Mixed martial arts fights are gradually gaining popularity around the world. The participation of women in these tough fights is quite unusual and not everyone likes. In Russia, the initiator of this movement was Natalia Bobkina, whose asset is a victory over the wife of the famous Bob Schrider, but she soon went into sumo.
The real way to the ring for Russian women was made by Julia Berezikova. The biography of the athlete showed that a competent PR campaign, vivid fights can make the most conservative martial arts fans pay attention to the beautiful ladies in fights and take them seriously.
Fighting girl
"Russian Birch" was born in Krasnokamensk, Chita Region, in 1983. Already from kindergarten, she was distinguished by a fighting character and did not give herself an insult to anyone. And Julia fought only with the boys, never bullying first.
Her relationship with sports began with more traditional disciplines. Having signed up for swimming in the first class, Julia Berezikova successfully studied for more than four years, having achieved certain successes. However, after an unsuccessful jump into the water, she received a serious neck injury and was hospitalized for a long time.
But the restless girl, barely recovering from the damage, immediately enrolled in the judo section.
In addition to the judokas, karateka also practiced in the same hall, to which Julia periodically ran across. So she has the makings of a universal fighter, familiar with both shock and wrestling equipment.
New name in MMA
Julia Berezikova has long been looking for her place in the world of martial arts. In 1999, she moved to St. Petersburg and switched to boxing classes. This helped her to improve her percussion technique an order of magnitude. Then in Russia, mixed-style fights were not very popular, and the athlete seriously thought about how to connect her career with boxing. The idol of the athlete was the then best boxer of the planet Roy Jones, whose technique and speed admired Julia.
Since 2002, she took part in mixed-style fights. A few years later, the first serious fight in her career took place, which became her debut in MMA. Having won two qualifying matches in Russia, she joined the national team for the match against the US team in 2006. The rival was the most serious - Tara Larossa, who was a winner of the judo world championships. Everyone expected a quick victory for the American, who already had 11 victories in 12 matches. But the Russian woman lasted 10 minutes and lost in the second round, when Tara caught her at a painful reception, breaking her elbow. So began her career in MMA Julia Berezikova.
Fights with new rivals were not long in coming. Within a month, there was a duel with Song Lee Jing as part of the match between the national teams of Russia and Korea.
Female battles were not developed in Russia at that time, and Berezikova asked the promoter Roman Finkelshtein about organizing this fight for a month. The first victory turned out spectacular. Julia knocked out a Korean woman in the first minute of the battle.
After that, Berezikova suffered the most crushing defeat in her career from Julia Kedzi. Already in the second round, the Russian athlete was knocked out. After 2009, she temporarily left mixed martial arts in jujitsu. According to Julia, she took a break to pay attention to a more tactical kind of martial arts. Two years later, she began working with the RusFighters club, after which her affairs improved again. To date, she has conducted 11 fights, in 7 of which she won.
Achievements in related martial arts
Julia Berezikova began her career with judo and achieved some success, becoming the winner of the Asian Championship in 1998. Until 2005, she concentrated on boxing fights and successfully performed at Russian championships, taking medals of various denominations.
Today, being a universal fighter, she also participates in Wushu competitions, combat sambo.
Nevertheless, in mixed-style fights, the girl focuses on shock training.
Life outside of sports, social and political activities
Julia Berezikova is also distinguished by her active civic stance and social activities. Together with Alexander Zaldostanov, better known as the "Surgeon", Mikhail Porechenkov and Dmitry Sablin, she was one of the organizers of the Anti-Maidan movement in 2015.
Berezikova became one of the first women in Russia to gain fame abroad in mixed-style fights. It was after her that the new generation of athletes reached out.