Julia Berezikova: a universal fighter of mixed martial arts

Fights of mixed martial arts gradually gain popularity throughout the world. The participation of women in these tough fights is quite unusual and not everyone likes. In Russia, the pioneer of this movement was Natalia Bobkina, in the asset of which there is a victory over the wife of the famous Bob Shreider, but she soon went to sumo.

Julia Berezikova struck the real road to the ring for Russian women. Biography athletes showed that a competent PR campaign, bright fights are able to force the most conservative connoisseurs of martial arts to pay attention to the beautiful ladies in fights and take them seriously.

Fighting girl

A "Russian birch" was born in Krasnokamensk in the Chita region in 1983. Already from the kindergarten, she was distinguished by her fighting nature and did not give herself any offense. And Julia fought only with the boys, never quarreling first.

Her relationship with the sport began with more traditional disciplines. Having registered for swimming in the first class, Julia Berezikova successfully engaged for more than four years, having achieved certain successes. However, after an unsuccessful jump in the water, she received a serious neck injury and for a long time got to the hospital.

But the restless girl, barely recovering from damage, immediately enrolled in the section on judo.

In addition to judoists, the same caratists were engaged in this same room, to which Julia periodically ran. So she has the makings of a universal fighter, familiar with both shock and wrestling techniques.

New name in MMA

Julia Berezikova long sought her place in the world of martial arts. In 1999, she moved to St. Petersburg and switched to boxing. This helped her to improve her shock equipment. Then in Russia battles of mixed style were not very popular, and the athlete was seriously thinking about linking her career with boxing. The idol of the sportswoman was the best at that time the boxer of the planet Roy Jones, the technique and speed of which admired Julia.

Since 2002, she took part in mixed style duels. A few years later the first serious fight in the career took place, which became her debut in the MMA. Having won in two qualifying matches in Russia, she was in the national team for a match against the US team in 2006. The rival caught the most serious - Tara Larossa, who was the winner of the world championships in judo. Everyone was expecting a quick victory for an American woman, who already had 11 victories in her fights in 12 matches. But the Russian woman lasted 10 minutes and lost in the second round, when Tara caught her at the painful reception, breaking her elbow. So began her career in MMA Julia Berezikova.

Fights with new rivals did not take long. A month later, a fight with Song Li Jing was held in the match between the national teams of Russia and Korea. Women's battles then were not developed in Russia, and Berezikova for a whole month begged the promoter Roman Finkelstein about organizing this fight. The first victory was spectacular. Julia knocked out the Korean woman in the first minute of the fight.

After that, Berezicov suffered the most devastating defeat in her career from Julia Kedzi. Already in the second round, the Russian athlete was knocked out. After 2009, she temporarily left mixed martial arts in jiu-jitsu. According to Julia, she took a break to pay attention to the more tactical kind of martial arts. Two years later, she began working with the RusFighters club, after which her business was again established. To date, she has conducted 11 fights, 7 of which won.

Achievements in related martial arts

Julia Berezikova started her way with judo and achieved some success, becoming the winner of the Asian Championship in 1998. Until 2005, she concentrated on boxing matches and successfully competed in the Russian championships, taking medals of various dignity.

Today, being a universal fighter, she also participates in competitions in wushu, combat sambo. Nevertheless, in fights of mixed style, the girl focuses on shock training.

Life outside sport, social and political activity

Julia Berezikova also has an active civil position and public activities. Together with Alexander Zaldostanov, better known as "Surgeon", Mikhail Porechenkov and Dmitry Sablin, she was one of the organizers of the "Anti-Maidan" movement in 2015.

Berezikova became one of the first women in Russia, who gained fame abroad in battles of mixed style. It was behind her that athletes of the new generation were being pulled.