Amanda Lucas (Daughter of George), MMA Fighter: “I’m Not Walking Out With Darth Vader”
i swear by my pretty floral bonnet i will end you
We knew this already, but Gina Carano is not the only woman with MMA cred whose story we’re following. Allow us to introduce you to Amanda Lucas — a professional MMA fighter who just yesterday battled it out for Deep 57‘s openweight title, and the daughter of George Lucas, who made some space movies or something. Though while her family is famous, it’s her fight that’s gotten her recognition lately. Come inside! We’ll talk about how much ass Amanda Lucas kicks!
Lucas doesn’t exactly shy away from talking about her famous father. But when promoting herself as a professional fighter, she’d prefer to forge her own path. As it turns out, the people who do the actual promoting often turn out to be Star Wars nerds. Leading up to the fight which would earn her the openweight women’s title, a lot of the press included a picture of Darth Vader alongside Lucas. Back in October, Japanese promoter Deep also used music from Star Wars as her entrance music — against her wishes. As awesome as it must be to enter the ring to the Imperial March, this is certainly understandable. After all, Lucas is just trying to be taken more seriously as a fighter, apart from being a famous person’s kid.
“Japanese fans are fanatical about Star Wars. I get it and I appreciate it,” the 30-year-old Amanda said. “I’m very proud of my family and my father’s accomplishments. It’s just about finding that good balance.”
Before starting her MMA career, Lucas was a hip-hop dance teacher for about 10 years. Married and apparently ready for something completely different in every way, she started training to be an MMA fighter. Because, why not? At first, she studied muay Thai with her husband, Jason, just to get in shape. And, speaking from experience while borrowing Sports Illustrated’s quote, “there is a certain allure to punching pads and kicking bags.” Muay Thai led to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and then to grappling. And Lucas had found her niche and started competing. She and her husband made a deal: no talking about Dad, unless it was absolutely necessary.
Her start in professional competition was rocky, to say the least. And when the media caught on to the fact that Lucas was, in fact, the daughter of George Lucas, it got her even more unwanted attention. But despite taking her fair share of beatings in the ring, she was not prepared to leave — because she was a fighter.
“I was kind of a fat kid growing up,” Amanda said. “I was dancing from the moment I could stand, hanging onto something, bopping to the music. But I hated P.E. I didn’t do sports. They were kind of traumatizing for me, which was another reason I was drawn to fighting. If I kept fighting, I’d always know that I was in shape.”
Amanda Lucas entered yesterday’s fight against Yumiko Hotta with a 3-1-0 record; Hotta’s was 5-3-0, her last loss occurring in 2000. And guess what? Lucas won the women’s openweight title, beating Hotta, and continuing to make her way through the ranks of today’s best fighters. (You can watch the whole fight at that link, by the way.)
If any of you readers are interested in following women’s MMA, I found a blog we can all check out called Women’s MMA Today.
(via Sports Illustrated, All the Best Fights)
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