By Kim Constantinesco
Sitting with top-ranked UFC fighter Cat “Alpha” Zingano on a Monday afternoon after one of her grueling strength and conditioning sessions, she had beads of sweat dripping from her forehead and a bag of almonds in her hand. She peeled her shoes off for comfort.
“I don’t feel like it’s me being violent,” Zingano, 31, said of her natural impulse to physically stand up to anyone with bullying tendencies. “I feel like it’s me being traditional.”
Zingano, however, is far from a traditional female athlete. She punches people in the face for a living.
“I wouldn’t say I got into fights more than the average kid,” Zingano said. “I’m like the great retaliator. I don’t go looking for trouble, but if people ask for it, I do have some little switches that can be turned.”
Women aren’t supposed to get physical, right? It goes against society’s “norms.” Women are supposed to sit back, welcome and absorb emotions, and then talk them out. This holds even more true for mothers in our society, correct?
Zingano grew up wrestling and participating in dance competitions. She had always dreamed of being a professional athlete.
“I had no idea it would be getting in fist fights,” Zingano said. “I saw myself more as a soccer player type.”
How she emerged onto the fight scene was rather unique.
Her seven-year-old son, Brayden, was nine months old when Zingano got her first taste of competitive fighting. Zingano was going to school full-time to be a sign language interpreter. It turns out that she was destined to communicate with her hands in more than one way.
Zingano had a friend in town, who was training in mixed-martial arts, and she stumbled into his gym one day.
“I went in to go visit, and was like ‘What is this that they’re doing?'” Zingano said. “I tried it and this weight that I had been trying to lose for nine months from having a baby fell off of me in three weeks. It was such a good outlet. I was able to hit pads and have this cool social life. The people were awesome.”
Born in Minnesota and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Zingano was a natural athlete. She started playing competitive sports at five-years-old. She became a four-time All-American and National Champion in wrestling while at Cumberland College and MacMurray College.
Zingano didn’t just fight to lose weight or to have a social outlet. She wanted to become the best. It didn’t take her but four years to become the No. 1 ranked 125-pound MMA fighter in the world. She also became the first mother to compete in a UFC fight.
Zingano says that being a fighter and a mother works hand in hand.
“I need that balance, that time for me so I can be the best mom I can be for my son,” Zingano said. “That separation of work and home is great, and it’s something a lot of moms can’t find time to get. Being a mom is busy. They have a lot of needs. School seems like it’s getting more and more challenging. I think being a mom helps me be a fighter and vice versa.”
Zingano’s professional life and personal life took a nasty turn in May when she tore her ACL in a training session.
“We were doing some exercises that we always do,” Zingano said. “Things that we’ve done over and over again. Even that day, I had already gone through 15 reps of it. The last time through, I jumped over a 10-inch hurdle. When I landed, my knee just buckled out. It sounded similar to the twisting of a plastic bottle…This was just a freak accident. I didn’t land wrong. I didn’t twist wrong. It was just timing.”
The injury prevented her from coaching on season 18 of UFC’s Ultimate Fighter. It also kept her out of a title fight against Ronda Rousey, the 135-pound division champion.
It was the first major injury of her career. Months of rehab and training have her to the point where she will be able to resume sparring in March. She anticipates being able to fight competitively again in May.
“Getting to use my knee again and pushing myself to get back to the level that I left off at, it’s totally been mental,” Zingano said. “I’m taking it day-by-day and listening to my body a lot more than ever.”
Zingano’s son, Brayden, has been exposed to his mother’s injury because she wanted him to see her positivity through all of this.
“I feel like my purpose is to get stronger, come back, and show people, especially my son, that you can never predict what life is going to bring you,” Zingano said. “You can be doing great for a long time and then all of a sudden there’s a catastrophe that floors you. It’s not about figuring out the ‘whys.’ It’s what you do about it and how you move on from there.”
So from “Protector of the Playground” to champion fighter to being a compass for her son, one might say that Cat Zingano has many roles in life.
Ultimately, she’s a fighter — one that may take a punch, but dish back three of her own, inside or outside of the ring.
