Hi! My name is Jessica Penne and this is my first blog for my Invicta FC 1 fight on April 28th. When I received an offer to be a part of an all-women’s card, I was excited. Not only do I have the privilege of fighting on the card, my opponent Lisa Ellis and I have the honor of being in the co-main event.

I had been hoping for some time that an organization supporting WMMA would come to fruition. Now, thanks to Janet Martin and Shannon Knapp, female fighters have a great opportunity to show our stuff. I think that there are talented women in this sport that deserve a platform to perform on.

With Invicta, I have hopes that the women that compete in MMA will have consistency in competition and that they will gain more acknowledgement for their efforts. It isn’t easy trying to balance work, training and competition along with everything else. It has been my dream for myself and for the other talented women in this sport to be able to showcase our hard work and dedication to training, and I feel that we deserve to be more than just a filler spot on an undercard.

This fight is such an amazing opportunity and I am overwhelmed with feelings of excitement and nervousness. I want to win, of course, but more importantly I want to thank my coaches and training partners for all of their support by performing well.

I have the good fortune to train with really talented coaches and teammates. I train at Reign Training Center with Mark Munoz, Kings MMA with Rafael Cordeiro and Checkmat with Lucas Leite. For conditioning, I go to Innovative Results with Corey Beasley. I know, I train at a lot of places, but the great thing about these gyms is that they cross-train with each other. Each gym has its own specialty and style and I feel that it is important to explore everything.

These people have given so much to me and I want to give back to them and thank them by doing my best. April 28th is coming up fast and I am looking forward to putting my hard work to the test. I am still looking for more sponsors for my fight, so please contact me if you are interested.