Katrina ‘Wild Cat’ King 1-0-0 is an English amateur Mixed Martial Artist currently competing in the Flyweight division, representing TFM. She has competed for Almighty Fighting Championship and is set to make her debut for Rise and Conquer on October 1st.
I’d like to start things off by thanking you for taking the time to speak to me today Katrina, and also to congratulate you on your upcoming inclusion in the Rise and Conquer 11 card.
“Thank you very much, no problem at all.”
I hope training has been going well in the build-up to your scheduled return to the cage?
“Yeah, it’s been going really well. As you know I was previously scheduled to fight this fight already, so I’ve been prepared for this one since about 2 weeks back. With the change of dates, it’s been back to the same old again. To be honest, my camps are not too different from my normal life really. I just up it a little on the hill sprints and lay off the weights a bit more, that’s the only difference really.”
Brutal them Hill sprints haha.
“Hahaha, they’re nasty but I’ve learned to love them. And of course my sparring as well, I do my rounds, I like to do two rounds a week. Everything just becomes about the rounds in fight camp.”
It must be a tremendous feeling to be taking the walk in your hometown organisation?
“Yeah I’m excited but to be honest, I feel I actually enjoy going away for a fight. Normally I like competing when there’s nobody there because there’s not a lot of pressure on me. Whereas in your hometown everyone’s coming to see us so there’s more of an expectation. Whereas when you go away somewhere else you’re going to cause the upset, so it’s a little bit more fun haha.”
Each and every athlete in the fight game has a story to tell on how they entered combat sports. To give the fans a bit of insight leading up to August 14th, what first attracted you to the brutal yet exhilarating world of mixed martial arts?
“Well, I moved back to my hometown after living away for a few years and when I moved back I wanted to get back into fitness. I was into running, going to the gym and stuff, but never really anything in the way of fighting. Then I discovered TFT, it was a stone’s throw away from my house, it has been here forever and I knew nothing about it really. I did my first class there and I was absolutely hooked to be honest. I’ve never really followed the fight game but when I used to watch boxing it really pulled me in, I thought it was really primal and addictive. As I said I did my first class, I was completely hooked. It was a place I could get all my negative energy out and it made me more of a chilled and complete person. I’ve always been someone who pushed myself, wanting a challenge. I’ve always been focused on personal growth and for me, MMA is perfect for that. It teaches you so much about yourself, it pushes the limits of your mind, the limits of your body and I like doing that stuff all the time, it entertains me really. I like to think it was a bit of fate that I ended up at that gym because that’s where I met my partner Andrew Fisher. I was thinking about competing, and then we had our child. It put competing off for a while but then as soon as I had my daughter I was like right, I wanna fight now. And Andrew was like oh for god’s sake haha, I just had this unquenchable thirst for it. I said to him I really wanna fight and it’s not going away, he understood because he feels the same. He got me matched and the story began.”
It must be a great feeling to have a partner with the same drive and ambitions as you in regards to training and the want to compete?
“Yeah it’s really good, we have the best life and we have the best relationship. We work together every day, the job we do with it being flexible, we get to spend a lot of time with our kids, we get to do what we love every single day and we get to train. I get to do what I love every day which is coach people, build up kids’ confidence and help women as well. Honestly, it’s an absolute dream job and I’m forever grateful, we both handle things really well but for most relationships, it could be testing. If we’re both in camp at the same time, we have a total of four kids as well. We’re very busy people and we have to manage all that together. Manage running a business, but we get to spend every day together so it’s awesome. He carves out a lot of his time and effort into training me which I’ll forever be grateful for. He’s downloading 20 years of experience into me, I couldn’t ask for a better coach really.”
I have to agree, I’ve been a huge fan of Andrew over the years, his dedication to the sport is phenomenal to see.
“He’s got a really good way of looking at things, more problem solving than anything else. I see how his mind works like a spidered diagram. He’s like, this guy’s gonna do this, so this is the answer but if he does this, this is the answer. He teaches and coaches really well, he’s attracting some really big guys now. Tom Aspinall has been training at the gym, David Grant’s been training at the gym, and Lanchana Green has come down to train with me as well. We got Phil De Fries, Justin Burlinson, James Hendin and Charles Joyner. Honestly, the list goes on and on of the level of pro athletes, as well as up-and-coming amateurs there. They’re all coming because of the way he teaches, and he teaches very cleverly. He teaches in blocks as well so you really learn it over and over again. He’s got a fight coming up as well in Milan, it’s recently been announced against Justin Gonzales who’s top 8. He wants to get a shot at the belt before he retires, I really believe he can do it so I’m really looking forward to that.”
It would be thoroughly deserved, they have been such an injection of UK-based talent to the Bellator Milan card. A very exciting time to be a fan.
