague, whom she has been training with.
Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions in her own country, Montague felt it made sense to relocate to America for the time being. She has been working alongside Harrison at the world renowned gym, American Top Team.
When the PFL champion was asked by Christopher Reive of The New Zealand Herald, about how one of his nation’s rising stars was performing, the American responded very positively.
The 2x Olympic gold medalist said simply: “She’s a beast.”
Montague won the gold medal at lightweight in the 2019 IMMAF World Championships in Bahrain. The New Zealander submitted her countryman, Mel Webster via arm bar in the first round of a tournament, in which the former rugby player’s grappling looked exceptional. She also won the Oceania Open in 2019 and 2020, but suffered the first loss of her amateur career in the semi finals of the European Open at featherweight, to the undefeated Sabrina Laurentina De Sousa, via unanimous decision. However, the Kiwi is updating her fans regularly with training footage. She is working on her craft as hard as ever at the Florida gym, which has helped fellow female fighters, such as Amanda Nunes and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, reach the pinnacle of the sport.
Oceania has become a breeding ground for world level mixed martial artists in recent times, with the likes of Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker and Alexander Volkanovski emerging as UFC champions. With Montague training at one of the best gyms in the world with UFC athletes including Maryna Moroz, as well as one of the greatest female fighters on the planet singing her praises, New Zealand fight fans will be united in the hope that she can be their country’s next professional world champion.
