With the fight looming, this cheerleader-turned fighter has endured the end of her high school years and everything that goes along with it (prom, senior pictures, college preparations, etc.) in between switching gyms and working hard in order to come back from her first loss to Kristy Kester this past February.
“She was really good,” Jordan says about Kester. “I’m not going to make excuses but my mind wasn’t on that fight at all. I wasn’t happy where I was training at and I had personal issues going on but that had nothing to do with my fight. The first two rounds, I felt like I really gave it all I could give, but that last round, I don’t know why I jumped guard. I don’t know what I was thinking. I couldn’t train for a week or two after that. I didn’t remember that whole night, honestly. I guess I had a pretty bad concussion.”
Asked what she learned from that defeat, Jordan mentioned an imperative to eventually move down weight classes from 120 to 110 in order to take on fighters her own size/height. She also mentioned a renewed perspective after dealing with her first loss.
“I feel like that fight turned me into a whole different person,” Gaza says. “It was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It’s changed my way I look at my training. I’m taking things 100x more seriously. I treat fighting differently. I know I can’t take anything for granted and I’m coming back so hungry right now. I know I’m going to win, no matter what. Losing is not even in my mind at all.”
No longer planning on cheerleading in college (Texas A&M Kingsville) so she can focus on training full-time, Gaza recently move to train with Stacy Jorgensen at Weapons at Hand in order to improve her all-around skills while continuing to enhance her BJJ game with Leo Cantu at Gracie Barra Corpus Christie. Oftentimes training three times a day, Jordan has big plans for her burgeoning MMA career.
“I want to see how far I can make it,” she says. “I love it. It’s so addicting.”
With that in mind, Gaza will be looking to notch her next win this Saturday night at the House of Blues against Christina Lozano, a fighter she admittedly knows next to nothing about.
As far as last minute thoughts prior to the fight, Jordan wished to express the following to her supporters:
“Thank you! I have so many people supporting me now. Special thanks to everyone at Weapons at Hand. The whole team is awesome for helping me so much even though I just walked in two months ago. I really appreciate that. I’d also like to say thank you to ROX Discount Vitamins, Sea City Cross Fit, American Brand, Dolce De Vino, and everybody else too!”