Travel four hours and 57 minutes north of Los Angeles and 36 minutes northeast of the ever-flowing Monterey Bay, and there lies the city of Gilroy.
Every small town or city will usually have its handful of notable citizens that go on to do great things in a certain aspect of life. Gilroy is no different. And it’s not a ‘small’ area per se, but in comparison to your typical ‘name-city’ in California, it’s definitely not the biggest.
However, some of its residents have proven and continue to prove that they don’t need to be all that physically imposing in stature to leave lasting impressions anyway.
Standing strong at an even five-feet-tall is the new Invicta FC strawweight champion, Gilroy’s own Brianna Van Buren.
Championship caliber athletes all have their own unique story as to how they reached that goal of being a title holder. As different as they all may be in their own right, many similarities can often time still be drawn. Hard work, determination, and an incredible amount of focus need to be channeled.
With all that in mind, very rarely in the history of mixed martial arts, especially in the modern day, do champions see themselves crowned in the fashion that Van Buren was.
On May 3, the 25-year old’s life took on its biggest change professionally. By defeating three different women on the very same night, history was made not only for Van Buren but for the sport. She was now officially on the radars of the MMA world like never before.
“I’m still young in the game, some people would say,” Van Buren told BJPenn.com in regards to her recent success. “And the way I see it is it’s all happening in perfect timing. Everything’s just going the way that it should be because I’m working hard. And the cool thing about it is everybody’s able to see that. Everybody’s able to see that I’m a hard worker, I work hard and I’m not getting any handouts and this is the way that I like it. I prefer it this way.”
Continued: Untameable: The Brianna Van Buren story
