Female MMA - Mayra Conde

Mayra Conde

Nickname The Strong Warrior
Height 5ft 4in (163cm)
Weight 158lb (72kg)
Born 28 January 1969
Fighting out of The Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club
Town of birth Guatemala City, Guatemala
Fighting style Brazilian jiu-jitsu, MMA, Kickboxing

Mayra Conde is a mixed martial artist, who has also competed in kickboxing, brazilian jiu-jitsu and bodybuilding.

Conde hails from Guatemala City, where she grew up on her grandparents' farm. She has spoken fondly of her time there in interviews, as well as citing her grandfather as "my source of strength". However, at the age of nine when her younger brother was born, Conde moved with her parents to Toronto, Canada, hoping for a better education.

Her early years as an immigrant were tough; "I was constantly picked on because I couldn't speak English and was very small". Conde proved up to the challenge, never failing a grade, and is now bilingual, speaking both her native Spanish and adopted English. While still at school, Conde got into sports drinks and nutrition through her father, which led to her becoming a bodybuilder at the age of 16. Her muscular physique proved useful when she moved into construction work after high school. Earning a living as a welder, she would later become a foreman.

In August 1998, despite having no previous grappling experience, Conde still won first place in the women's heavyweight division of Canadian Grapplers Challenge. She says the guillotine choke she bested her first opponent with "was a natural movement when she shot in on me...People asked me how long I had been grappling and I said that I needed to get started." Conde also retained her interest in bodybuilding; the pull of Venice Beach proved irresistible. She left Canada for California along with a friend, Olga Bakalopoulos, who would also become both a weightlifter and mixed martial artist.

California brought Conde her first taste of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, training at the Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club with such luminaries as Mark Kerr and Bas Rutten. Learning from them and another trainer, Marcus Vinicius, she would later fight in the US, Brazil and Greece, and was a part of the groundbreaking all-female Hook N Shoot Revolution promotion.