MICHELLE WATERSON-GOMEZ | ‘THE KARATE HOTTIE’ CALLS IT A CAREER (2024)

A pro since February 2007, the 38-year-old departs with an 18-13 overall record and 6-9 mark inside the Octagon, though none of those numbers accurately reflect the impact Waterson-Gomez had on the sport and the position she held both in the promotion and with fans.

Waterson-Gomez began competing when stepping into the cage had to be a driving passion for female athletes. There was no real money to be made, no promotions in North America that were devoted to showcasing women’s mixed martial arts, and the first dozen fights of her career were spent bouncing between reputable regional promotions like Ring of Fire in Colorado and King of the Cage, and competing on shows that spoke to the Wild West nature of things in those early days.

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She put together a 9-3 mark through those initial 12 fights and signed with Invicta FC, the Shannon-Knapp-led all-female MMA promotion that became a significant launching pad for countless fighters, including Waterson-Gomez.

After posting a split decision win over Lacey Shuckman in her promotional and atomweight debut, the always entertaining spitfire stepped into a championship pairing with Jessica Penne six months later, claiming the belt with a fourth-round submission win. Waterson-Gomez successfully defended her title against Yasuko Tamada three events later before dropping the belt to Herica Tiburcio at Invicta FC 10.

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Waterson-Gomez debuted in the UFC the following July, competing in the strawweight division and collecting a third-round submission win over Angela Magana. What should have been a jump-off point to an immediate push forward in relatively new division wasn’t meant to be, as injuries sidelined the Albuquerque-based competitor for the better part of the next 18 months.

When she returned, Waterson-Gomez was hustled into a main event showdown with Paige VanZant on FOX, submitting the promising prospect in the first round to kick off a run of matchups that truly speak to the type of fighter and figure Waterson-Gomez was throughout her career.

All but one of her next 13 fights came against a ranked opponent, and even that pairing with Cortney Casey was no easy assignment.

She faced three of the five women to hold the strawweight title —Rose Namajunas, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Carla Esparza — and another two that challenged for championship gold, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Amanda Lemos. She was a main card fixture and a three-time headliner during that stretch, established as a permanent fixture just outside the championship picture and the type of competitive veteran you had to face in order to prove your bonafides as a contender.

We talk all the time about the “strength of schedule” amassed by tenured athletes like Edson Barboza and Rafael Dos Anjos, but Waterson-Gomez’s name deserves to be mentioned in the same way, as a list of the opponents she’s faced inside the Octagon reflects what it was like to compete at the top of the strawweight division over the first decade of the weight class’ existence in the UFC:

Angela Magana. Paige VanZant. Rose Namajunas. Tecia Pennington (nee Torres). Cortney Casey. Felice Herrig. Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Joanna Jędrzejczyk. Carla Esparza. Angela Hill. Marina Rodriguez, twice. Amanda Lemos. Luana Pinheiro. Gillian Robertson.

The win-loss record may not be what she wants it to be, but no one can ever argue that Waterson-Gomez didn’t give every ounce of herself each time she stepped into the Octagon; frequently departing bruised and bleeding, often looking like there was nowhere else in the world she would rather be in that moment.

It’s amazing to think that Waterson-Gomez-Gomez accomplished all that she did in the UFC fighting up a division.

Make no mistake about it: in the modern age where weight-cutting, proper nutrition, and competing in a division where you’re more likely to maximize your physical gifts and play to your strengths, Waterson-Gomez would be an atomweight, but the 105-pound division never made its way to the UFC, and so “The Karate Hottie” spent a decade competing up a weight class, and still managed to have a great deal of success.

Wins and losses aside, you do not remain ranked in any division for the better part of a decade if you are not extremely skilled and talented; it’s just not possible. The fact that Waterson-Gomez was a Top 10 fixture for much of that time speaks to the skills she brought to the Octagon and the fact that educated observers of the sport knew she was one of the top talents in the strawweight division, even if the results didn’t always go her way.