Travelling the globe on her own, unsure of when she'll return home, Kiwi MMA fighter Michelle Montague won't be deterred on her way to a world title bid in Kazakhstan
Michelle Montague isn't letting a series of obstacles derail her plans to become a mixed martial arts world champion for a second time.
The Matamata local suffered the first loss of her 11-fight amateur MMA career at last month's European championships, but “owns” where things went wrong in her featherweight bout against Bahrain’s talented Sabrina Laurentina De Sousa, the reigning champ in the weight class.
The lightweight world champion, Montague is staying positive and trying to work around her hurdles while she's away from her usual support squad. She would never use the barriers as excuses for her performance, though.
The 27-year-old travelled to the European championships in Kazan, Russia on her own - having one of her coaches by her side was “too big an ask” in a Covid-climate, she says. Now she's made her way to Florida, USA, to train alongside top professional fighters in preparation for the world title in Kazakhstan in late November.
Montague is also tending to a minor injury. And she's uncertain when she will be able to return home - she was unsuccessful in securing an MIQ spot in New Zealand on Monday when another 3000 spots were released.
“I didn’t get a spot, I was behind 22,000-odd other people, it was ridiculous to say the least. I will try again on the next release but it isn’t looking good,” says Montague, who's hoping for an MIQ opening in mid-December, after the world championships. “The scary thought of not having one means I really need to have a back-up plan.”
For most, the idea of just staying put in New Zealand would have been much easier. But Montague has some big goals in mind. And like most athletes trying to make a living off their sport, the need to push through is second nature.
Montague has the world championships to focus on, and then eventually wants to turn professional early next year. After that, the goal is to land a professional MMA contract.
Despite a favourable 10-1 MMA record, Montague knows going professional is “another kettle of fish.”
“I’ve had some really good tests in the late six months so I know the next event at the world champs will be a step up again. And that will probably be the biggest test yet with the level of skills the women are showing now in this IMAAF circuit,” Montague says.
“Plus the whole featherweight division is full of athletic, well-rounded, skilled women, so that'll be a big test and we'll see how successful I can be after that.”
Montague made it to the semifinals in her debut IMAAF featherweight division fight, but lost with an unanimous decision to Laurentina De Sousa. She'll stay at featherweight for the world champs. "But I will have an opportunity for another division title rather than defending at the heavier weight class."
Montague thrives on challenges and is up for giving anything a go. It’s how she got into the sport of MMA five years ago. “I’ve just been determined in my life with whatever I put my mind to," she says.
She found the combat sport while waiting for rugby practice to start - Montague played for Waikato in the 2017 Farah Palmer Cup. To fill in time, she was watching YouTube clips of Ronda Rousey - MMA’s first woman global superstar. It made Montague want to “give it a go.”
“I was looking at it and I was like ‘Oh, I feel like my body is similar in terms of it’s a bit thicker, got a bit of muscle, some body fat, and bigger than most average girls’,” recalls Montague. “And I saw what she was doing, it wasn’t anything crazy like spinning kicks and this and that.”
So she hopped on Google and found Core MMA in Hamilton was the closest to Matamata where she grew up on the family farm.
Montague, with the fighting nickname ‘The Wild One’, took up wrestling and jiu jitsu to strengthen her ground work that's required in MMA. She had mastered grappling, comparing it to rugby tackling.
She's since won multiple Oceania wrestling titles and is a four-time national champion in jiu jitsu. She represented New Zealand at the wrestling worlds in 2019 and made the 2018 Commonwealth Games team, but ended up being a spectator after breaking her leg.
At one stage, Montague was playing rugby in the morning, and then driving to Auckland to compete in MMA in the afternoon.
In 2020, Montague won the best female athlete and best performance categories at the IMMAF awards. She may have started MMA five years ago but she's only really been active for three after breaking her legs in two separate accidents.
Her perception of the sport has obviously changed and matured since she first watched Rousey’s fights online.
