By TXMMA Staff // Mike Calimbas
Team Takedown’s latest prospect ready to showcase skills in pro debut
The Texas MMA community (along with just about everywhere else within our space) is always on the hunt for the next breakout female star.
In a world where Ronda Rousey has quickly gone from a Strikeforce-only champ to arguably the top draw in all of the UFC it’s no surprise that female fighting athletes have become commodified. Be that as it may, blue chip female MMA prospects, and female fights in general, are still comparably few and far in between. And so it’s generally almost always exciting to see women’s MMA bouts on a fight card; even more so when it involves a fighter one could potentially see rising to the top.
This weekend, one such prospect makes her pro debut at 24/7 Entertainment XVII: Tyranny.
Her name is Montana Stewart and she’s a 19 year old training out of Team Takedown.
“I got my start wrestling in Chris and Monica Allen, placed 3rd in nationals,” says the 19 year old. Quickly falling in love with the contact and competitive of combat sports, she decided to keep going with it and subsequently got involved with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as well, with the Genesis team at their Azle location. As much as she loves grappling she wanted even more. And so she jumped at the opportunity to open herself up to the world of high-level MMA – one that includes partners like (UFC welterweight champ) Johny Hendricks, Jared Rosholt, and countless others.
“The owner and my first coach Ryan Kovach and (wife) Karen Kovach got me hooked up with Team Takedown. Since I got here I’ve just been training hard and I want to see how far I can go in MMA. The coaches here are amazing. My teammates are amazing. It’s a blessing to wake up and do what I enjoy doing every single day. As far as the fight goes, I’m just extremely excited and can’t wait to get in there.”
Montana will begin her journey against 26 year old Jazmine Quezada (1-3) at Twenty Four Seven Entertainment.
She doesn’t know too much about her opponent other than she is a West Texas native and has 7 total fights combined as an amateur and as a pro. It doesn’t matter to Montana though. She’s falling back on her training and dedication to get her through this fight, not any preconceived notions about her opponent. Simply put. She’s finding confidence within herself as opposed to anything else.
“I’m fully convinced me and my teammates will dominate and execute what we train to do.”
Now it’s time to see if the hype of for real this Saturday night in Midland.
