This week’s show notes brought to you by the lovely Shannon

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This week, we’re excited to bring you an interview with our first repeat guest – our good friend and Nick’s former coach, Dr. L.A. Jennings. L.A. and her husband Mike own a popular MMA gym in Denver, CO called Train. Fight. Win. (TFW), of which Nick was the first member over eight years ago.

Let’s get into the interview.

Like many of the best places, the gym L.A. and her husband started, TFW, was born from humble beginnings. The start included days when no clients would even show up to train. Flash forward to today when TFW boasts its own competitive fight team along with a healthy crew of clients who participate in conditioning, striking and grappling classes.

Local fight organizations are even starting to feature TFW on highly publicized fight cards, exposing the gym to an even broader audience and helping to attract more individuals with competition experience to the gym.

Outside the gym, L.A. has an extensive list of achievements including becoming a published author of essentially the encyclopedia on the history of female combat sports called She’s A Knockout: A History of Women in Fighting Sports.

L.A. is currently working with the organization Wrestle Like A Girl to get girls wrestling sanctioned in middle schools and high schools around the country. Believe it or not, only six states currently have sanctioned girls wrestling at that level.

She had been writing for Vice’s Fightland, but decided she would rather focus her research and content creation into another medium. The chosen medium? Well, it turns out that our ATF podcast actually inspired L.A. to start her own podcast called The Warm-Up, which includes historical accounts of important sporting events throughout time.

It’s safe to say, we’ve already added the podcast to our must-listen list. Knowing L.A., it’s bound to be a hit!

Next, we discussed our thoughts and feelings on the hyped-up Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight. L.A. was particularly interested in the topic because McGregor really helped MMA fighters command more respect when it comes to negotiating contracts and demanding better pay.

We also commented on the most highly anticipated boxing event in recent history, Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez, which ended in a controversial decision and reignited the ever-present idea that boxing is a corrupt sport.

These topics really emphasized that even though combat sports have been around since ancient times, they are still evolving in modern times.

Finally, make sure you check out L.A.’s book and podcast, and if you’re ever in Denver stop by Train. Fight. Win. and tell them Nick and Shannon from the ATF podcast sent you. You can also follow TFW on Instagram (@tfw_denver) and L.A. on Twitter @Dr_LA_Jennings.

As always, thanks for listening to this week’s episode. Send us an email (elementaltampa@gmail.com) or give us a shout on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) if you have any questions or topics for future episodes. In the meantime, we’ll keep working to bring you exciting experts and timely info on health and fitness.

Links to this week’s episode:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/addicted-to-fitness-podcast/id1121420986?mt=2&i=1000393234960

Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/rss

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/the-return-of-combat-sports-historian-dr-la-jennings