By Caoilta de Barra
Mexico’s Nadia Vera joins the long line of IMMAF alumni making the jump to the pro ranks.
She represented Mexico at both the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, and her accolades include a World bronze medal and a Pan American gold medal. Her sole IMMAF losses were tight-knit split decisions.
Advancing to professional MMA, Vera accepted a fight in an eight woman tournament at 125lbs under the Budo Sento Championship banner.
“Last year a new league was created in Mexico City named Budo Sento Championship,” Vera explained to IMMAF.org. “This is a new concept that presents three different kinds of martial arts on three different days. Starting with Combat Jiu-Jitsu, then Muay Thai and finally MMA.
“This year BSC created a 125lb MMA Tournament with eight women from Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica and they offered me to be part of. Despite this not being my original weight category I agreed due to the opportunity and the big responsibility of having two fights in one night. It was amazing and motivated me.”
Having already fought one day after another in IMMAF competition, the tournament; which requires participants to compete twice in one night, was a familiar experience for Vera. She took the fight to her opponents and came out on the right side of two unanimous decisions.
“My first fight and professional debut was against Jessica Artavia from Costa Rica who has 0-1 professional record but 6 amateurs fights since 2014, Vera said.” “In the first two rounds, I completely dominated the fight using the cage and ground and pound but in the third round, it was all about striking, it was a war but I won by unanimous decision. My second match was against Karla Pastrana from Mexico and I won by unanimous decision too.”
The experience of turning pro in a tournament is rare but one that Nadia Vera did not shy away from, crediting her time with FAMM and IMMAF as a confidence builder for this fight. Now, Vera will prepare for the tournament final, which is set to take place later in the year.
Vera concluded: “It was an amazing experience for me, I’m happy to win my debut and two fights in one night. Being part of the FAMM and IMMAF Tournaments gave me the confidence to accept this challenge.
“The final will be in June against Nayara Maia from Brazil with an undefeated record of 6-0. I am so excited to show that IMMAF Athletes can achieve positive results with the hardest challenges.”
Images: MMA Shock
