Anita, a 42-year-old office worker, one day found herself in the middle of a terrifying fight and decided to learn how to fend for herself
A marketing executive has told how witnessing a gangland street brawl led to her taking up mixed martial arts and eventually becoming a champion cage fighter.
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Anita, a 42-year-old office worker, one day found herself in the middle of a terrifying fight and decided to learn how to fend for herself
“I was waiting in the car for my husband, who had just jumped out to go into a pharmacy,” said Anita, who lives in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Since divorced, Anita now trains for two hours every day – fitting a gruelling exercise regime in around her demanding job, so she remains super-fit for fights at cage arenas around California.
She continued: “She let her guard down and I punched her in the head, splitting the skin above the eye.
She said: “I’ve always had martial arts in my head, ever since I was a little girl. I would watch kung fu movies obsessively – Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan that sort of thing – and dream of one day doing it myself.
After completing a social work degree at the University of Munich, Anita went on holiday to Los Angeles, where she met her now ex-husband, who she does not wish to name, and left Germany in 2005 for the bright lights of California, tying the knot in 2006.
At first, 5ft 11in Anita had intended simply to train, as she “felt too old” to fight and thought people would give her strange looks.
Anita Hoehenleiter, 42, who is originally from Bavaria in Germany, threw herself into the cage fighting scene after a terrifying incident, in which she found herself in the middle of a brutal punch-up.
Anita winning her first fight in 2014 (Collect/PA Real Life)
“I was waiting in the car for my husband, who had just jumped out to go into a pharmacy,” said Anita, who lives in Los Angeles, California, USA.
She continued: “I noticed a guy standing across the road behaving strangely. Suddenly, he rushed at another guy and started beating him. Before I knew it there were three men fighting around the car.
“At one point someone slammed another guy’s head into my windshield and I could do nothing but sit there and honk my horn, trying to draw attention to what was happening.
“I was so scared. America can be a dangerous place, so that’s when I decided I had to learn how to defend myself.”
Anita at one of her daily gym sessions (Collect/PA Real Life)
Since divorced, Anita now trains for two hours every day – fitting a gruelling exercise regime in around her demanding job, so she remains super-fit for fights at cage arenas around California.
Winning seven of her last eight major fights, the 13 stone welterweight has, on several occasions, drawn blood from her opponents and once even won a match by knocking down her opposite number.
“The first time I made someone bleed in the cage I was kind of shocked,” recalled Anita, who said she has a “natural instinct for fighting”.
Anita in action (PA Real Life/Stephanie Drews)
She continued: “She let her guard down and I punched her in the head, splitting the skin above the eye.
“It was pouring everywhere and I was quite grossed out at first.
“But you get used to the blood after a while.”
Growing up on a farm in rural southern Germany, even as a child, she was a fan of kung fu movies.
Anita about to enter the cage (Collect/PA Real Life)
She said: “I’ve always had martial arts in my head, ever since I was a little girl. I would watch kung fu movies obsessively – Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan that sort of thing – and dream of one day doing it myself.
“But Germany is a very conservative country and the idea of a woman fighting was pretty unheard of.”
She continued: “So, it wasn’t something I could get into over there.”
Anita and her coach with her welterweight title belt (Collect/PA Real Life)
After completing a social work degree at the University of Munich, Anita went on holiday to Los Angeles, where she met her now ex-husband, who she does not wish to name, and left Germany in 2005 for the bright lights of California, tying the knot in 2006.
Finding a job in marketing, she quickly settled into married life, forgetting all about martial arts until she found herself at the centre of the 2007 street brawl.
She explained: “I wanted to feel safe, so I found a gym where I could learn Krav Maga – a self-defence fighting system developed by the Israeli army – and it immediately felt right. I enjoyed it – but more to the point I was good at it.”
Anita with her mum and a friend in Los Angeles, 2018 (Collect/PA Real Life)
At first, 5ft 11in Anita had intended simply to train, as she “felt too old” to fight and thought people would give her strange looks.
But that changed in 2014 when, having fallen out of love, she and her husband divorced.
“Suddenly, I had so much more time for myself,” she said. “It was just me again on my own and I thought, ‘Why shouldn’t I go for it, who cares what people think?'”
Remaining in America, she started training every day to build up the strength needed to hold her own in a cage fight.
“I changed gyms and found a trainer who was willing to take me on, who didn’t care that I was a woman and that I was older,” she said.
She continued: “I told him I wanted to fight and he just said, ‘Ok, let’s do it’.”
She spent four months on a stringent diet – with no fast food, sweets and prepacked food – visiting the gym six days a week and working on her fighting technique with her trainer.
Finally scheduled to make her debut in the ring in December 2014, first she went to see her opponent fight, so she could size her up.
“I stood in the stands watching her and was terrified,” she confessed. “This girl was scary, a proper street fighter, who had been fighting since she was a kid.
“She knocked out her opponent pretty quickly and I thought, ‘What have I got myself into here?'”
But after a pep talk from her coach to restore her confidence, Anita decided to go through with the fight.
Anita in the training cage (Collect/PA Real Life)
During her six-minutes in the cage, Anita stuck to the plan to tire her opponent and eventually won on points.
She recalled: “To conquer your fear like that is an incredible feeling and it was amazing to have so much hard work pay off.
“I was so pumped full of adrenaline that I didn’t even notice I’d broken several toes when landing a kick on my rivals’s hip bone.”
Now, with eight bouts under her belt, Anita has only lost one fight on a technicality.
But her greatest success came in 2016, when she won the California State Welterweight Championship.
Despite some people seeing women fighting as a ‘warm up’ act before the male champions come on, Anita said: “Even though I am a woman and I am older than most fighters, I don’t think of myself as some kind of light entertainment before the men come on.”
She added: “I train hard and I fight hard. It’s something I take very seriously.”
Cage fighting even influenced Anita’s decision to stay in the USA after her divorce.
She continued: “Lots of my family and people I know back in Bavaria think I’m crazy. The idea of women fighting is still socially unacceptable there. Most of the time I just don’t even tell people back home, because I know what their reactions will be.”
Anita attracts equally strong reactions from her supporters.
She said: “A lot of people tell me how awesome they think it is. They say I should go to high schools and give talks to girls telling them they can do whatever they want. It doesn’t matter what society tells them they should do.
“I’ve found something I love doing, I’m pursuing it wholeheartedly and won’t let anything hold me back.”
