Meet the Pro Fighter Launching the UK's First Ever Women-Only Combat Sport Event in Darlington
In a sport dominated by men, Darlington-based coach and former professional fighter Lanchana Green is launching the UK's first-ever, women-only combat sports event
Lanchana took part in her first amateur fight aged 16. ‘My whole Thai boxing career, I trained and lived my life like a professional athlete, training six days per week, often twice per day,’ she says. She was disciplined with food, missed events, but all because she was invested in the sport. ‘It wasn't until I retired I realised how much I missed out on over those years – but I competed as a hobbyist,’ she says. ‘I had maybe two or three fights per year and I wasn't paid for those, but some of these fights were in Europe and Thailand and I got to travel all over which was amazing.’
Ten years into her Thai boxing journey, Lanchana beat the UK number one female at 50kg. ‘I was planning on continuing even further in that sport but then ended up transitioning to professional MMA,’ she recalls. ‘An opportunity came up and I took it, not expecting to proceed with MMA, but I fell in love with it and that was the start of my MMA career.’
The opportunity was fighting against Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) champ Michelle Nicolini. ‘It was a huge step up but I'd always challenged myself over the years so I gave it a go,’ says Lanchana. ‘I had an incredible amount of support before, during and after that fight, despite losing. I then went on to have a total of 14 professional fights, which took me all over the world. So much happened over my MMA career it's hard to condense it as I didn't go the regular path most people would (build up a record in amateur bouts then transition to pro and build up and work your way through the rankings). I went straight to professional.’
Lanchana went onto the UFC’s TV show The Ultimate Fighter, and made it to the semi-finals. ‘This put me on the map globally which was great, but also not so great,’ she admits. ‘I got to the world class stage but with so little actual experience in MMA. I was put on a pedestal I struggled to maintain. However, it opened up so many other doors of opportunity. My coaches on the show were from Brazil, and they invited me out there to train, so off I went for a month to train in Rio De Janeiro. The UFC put me on a development program, and this meant I lived, breathed and trained MMA full time in America for six months, all paid for. I’m very grateful for that experience.’
Lanchana fought regionally in the UK and became the Made4TheCage Strawweight champ, with a successful title defence. ‘I fought on Rizin – a huge Japanese promotion, on two days' notice, and they flew me out to Japan to fight one of their top girls. I fought on Bellator – another huge American promotion.’
All these opportunities opened up more opportunities to teach seminars all over the UK, Europe and in Perth, Australia then, in 2023, Lanchana retired from professional competition and has been coaching full time ever since. ‘That was my exit strategy all along,’ she admits. ‘So whilst I was actively competing I was teaching classes, building up a client base, gaining as much experience as I could so that I could be the best teacher when the time came.’
Lanchana co-founded The Lab MMA in Darlington with her partner, former professional fighter Martin Wilby, which started off as a hobbyist gym and is now a home for mixed martial arts. ‘We taught a few classes but had other jobs,’ she says. ‘Over the years we kept building it to what it is now. Over 100 members from age four, classes in MMA, BJJ, boxing, Thai boxing and strength and conditioning (S&C) with a third of our members being female which is way above average for the sport. Our girls MMA programme is quite special, with multiple success stories from girls that have been bullied to no longer getting bullied, standing up for themselves and becoming strong, tenacious young ladies. We've built an amazing community of people: some train for fun, fitness, self defence, stress relief, to learn skills, to compete. It truly is a great place to be.’
Now Lanchana is taking it one step further, launching the UK’s first women-only combat sports event – Queen of Combat UK, taking place on 4th July at The Majestic Theatre in Darlington. ‘In the UK there has been an all-female Thai boxing event called Lady Killers, there is currently an all-female grappling event called Enyo but there is no all-female MMA or hybrid event,’ explains Lanchana. ‘One of my main training partners throughout my MMA career was Jackie Jarvis, a BJJ black belt who runs her own women's only gym in Skipton, she's a wonderful friend and we have been running all-female combat sports interclubs for the last seven years. It started out as a bit of friendly competition between her students and mine which grew exponentially with lots of other local gyms getting involved. Our event photographer, Mike, is heavily involved in the wrestling world and his step-daughter trains in my ladies Thai boxing class. Between all three of us we decided the UK needs this event – it is the step up from the interclubs to give the girls a bigger challenge and platform.
‘Sport in general, not just martial arts, does amazing things for girls. However MMA not only builds resilience, confidence and leadership in women, it provides them the necessary skills needed to protect themselves and those around them should they ever need them. I don't push anyone to compete, it's hard and really not for everyone. But the training, the prep, being around other females all pushing each other through the sport is a very inspiring place to be. The aim is to grow this event from a local theatre to a big arena, giving the women who choose to compete a chance to shine, to have thousands of people cheering for them and appreciate all the hard work and determination that goes into making that walk into the cage. Women should get involved because this is their chance to step up and realise they are capable of far more than what they think. Competing is incredibly hard but incredibly rewarding. It’s difficult to describe, but very much worth giving it a go as long as your coach believes you are ready.’
Lanchana’s advice for any women looking to get into martial arts is to try different gyms until you’ve find the right one for you. ‘You'll be able to be yourself without judgement, the coaches and other students will offer support and have your best interests at heart,’ she says. ‘It should be a safe environment too. Whilst it is a contact sport – look for a gym that reduces any risk of injury. This will be in the form of safe practice, for example, certain techniques removed for beginners and pairing with similar-sized partners. Enjoy the whole process, there will be sessions where you get pushed physically and mentally, some days where things click and you have success and lots of sessions where you have failures – recognise this as all part of who you are about to become – confident, empowered, badass.’
Lanchana hopes that, win, lose or draw, the women taking part in Queen of Combat UK leave with a smile on their faces, and that the crowd enjoy the evening too – and perhaps leave feeling inspired. As for the future, her ambition is for Queen of Combat UK to become the platform for women's MMA in the UK and Europe.
