Exclusive: Five Questions with Marloes “Rumina” Coenen

One of the best female Mixed Martial Artists in the World, Marloes “Rumina” Coenen, answered on five short questions in an exclusive interview for the LowKick.com Community.

Best known for her virtuosic submission skills, Twenty nine year-old Marloes Coenen has 17 victories and 4 losses in her illustrious MMA career. “Female Rickson” is currently training at the world-famous Golden Glory Gym alongside fighters like Semmy Schilt, Alistair Overeem and Sergei Kharitonov.

Coenen challenged the reigning Strikeforce Womens Champion Cristiane Cyborg at Strikeforce: Miami in January, but was defeated via TKO in the middle of the third round. Her next fight is expected to take place on June 26, 2010 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, against the yet unnamed opponent.

LowKick.com: You started your Mixed Martial Arts career ten years ago, by submitting Yuki Kondo in the first round. What do you think about the evolution of Women’s MMA, and what in your opinion has to be done to bring more women into the sport?

Marloes Coenen: Actually I started a little earlier; I had two amateur Shooto-fights before I went to Japan. My goal is to make women more enthusiastic for martial arts. I don’t care if they do MMA fitness, judo, karate or something else. I just want them to realize that martial arts isn’t about which gender you are. Men, women, children and older people everyone can join. Once they understood this message more women will join and become MMA fans. For that we need attention first. I do not like to emphasize on the appearance of female fighters. It started with Carano, BUT thanks to her the women in MMA got more attention. She’s the Kournikova of MMA. We need more ambassadors like that for the attention and then we need Cyborgs to prove that we are good fighters. 

What are the main improvements you made following the loss to Cristiane Santos in January, and when we will see you fighting again?

I hope I will fight in June again. I had a few injuries that cost a lot of time to heal. So I was more busy with that to be honest. My lesson from the Cyborg fight was that I should have listen to my trainer. Rationally I wanted to, but my emotions took over and I wanted to prove I could KO her with a single punch. I truly believed in that. Cyborg is one of a kind; I’m still convinced that I can drop the other girls with my power. If I fight Cyborg again, I will be more tactical and less emotional. For my stand up game, I will combine more.

Your Golden Glory Gym teammate Alistair Overeem is fighting Brett Rogers at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery on May 15th. What are your predictions for that showdown, and what kind of preparations Alistair does at the Gym for the fight?

Alistair will be the winner of course. 🙂 I cannot wait for this fight because it will be a big war for sure. He will not win on points but I think on a choke or KO…Round 1 or 2.

Who in your opinion is currently the best Pound for Pound fighter in the World, and why?

Gegard Mousasi. I know he lost from King Mo (who is an incredible fighter!!). But I have info that not everybody knows and therefore I consider Gegard the best in the world. Oh… and let’s not forget about GSP of course. Gilbert Melendez is also a big inspiration to me. Göhkan Saki and Nieky Holzken have started training MMA at Martijn’s gym. They are both very talented K1-fighters and will become MMA stars for sure. Old time favorites are Fedor, Rumina Sato, Mach Sakurai and Ramon Dekker.

What are the other things you like to do besides MMA, and did you even consider starting an acting career?

I love to teach MMA to people, especially women. Women do not know what they are capable of, and to see them gain more self confidence, become more competitive, fanatic et cetera is very satisfying to me. Further, I like the ordinary women stuff like shopping. I’m a big foodie too.
And acting? Nope, never considered that, should I? 😉