Tag: Danyelle Wolf

Opportunity awaits as USA boxing champ Danyelle Wolf finally ready to make MMA debut

At 36 years old, how far can she Danyelle Wolf go? “I’m absolutely capable of being a champion in any single organization right now.”

[autotag]Danyelle Wolf[/autotag] was destined for greatness at a very young age.

Excelling in sports such as soccer, field hockey and basketball, Wolf eventually transitioned to boxing at 25 to try something new.

She fell in love with it. She became a three-time USA boxing national champion, hoping to fulfill her dream of one day competing in the Olympics. But unfortunately for Wolf, the Olympics didn’t introduce her 152-pound weight class in either 2012 or 2016.

That’s when she decided to cross over into MMA. Wolf traveled all over the world training at gyms such as Tiger Muay Thai, Kings MMA and Alliance MMA. She was drawing interest from big MMA organizations early, but with zero amateur fights, Wolf wanted to get a solid foundation first before swimming with the sharks in the big leagues.

“Zero experience to one of the biggest organizations, I need a little bit more time,” Wolf told MMA Junkie. “I’ll make the jump with zero fights, but I need more time to create a foundation of getting the anti-wrestling, the anti jiu-jitsu and learning the kicking. I’ll make the jump with no fights, but I at least need to have the mental confidence and just the physical backing of knowing these movements.”

Already with an established boxing background, she wants to hone the rest of her skills.

“When I first crossed over to MMA, my focus was jiu-jitsu in a gi,” Wolf said. “And once I did that everyday, I wanted to test myself, and I did the jiu-jitsu World’s, then I did IBJJF’s, won three gold medals doing that, but that whole time I was still doing muay Thai, I was still taking Rafael Cordeiro’s muay Thai and kickboxing classes, still wrestling at Black House MMA.”

Wolf then traveled to Thailand to work on her muay Thai, followed by a visit to Alliance MMA, home to former two-time UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and coach Eric Del Fierro. After taking part in their wrestling program, Wolf was ready to compete.

But the only problem was, with her 6-foot tall stature, build, and boxing background, no one wanted to fight her.

“Eric and I, we were trying to find amateur fights that whole time,” Wolf said. “That whole end of that first year and beginning of that second year of me doing MMA, we were trying to get me fights all the time. I was getting so frustrated because we’d find girls that were my weight class that would have four, five, or six fights as an MMA fighter. I have zero, and they’d be like, ‘Hey, we’ll fight her,’ and then one week later the promoter would get back to me and be like, ‘Oh, they Googled you or saw your boxing, and they’re not ready to be against a striker’ or something.”

Struggling to find a fight, Del Fierro told Wolf that she might just have to go pro right away. So, they looked at organizations such as LFA, but Wolf did not want to get locked into a three or four-year contract. She wanted to take things fight by fight so she could see which organization she wanted to be a part of afterward.

However, yet again, Wolf couldn’t find a fight. Every time it was either a fighter pulling out or a fight that the promotion didn’t think made sense, so she decided to continue training by traveling overseas to City Kickboxing with coach Eugene Bareman, home of UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

The tumultuous road would continue for Wolf, who then suffered a dislocated shoulder and a torn labrum while training, which required surgery. She was sidelined for around six months, and even during the recovery process, Wolf continued contacting organizations, asking if they had found her an opponent.

Pros, amateurs, no dice for Wolf.

But then she received a call from her old boxing coach who had some news for her.

They finally decided to add her 152-pound weight class to the women’s boxing Olympics, and the once three-year reigning champ (2013-2016) had an opportunity to get her spot back and chase her childhood dream of competing in the Olympics.

So with no one offering her anything in MMA, Wolf decided to go back to boxing and give the Olympics a shot.

With only four weeks to prepare for the Olympic trials, Wolf went undefeated, securing her spot in the Olympic trial finals of the top eight women in the nation. But the finals didn’t go her way, in a fight she’s confident she won. She ended up with a bronze medal, leaving her heartbroken.

As one door closes, another one opens, and Wolf is ready to finally make her MMA debut.

“I’m absolutely ready,” Wolf said. “I just took the last eight to 10 months off focusing just on boxing. Obviously I won the Olympic trials first round back in April, and then just now in December that was finals, and I won my fights all week except for the finals fight, so from that experience, there’s eight months. I mean, my boxing is at a whole new level now, and this is going to help my MMA career tremendously.”

Wolf recently signed with Creative Artists Agency, which manages the likes of Georges St-Pierre, Francis Ngannou and Kevin Lee. With this big career move, Wolf hopes it will finally lead to the opportunities she’s confident that she’s ready for.

Wolf, who was once on the cover of the ESPN’s 2014 body issue, hopes to land in a promotion that sees her star potential, one that would allow her to pursue both MMA and boxing.

“We’re looking for the organization that sees my potential and sees my ability to not just box but to do MMA,” Wolf said. “That I’m a natural athlete, and my work ethic and my dedication is like no other. So it’s all about finding an organization that respects that, sees my potential and sees what’s in front of them.”

“I’ve been a dual-sport, tri-sport, quadruple-sport athlete my whole life, and I would love to be a dual-sport athlete and do MMA and boxing,” Wolf added. “I know it hasn’t been done yet, and we see what Conor McGregor did: He went over and fought Floyd (Mayweather), but he doesn’t really have a background in boxing. But I feel that I’m one of the first athletes that would be really good at being able to do both and do pro boxing and do pro MMA and get one of these organizations to allow and agree to – let’s do both, let’s take over both worlds.”

At 36 years old, Wolf has been active her whole life. After failing to secure an MMA fight, she went back to boxing just to have direction and an end goal. That’s all she’s ever known, and now that she’s back to MMA, Wolf has aspirations of becoming a champion.

She admits that she’s not a die-hard MMA fan in terms of watching fights, but from what she’s seen from women’s MMA’s best, she’s confident in her abilities.

“I just watch these girls, and I’m like, ‘They’re all beatable,'” Wolf said. “They’re all absolutely beatable. I’ll catch the highlights, and it’s like, ‘Yep, I got ’em,’ but that’s pretty much the only reason why I’ll tune in or see how they did, was just to see what they have and just have that for a confidence booster. Just seeing that I’m absolutely capable of being a champion in any single organization right now with all these girls that are on the top.”

Ideally, Wolf will look to compete in the featherweight division and secure a fight within the next few months. In the meantime, you can find her at the gym putting the work in, where she’s always been.