5 Things You Might Not Know About Michelle Waterson

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Former Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight queen Michelle Waterson has her eyes set on Ultimate Fighting Championship gold and believes she will be at her best when she meets No. 6 ranked Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC on ESPN 2. Ahead of their pivotal strawweight matchup, here are five things you might not know about “The Karate Hottie.”

The song “Lucky” has a special place in her heart.

The hit by Jason Mraz is her wedding song, and she considers it one of her favorites. Waterson is married to former U.S. Armed Forces amateur boxing champion Joshua Gomez. They tied the knot in a ceremony held at Hacienda Vargas in Algodones, New Mexico, in 2012. Together they have a daughter named Araya.

She comes from a military family.

Growing up, Waterson was surrounded by some gallant men. Her dad was in the army and her grandfather was a pilot during World War II. Even her brother joined the military, and it didn’t come as a surprise that Waterson would later marry uniformed personnel. With the Armed Forces so dear to her heart, she chose to support Hire Heroes USA, a nonprofit organization that empowers military members, veterans and their spouses.

Her nickname may be self-explanatory, but there’s a story behind it.

Fans probably know by now that Waterson used to don the Hooters uniform before she started fighting. During college, she also did promotional work as a model for car shows and other events. Later on, she met a guy named Howie who owned a bikini website. Waterson did a themed photoshoot for that page, and Howie, who had a knack for giving models nicknames, baptized her as “Karate Hottie” due to her martial arts background. About a year later, she made her pro debut. The promoter asked if she had a nickname, and she said no. The promoter tried searching her name online, and “Karate Hottie” came up. It has stuck with her ever since.

She wasn’t taken seriously when she first expressed that she wanted to fight.

In 2007, Waterson did ring girl chores at a local mixed martial arts event. Thinking she could go out there and trade punches instead of just holding ring cards, she told the promoter that she would love to fight. The promoter looked at her and replied with a sarcastic “Sure,” while spewing mild laughter. UFC lightweight Donald Cerrone, who fought for the promotion, also downplayed the idea at first. However, he tracked Waterson down at work and left a message saying that if she was really serious about training, she needs to get in the gym. So, Waterson called him up and started training religiously.

She’d probably be doing event planning if she weren’t fighting.

It’s easy to imagine Waterson doing other things as a career because of her modeling background. However, she also thinks it would be fun to shop for centerpieces and other decorative items and do other tasks that constitute event planning. It mainly comes from a desire to decorate and seeing people happy with how their event went.