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Bullet Valentina
Rowdy Ronda
Cupcake Miesha
Timebomb Tiffany
Pretty Killer Iman
Princess of ‘Payne’ Lucy
AK47 Amber
Supergirl Anna
Wondergirl Nat
Barbie Ekaterina
Lioness Amanda
Cyborg Cris
Iron Lady Germaine
Magnum Weili
Karate Hottie Michelle
Alfa Cathilee
Cookie monster Carla
Thug Rose
12 gauge Paige
Panda Jing Nan
Android 18 Anissa and Hirata
Hurricane Smilla
Snow Leopard Marie
Killer Bee Bi
Unstoppable Angela
Prodigy Victoria
Tiny Doll Rika
Indian Tigress Ritu
Beautiful Boxer Nong Toom
Iron Knee Nong Rose

You fight like a girl,” they say.
Those who fight like a young girl, as adult women, as queer, as the exploited, the abused…

Those in the ring, in fact,
Those realising their childhood dreams,
Those yearning to be the strongest, the best.
Those who fight to beat poverty,
Those supporting their families well before puberty.
Those who take a break to bear children,
Those who breastfeed between trainings.
Those who fight to raise their children.
Those who squash their anger down,
Those who pour their anger out,
Those fighting to survive the abuse,
Those abused as fighters.
Those saving money for gender reassignment surgery,
Those bound to hide their sexual orientation.
Those crawling into the ring under the ropes because they are deemed heathens,
Those kneeling down by the side of their knocked out opponent,
Those who wipe both their own and their opponent’s blood from their faces when the fight is over.
Those oppressed by their family, social pressure or bullying.
Those who starve, forgoing even water in order to lose weight,
Those unable to find sponsors because they are not athletic-looking,
Those unable to gain followers because they are deemed unattractive.
Those who are booed because they don’t fight aggressively.
Those disrupted by their hormonal cycle,
Those who miss weight because they are menstruating.
Those fighting assumed opposite-sex children in their village because there are no supposed same-sex rivals left.
Those who want to protect themselves on the street and at home…

If getting into the ring is a rehearsal for life,
There are rules here in the ring.
Whereas in life…
…everyone has a plan,
until they get punched in the face.

“Shoot the women first,” they say.
“Hit the women first,” wouldn’t they mean?
First the ones considered different and vulnerable?

When I attack with all my being,
Is it self-defense?
Or self-offense?

Train hard,
Fight easy.
Entering the ring,
Opposing glimpses,
Hit me in the eyes.
Fighting from opposite corners.
With the other,
With yourself.

Pay-per-view
Is turned on.
In the stadium,
Bets are on.

Eagerly they await,
Who beats whom?

Iron wrist,
Sharpened elbow.
Shin to shin kicks,
To numb the nerves.

What’s the meaning of defeat here?
What’s the meaning of loss?

“Be like water,” says Bruce Lee.
Yet there are also waves that knock over the rocks.
“Kick to chop a tree in half,” others say.
They hit as if to pierce my stomach,
Expecting me to do the same in the ring.
“Model execution.”

“Blood, sweat and tears,” they say.
Whose tears,
Where is my blood flowing from?

“Muscle Memory”,
The memory of all the individuals
Subject to generations of violence.

“No pain, no gain,” they say.
Who pain?
Whose gain?

Here we are in the ring,
In the corners.
If that’s your pleasure,
We shall swap places with a ring girl,
Sending kisses with her filled lips.

Our kicks,
Not meant for your entertainment,
But to protect ourselves,
And just because we want to.
After all, there is freedom in knowing how to kick.

We are
Neither the movie goddess tossing her blow-dried hair, fighting in her high-heels,
Nor the slender female warrior in fantasies,
Nor the lover you imagine could beat you up.

Throwing a punch as an act of care.
A form of consensual violence, as one might say.
I chose my safe word.
If I say it, will we stop hitting each other?

Against the same potential threat,
As we learn to fight by repeating over and over,
We were made to confront each other
Rather than stand side by side.

Would compassion,
Allow for solidarity?
To stand side by side,
Let’s allow the shared experience of our bodies lead the way.
Can we start in this fighting ring?

Can we understand each other through fighting?
Can we thus stand together?

Fighting in solidarity,
Acting in solidarity to become stronger,
Becoming stronger to fight.