Don’t let the name fool you, Carly “Cupcake” Gangell is as tough as they come.  At 57kgs this 18 year old is steadily making a name for herself around the country.   Having won Gold at the World Championships last year in Thailand she has just secured herself her first Title belt against a tough international opponent from N.Z.  We recently caught up with Carly about her fight on February 20th on Knees of Fury in South Australia…

NRF:  Now that you’ve had time to reflect how did the fight play out?

Carly: The fight was a tough one, my opponent, Katie Quick from New Zealand was a very strong and aggressive fighter. We both had our fair trade of hard hits but after 5 rounds I came out with a unanimous decision win. Although there’s lots of room for improvement and fine tuning, I was stoked with how I fought, this fight was one step closer to the fighter I want to be regardless of the outcome or the title.

NRF: Come on, be honest…did you sleep with the belt on? and have you taken it off since the weekend?

Haha I didn’t sleep with the belt on, but I definitely wore it out to pizza after the fights! I didn’t get to wear it for long before my mum wore it for the rest of the night. Super proud to put that bad boy up in the gym.

NRF: What do you know about your next opponent Brooke Cooper?

Brooke and I both went to the 2015 IFMA World Games together so I’m really looking forward to this fight because we know each other and have seen each other train and fight. I’m looking forward to the challenge of getting around her long reach, it will be an exciting fight.

NRF:What’s up after Shins of Steel

After shins of steel next month, I have a trip to Thailand planned with a hope for a fight over there. I’m hoping to fight in New Zealand too. Since it’s my first year of uni, I’m hoping to maintain fighting but as I have some travel planned, I’ll be looking to fight overseas this year and tick off some foreign opponents.

NRF: What do you do in your spare time?

In my spare time, I’m usually still at the gym haha! But I love to spend time with my family and friends as much as possible, usually I head up to our shack at the river on weekends too. This year majority of my spare time will be spent with my head in text books.

NRF:Tell us a little bit about the work you do with Females fighting Forward and Self Defense etc..

A few years ago I started up a female program (Females Fighting Forward) out of my families gym, Boars. Initially, I studied and planned for only one self defence seminar for a school project but I couldn’t help my passion for it and I grew it.

At the moment I run weekly classes and private lessons in Muay Thai for females; I do this in hope that women can find confidence and strength in such a powerful sport to enable them to see what their bodies and minds are capable of. My ultimate goal for Females Fighting Forward is to help women feel confident and powerful and with the help of the Muay Thai aspect of my program I can then teach women’s self defence, anti-abduction and street awareness at regular seminars.