The formidable fighter Michelle Waterson-Gomez is looking back on her best MMA moments as she prepares to retire from the sport.
The 38-year-old has had an impressive 17-year run with a [18-13-0] record and an atomweight championship with Invicta FC. The fighter made the announcement at UFC 303 after her loss to Gillian Robertson. Despite not gaining as many titles in the UFC, the fighter has gone up against formidable opponents like former champions Rose Namjunas, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Carla Esparza. Notwithstanding, she has also gained considerable wins over fighters like Jessica Penne, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Angela Hill, and Paige VanZant.
Although the fighter is set to retire, she’s still unsure what she will do after her fighting days are over. Gomez is happy to hang up her gloves and live out her days fight-free.
“I don’t know,” Waterson-Gomez recently said on The MMA Hour when asked if she will ever fight again. “At the moment, I’m really content with walking away. I’m content with turning the page and taking a step forward into this new chapter. I’m really excited. I’d love to get into acting, I’d love to get into broadcasting. I’d love to be on the other side of it.
“I’d love to coach some of my teammates to greatness. I’d love to be able to help other female athletes, other female businesswomen, other mothers pursue their dreams and whatever it is. I’d love to be able to be in their corner for that. I’m still a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, I want to get my black belt. Whether or not that involves having to compete, we shall see. But at the moment I’m just pretty content with just being mommy.”
The fighter spoke about her previous fights and her most notable triumphs, including her early career win against Jessica Penne, which she considers one of her top achievements.
“That was the time where I bit down on my mouthpiece and shut the world out and just believed in myself,” Waterson-Gomez said. “I was a 10-to-1 underdog against Jessica Penne, and nobody thought that I could win that belt. She was bigger. She was a brown belt in jiu-jitsu at the time. I was a white belt, just had my daughter. Everything was stacked against me, but I knew — I knew in my heart that I was going to win. It didn’t matter how and I didn’t have a specific way how. I just knew that I was going to win.
“It was a war. It was back and forth, and at one point she was on top of me and she was ground-and-pounding me and raining down punches trying to split me open. I just remember looking over at my husband and he was just telling me, ‘Calm down. You’re fine.’ I was able to reverse that position and come out in the next round and finish her by submission. It all came to a head. I was kind of a little bit numb after the ref pulled us apart and I remember standing up and just dropping right back to my knees, thinking about all the hard work that had built up to that moment. So that was a beautiful moment for me, for sure.”
Gomez also spoke about her UFC debut fight, in which she submitted Angela Magana. This win set her up to face Paige VanZant in a main event bout.
“I love my fight against Paige VanZant because I was out for about a year and a half going through — I broke my hand in my UFC debut, but it didn’t matter because I won,” Waterson-Gomez said. “After that, it was a series of hand breaks, so it was like, ‘Gosh, I just got signed to the UFC, and I keep breaking my hand!’ Every time I got a fight, it was like two weeks getting ready to fight, and then my hand would break again, so it was like that for a year and a half. So it went from me getting signed to the UFC, riding this incredible high, to nobody knowing who I was, my hand was broken, maybe I need to stop fighting, I was paying all these medical bills.
Although she has no plans to return to the cage, she still plans to be involved in the game.
“Fingers crossed, I’ll be able to be in the back in a different arena,” Waterson-Gomez said. “I’d love to get into broadcasting.
“I’d love to be able to still touch the magic and be a part of the MMA world because there’s nothing like it, but to be able to compete, to be in the locker room, to feel those nerves, to hear the crowd, to have Bruce Buffer scream my name, and to be interviewed by Joe [Rogan]. All those things we take for granted. To be stopped by fans, to be asked to take pictures and autographs, those moments are priceless, and I was just really grateful to have those moments.”