“Yeah, there’s quite a few.”
The 2022 calendar has highlighted what I like to call ‘the roots of the fight game. And Rise and Conquer are keeping the well-earned spotlight on gifted amateurs such as yourself.
You are set to take on The UNIT MMA’s Megan Johnson, one of the most stand-out practitioners across the UK scene. Previously set to take on Megan at Goliath Fight Series: A fight in Fife on August 14th, it seemed your preparations were in jeopardy.
Not many get the opportunity to keep their opponents for a different card so the fans will be pleased to see this bout still going ahead. What do you make of Megan in the build-up to your scheduled meeting on October 1st?
“I’m not one to show any sort of disrespect towards an opponent, I have the utmost respect for anyone who gets into the cage, it takes a lot to do that. The amount of preparation, determination, and the mindset you have to have. I’ve watched her fights, and I don’t see where she beats me, to be honest with you, I’m grateful to her because if I didn’t have her I wouldn’t be able to fight. But I’m gonna give her the hardest three rounds of her life, and I think she will underestimate me a bit because I’m 1-0 as an amateur, she’s got a lot more experience than I do. She’s heavier than me so I’ve had to bulk up for this fight, so in her eyes, she’s thinking I’m going to be easy, it’s definitely not gonna be easy for her at all.”
It’s great to hear such confidence, you have to be in this game.
“Oh one hundred percent, my whole camp, all I do is find people who can find my weaknesses and expose them for me so I can make myself absolutely bulletproof. I don’t think she’s gonna show me anything I haven’t seen before.”
It’s gonna be a great fight, I’m gonna have to order the PPV to catch this one.
“Hahaha.”
I’m a big fan of the show, always fireworks.
“It’s a good show because Fisher matches people very evenly. It’s not one of those shows where the hometown are fighting bums, you get a lot of shows like that hahaha. Oh wow, you finished them in 5 seconds, that’s not a real fight, these fights will all be real fights. The last show everyone was really evenly matched, and that’s what makes a good show. Seeing people at a similar level fighting it out, that’s what the fans wanna see. You don’t wanna see people fighting bums, it looks good for people that don’t know what they’re talking about but for people that understand the fight game, it’s a bit crap really.”
I completely get that, people like yourself put so much effort in just to get out of the cage quicker than the time it took you to get in.
“I’d be gutted if my bouts ended so quickly. I’d be like, where is my Cage time, I want two to three rounds. It’s not that I don’t wanna finish them out there, but you want your full fight. You train for a long time to get those nine minutes, it just seems like a bit of a waste.”
You Wanna show your full arsenal out there, I completely agree.
“Yeah.”
Without giving too much away what steps have you been taking to make sure you walk out with another successful outing on your fight record?
“To be honest, just my training camp and the way I train. I spar twice a week, I don’t spar with men on the mats. I think it’s an absolute waste of time. Obviously, I do normal training but I spar in s cage with women, women who are trying to kill me and I’m trying to kill them hahaha. And that’s the realist thing you’re gonna get, for my proper rounds I’m not doing tatty sparring, I’m simulating a fight. Although I might not have had as many fights as other women out there, when I spar I’m actually having a fight. That gives me a lot of experience doing that, that’s the key thing for me. My fitness is on point, when it’s coming up to my bout my fitness gets exceptionally better. I just feel absolutely unstoppable because I’m doing things people wouldn’t expect, I’m pushing the boundaries of everything.”
I’ve witnessed fighters like yourself going in as the underdog with a lower record. Being paired with a more experienced fighter I believe, for them, it’s taking a journey into the unknown.
“I don’t know if I’m underrated, I’ve had one fight and I don’t know what the perception of me is. But I’m quite happy for people to underestimate me, I’m quite happy to remain a bit of a mystery. I don’t post a lot of videos about what I’m doing, I may post an odd photo of me training occasionally but I don’t post much of what I do. I’m quite happy for people to find out when they step in the cage with me instead.”
I wish you all the best for October Katrina and I look forward to witnessing your journey unfold.
“Thank you so much.”
Last but not least do you have a message for the fans that will be in attendance and anybody you’d like to give a shout-out to?
“I don’t think I’ve got many fans yet to be honest hahaha, I’m fairly unknown. To all the people that support me every single day. To Fisher who is my biggest support, and my parents who are my biggest babysitters, looking after the kids for me so I can train. To all the women and the kids at the gym that I train as well, they’re big supporters. To all the girls that I drag out on these hill sprints with me, they all look like they hate me but they come haha. To all the girls that I drag out into the sea with me after we train, the North Sea is very cold hahaha. To all my teammates at TFT as well they’re absolute killers, each and every one of them they’re amazing. The girls that I spar with in Scotland and the local girls I spar with also.”
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