During the second round of Cat Zingano’s Muay Thai debut last night (June 25th), she took several knees to the body and a kick to the head. After going back to her corner, the # 1 ranked female MMA fighter at 125-pounds was admittedly out of her comfort zone.
“I didn’t like how that felt. That was a very big strength of hers and it threw me out of rhythm,” Zingano said after the fight in which she represented Tiger Muay Thai & MMA in Phuket, Thailand. “The name of the game is knees here. It’s not punches or kicks – it’s knees and points.”
With her husband Mauricio and son Brayden looking on, Zingano came out in the third round legs ablazing, 
with an aggression that proved to overwhelm her veteran opponent, Fahpikart. But she still had to setup the knee strikes and used her strength to clinch Fahpikart, who has had over 35 fights, softening the Thai native first with elbows to the head.
Then the knees started and it was all over just seconds later. It took about six devastating knee shots to Fahpikart’s sternum to knock her down, each one wearing her out.
Zingano, whose professional MMA record is currently stands at 6-0, started the fight with several harsh elbows, eventually dropping her opponent twice in the second round with leg sweeps. The rush of winning her first Muay Thai fight quickly became somewhat of a drug for her.
“I’m addicted right now – the second that the fight got finished,” Zingano said. “I really want to see what I can do with this sport- I’ll definitely be back to get another fight.”
Though it was an impressive win for someone making their debut, Zingano is still not satisfied and craves more.
“I’d really like to showcase what Muay Thai is about and not be on the ropes so much,” Zingano said, “Instead of being big and knowing how to fight MMA, I want to feel like a Muay Thai fighter who just fought a Muay Thai fight.”
