There’s baptism by fire and then there’s Cindy Dandois’s first fight. The striking blonde Belgian was thrown into the deep end, swimming with the sharks from the very beginning. Imagine taking up grappling and MMA to lose baby weight. Imagine being pretty good at it. Then imagine you find out you’re about to make your pro debut – and your opponent is the world renowned Marloes Coenen.
“In the beginning my brother, who is the owner of his own gym, was trying to finder me amateur fights but every time a fight was set up the other girl would cancel,” Dandois told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive interview. “Then eventually the fight with Marloes presented itself and I had nothing to lose. I only wanted to fight and I didn’t care against who. And I’m not scared to lose a fight since I believe you can learn more from a loss.”
Dandois did more than compete with Coenen – she was able to close the distance nicely and use her strong judo base to control Coenen in the clinch and on the ground. Dandois was always a ne-waza (ground fighting) specialist, so transitioning to MMA from judo wasn’t as hard as it has been for other judo aces. The only area of the fight the experienced Coenen dominated was standing from distance. But Dandois explains there’s a good reason for that.
“Well I never wore gloves before the fight with Marloes and I had been only training for five months so of course I wanted to take her down,” Dandois said with a laugh. ” Nobody likes to get hit in the face all the time…I knew (after) that there was a large hole in my stand-up but I knew that before… I never trained boxing, punching, kicking etc and in every fight, learning from your mistakes will make you better the next time out.”
Working with Team Perfect, named for her brother Ben “Mr. Perfect” Dandois (a professional fighter and huge “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig fan) Dandois is training with all men to fill those gaps in her game. M-1 Global, her promoter and management team, believe they’ve found something special in Dandois, another great fighter to go with Fedor Emelianenko and her boyfriend Gegard Mousasi.
“Cindy has incredible talent and the potential to become a dominant force in woman’s MMA. The future is very bright for her,” M-1 Global’s Apy Echteld said. “Cindy is a role-model for woman’s MMA. She can juggle her professional fighting, her job as a school teacher and being a mother. That’s a daunting task. And she’s a beautiful woman who is open and honest. Still early in her MMA career, Cindy has the potential to reach unparalleled heights and we look forward to standing beside her along the way.”
Echteld hinted at Cindy’s busy schedule, and it truly is daunting. She lives and works in one country and trains in another three days a week, all the while holding together a teaching job and a family.
“I’m still a teacher; I raise my children, I do my cleaning, ironing and I train every day. I just don’t sleep,” Dandois said with a grin. “I do get a lot of help from my family. Without them it wouldn’t be possible to do what I do now! I am very thankful.”
Soon her workaday life may be coming to an end. Dandois is eying a run in Strikeforce and a fight with the dominant 145 pound champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. The stunning Belgian beauty had some hard words for the Brazilian bomber, a fighter she says doesn’t have ‘much woman left in her.’
“I am sorry but I won’t lie. She looks like a man, sounds like a man and fights like a man and she has the muscles and strength of a man,” Dandois said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t respect her since she is an amazing fighter.”
Before she can think about Cyborg and Strikeforce, Dandois has to get past Yana Kunitskaya, a Russian striker with a 3-1 record. Not only is Kunitskaya a dangerous opponent for Dandois, she’s also a beautiful blond. There may have never been this combined level of sex appeal in the same ring at the same time in MMA history.
“I haven’t thought of it actually. Yana is a beautiful girl for sure and a good fighter,” Dandois said. She believes it’s harder to earn respect as a fighter when people are focused primarily on your looks. “It seems that people underestimate ‘pretty-looking girls’ so yes it is harder to prove yourself as a fighter. I’m happy that people are just watching the fight and if our looks can help build the awareness of women’s MMA then great!”
At M-1 Challenge XXII, fans can take in the women’s 145lb bout and all the action from the Druzhba Arena in Moscow, Russia LIVE and for free on Friday December 10th. Tune in to the official M-1 website, www.M-1Global.com starting 12:00pm EST / 9:00am PST.