Photo by Becky Foster
KINGMAN – Sarah Torgerson, a local kickboxer, on March 16 captured an International Kickboxing Championship Title for Riot MMA, Kingman’s only world class Muay Thai gym.
Team Spain v. Team USA, was held in Phoenix. World Association Kickboxing Organization (WAKO) chose Torgerson and four other fighters from around the nation.
MMA Riot coach, Brian Skinner said, “As a coach you are always looking for your unicorn, that special, talented athlete with heart and (who) has the fighter mindset. Sarah is my unicorn. She listens to everything I say, she does everything that I ask and she trusts me like I trust her.”
Torgerson said she is not concerned about being seriously injured. As for protective gear, she wore shin pads, boxing gloves and head gear as well as a mouthpiece and chest protection for that competition. For Muay Thai she wears only gloves and elbow pads.
Torgerson, who was born in California and raised in Kingman, began her MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) journey just five years ago at the age of 35. Her story is one of true grit and determination the likes of which most people could never imagine.
It began after a tragic accident in her early twenties in which she was severely injured. “In 2009 I had a major accident causing me to have multiple surgeries with bone marrow transplants and bone fusions,” she reiterated. “Ten surgeries later I was told I would never walk again. Well, I proved him (the doctor) wrong.” Her last surgery was in 2018.
Torgerson stated she declined further surgery and decided “to go to work on becoming the athlete that she once was.”
She told a friend that she wanted to try MMA and they laughed at her and said she would just end up quitting because it would be too hard for her.
“So, that just put a spark in me and, by golly, I went and I tried and I am pretty good at it,” she exclaimed.
Pretty good is an understatement. In addition to her International Kickboxing Title, she has numerous other championship belts for kickboxing and also Muay Thai, which she said she really enjoys.
Her opponent from Spain was Luna, a world bronze medalist in kickboxing. Torgerson did not know that Luna was on that level until they weighed in.
“I was like oh, man, I am in for a good fight,” she said. “I just went in there; I fought and came out with a win.” She said Luna’s strategy is timing and that is how she wins her fights.
“I felt if I was able to take her timing away, which is through pressure, then I was able to come out with a win. And that is what we did, we just pressured her for the whole six minutes.
“Muay Thai and kickboxing are actually very, very different. Muay Thai is a little bit more brutal…and that is going to be my next fight,” she explained.
On March 24th she will travel to California to compete with a national fighter whose record is 11/1. Torgerson’s record is 9/0.
Torgerson explained that Muay Thai is the art of the eight limbs. It is the use of two hands, two elbows, two feet and two knees.
“I am also allowed to punch and kick … to elbow her … to knee her … and what’s called the ‘clinch’… so, I’m allowed to take her and hold her down and knee her as many times as I want to” she said.
“It’s a whole lot more open compared to kickboxing,” she said. “So, I am allowed to use all of those weapons in that fight.”
She said it will be a 10-minute fight (five two-minute rounds) as opposed to the five-minute kickboxing fight. There will be one minute to rest between rounds. However, she explained, most of that time is spent on strategy and listening to the coach.
Torgerson described MMA as very chess-like. “It’s very strategic … because you have different attacks coming from different angles, different levels, which could be an elbow, it could be a knee, it could be a kick,” she explained.
She said she has to read her opponent’s body and anticipate. “If I can read my opponent well enough, I will be able to pick up on her and win, hopefully.”
Torgerson, the next to the youngest of six children, has one sister and four brothers. She loved to fight and mix it up with her brothers during her childhood. She added that her older sister, Rachel Sweet, was the exact opposite.
“She loved to read books while I was outside wrestling with the boys,” chuckled Torgerson.
“Sarah has been determined from day one,” said Sweet. “We were very different as kids. She was rough and tumble and I was not. She sets her eyes on her goal and lets nothing stand in her way. I am proud of her beyond words. She is my one and only sister. She is truly my hero; I love her with my whole heart.”
“There was always fighting and wrestling. I feel sorry for my mom, she held down the house very well,” said Torgerson.
Torgerson’s mother, Rose Torgerson, said after graduating on the Dean’s list at MCC (Mohave Community College) Torgerson’s job took her to Prescott where she was introduced to Muay Thai.
“After returning to Kingman, she joined Riot MMA, where she found her passion and family in this gym,” she said. “Sarah has had her fair share of trials and tribulations, but she has always faced them head on, and no matter the outcome she has always kept it positive. I am proud of her beyond words.”
Becky Foster
