Cannell has gone further, or more acutely, deeper.
“I got really obsessed when I started training. That’s when I realized it’s like nothing else. There are so many different areas. It’s not just like boxing… with UFC and MMA it’s everything, it’s jiu-jitsu, sparring, boxing. We’ve spent a lot of time in Thailand, I trained at AKA Thailand, an amazing location. I choked out Roger Gracie,” she beams.
Her experience with legends of the sport didn’t end there.
“I trained with Forrest Griffin. It was amazing. He’s such a dream. I love him so much, it was good and bad because, to me, seeing him and training with him is like… that’s me being starstruck, beyond anyone else. So, I was trying really hard to impress him and I made myself sick. He was like ‘Another round, another round, keep boxing.’”
“She went into shock, got the shakes really bad, they had to give her sugar and all that,” recalls Hirst.
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“Before we started the session with Forrest, I said, ‘Just so you know, I haven’t really trained in about six months; I’m kinda out of shape’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah I’ll take it easy.’ Not a chance!”
No chance indeed. When has Forrest Griffin taken something easy?
Finally, Sophie remembers a particular fight that instantly made her into an MMA meme, simply because of her honest reaction.
“The sport meme was quite funny. It was Derrick Lewis when he knocked out Volkov with 11 seconds to go to the end of the fight. We watched the whole thing and he got his face smashed up and he’s really swollen, and that’s why UFC is so amazing cause it can turn around at any time. I get really protective with my favorite fighters.”
She does, as Damien recalls.
“Remember when you told me, ‘Save him! Please! Jump in the octagon baby! Do something’”?’