MMA News: Openly Gay Former Professional MMA Fighter Makes History In USA Mid-Term Elections
What's the story?
The United States of America saw their mid-term elections take place on the 6th of November. When the results started to emerge, there was a surprise waiting for the world in Kansas.
Sharice Davids has made history. She became the first openly gay Native American woman to be voted to office in the United States House of Representatives. Before heading into politics she had a professional MMA career.
In case you didn't know...
Sharice Davids had an immensely successful run as an amateur in Mixed Mixed Martial Arts. She had a 5-1 record as an amateur, a record she only improved in her time as a professional.
Although she did not have too many professional fights, performing only twice, she had a single win and a single loss to her name. She even trained for Ultimate Fighter Tryouts at Jackson-Winklejohn in New Mexico. She was not selected for the show, but while training she was preparing alongside Jon Jones.
The heart of the matter
Sharice Davids became the first-ever openly gay Native American woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, and only the second ever MMA Fighter other than Markwayne Mullin to be a part of the Congress of the United States of America.
She stood for the election as a Democrat in the usually Republican-leaning state of Kansas and came away with a huge surprise victory and with it she made history.
She spoke to MMA Fighting once, talking about how her time in MMA inspired her political career.
"From my ability in staying calm — and it’s not to say I don’t get upset or any of that stuff. But I do think that like when you spend a while bunch of time literally getting punched, if you get angry every time you get punched, you’re not gonna last that long, because you’re gonna get burnt out."
She talked about her ability to stay calm and not get upset easily, or even angry when she got punched. As a result, this helps her demeanour while running for office, where control over one's emotions is extremely important.
What's next?
Sharice Davids will be hoping to make positive changes in line with her belief, and to help carry out faithfully the duties that were entrusted to her by her constituents.