“After having a few fights, going around the world a little bit for it, and training at different places, I’ve been able to broaden my views on it all. I appreciate what the sport entails a lot more,” says Montague, whose coaches are Carlo Meister at Core MMA and Eugene Bareman and Doug Viney at City Kickboxing.
Would she recommend more women in New Zealand getting into MMA?
“Absolutely," she says. "I still try to do that now with wrestling and holding ‘take down’ seminars as well. There are a few of the Oceania fighters who are trying to get more women into it. It's just so good for your confidence, seeing how much girls can grow mentally and physically from the sports in MMA.
“Some girls do it for defence, some do it to lose weight. Whatever it is, it's addictive in its own way.”
She’s also seen the women’s classes at Core MMA grow over the years. “And the skills of the women too. They go from just doing the women's classes to then joining in the mixed classes, and they go in there with confidence,” she says.
Montague hopes with more Kiwi women competing in the sport and doing well on bigger stages, the exposure will encourage more women and girls.
But it’s a tough sport outside the cage too.
While Montague has been trying to reach her MMA goals, she’s also been busy funding her activities through t-shirt fundraisers, and working as the factory manager at Viking Kayaks - the family’s kayak fishing business her parents started up 20 years ago.
“We manufacture and export the best fishing kayaks in the world. While I’m here I can organise export containers for back home for a few hours a week or a couple of times a week,” Montague says. “And hopefully I’ll go and visit our dealer in Texas as well so that'll be awesome.”
Just this year, she's been able to cut back on work hours to concentrate on training and recovery. She dedicates at least three days every week now.
“I'm taking sacrifices pay-wise, but then again I know it's going towards the goals I’m working on,” says Montague. “A lot of amateurs in other countries are training full-time as it is, so I’m just trying to give myself the best chance.”
Montague loves kayak fishing: “You don’t get seasick, you paddle yourself, and you can put a little motor on it.”
Away from MMA, Montague is almost addicted to adrenaline. “I love anything adventurous. When I get time off, I go for a bungee jump or a skydive. I froth over that,” she says.
“I like to go to the beach and surf, but I do that once or twice a year nowadays. I used to do that a lot with my dad.
“I also like doing DIY projects. Last lockdown everybody had a bit of time on their hands so I started to look up little things I could make, like tables and stuff.” She also made a homemade dojo.
Montague has always been like this. “I was just a straight-up wild child, all my life. My parents and brother are chill as and then they had me,” laughs Montague.
“Since I was a kid, I didn't want to close my eyes during the day in case I missed out on something fun and exciting. I was always doing super crazy things with motorbikes and go-karts.”
Coming off the European championship without her normal coaches, Montague is still feeling “pretty good” physically and mentally. But she still admits it was tough.
“It took a bit of a toll, and to not come off in that second fight the way that I could’ve, I wasn’t heartbroken or anything, I just knew I had stuffed it up so I was a bit disappointed,” she says.
Montague says she almost experience that feeling of losing in a previous fight so she knew what to expect and could manage the aftermath.
“I can own it. Now that I’ve had that feeling, I know if we fight next time, I don’t want to have that feeling again,” she says. “So in terms of turning it around and performing the way I know that I can at the world championships, I hope we get to line up for a rematch.”
At the European championship, Portugal coach Luis Barneto and his six fighters invited Montague to train with their team. “They welcomed me with open arms. To then have him and one of the boys in the corner for me as well, with their bank load of knowledge, was amazing having them help me,” says Montague.
She's now training in Florida, at renowned MMA gym American Top Team - alongside pro fighters like Evelyn Martins and Valerie Loureda - waiting for the world championships in Kazakhstan.
“It’s been cool. I've had the first week-and-a-half here and there's a huge number of professional women so that’s awesome. It's that same kind of feeling where everyone welcomes you in and they’re really happy to train with each other,” says Montague.
“It's not a ‘Oh, the new girl, take her head off' kind of thing. It’s everybody is there to lift each other up and that’s a nice homely kind of feeling.
“And then the coaches across the board are both super kind and generous with their time and resources. But also treat me as strictly as they would as one of their own.”
