Giulia Comini interview · Ireland news

Summary

Giulia Comini is a K1 fighter representing Siam Warriors from Cork, she joined Lena to speak about her career so far

AI summary AI-generated from the transcript

Giulia Comini tells Fansview how she started martial arts at the University of Galway MK1 club during her PhD, initially as a joke after a colleague invited her, and describes early training without a coach or proper gear before Whitney Shepard became their coach. She explains she was hesitant to compete after seeing violent kickboxing shows at Black Dragon in Galway where Whitney fought, but sparring and technique work changed her mind. She had a light contact bout first, then her first fight in Galway about three years before this interview (she notes that anniversary was the next day). She states she has had 19 fights since, mostly K1, plus one MMA bout in Thailand, with her next bout planned as semi-pro Muay Thai in October while she works full time as a Parkinson’s disease researcher. She highlights winning a four-woman tournament at Rumble—beating Vicki first, then Rachel—for belts as the win that meant most and helped put her name out, when few others believed she could do it. She describes balancing a new four-year scientist contract in Cork with evening and weekend training, and the host passes on that Dave thinks she is a very underrated fighter.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

All right. So, today I'm here with Julia. Um, Julia, so um what was the reason you joined martial arts? >> [laughter] >> It kind of started as a like as a bit of a joke kind of like for just for fun cuz um at the University of Gway where I was doing my PhD h there was like there's many clubs in the uni and so there was the Mai um MK1 club and one of my colleagues was going and so like as a joke he just like said to me he was like oh you should try and come like you could use a bit of anger management whatever and I was like fine I'll come um and then yeah it was just like super fun at the beginning it was kind of like um we had no coach and we're like sparring with no shields, no shin pads. It was just like yeah, absolute disaster, but it was still fun. And then we got a coach that that was Whitney Shepard. And then Yeah. And then so [clears throat] I've been in that club for the past four years. Well, until I moved to Cork now recently. But yeah, that's how it started. And how come you started fighting? because I I heard you had haven't had the intention to start fights and fight on your own. So h how how did that change? So yeah, like at the beginning I don't know. I wasn't really sure about fighting because as well I went I went to one of the kickboxing shows from like in in Gway the gym in Black Dragon. They were organizing these kickboxing shows and Whitney my coach was fighting on it. So obviously like I went to see her and the fights just like they just looked so violent and I was like oh my god I don't think I'd ever be able for this. But then like when you actually start like sparring more more often and like when you like learn the techniques more and stuff like I kind of learned that it's not just like pure violence like just going at each other. It's like it's way more like learning the techniques and like to know mastering like the defense and like uh the attacks without being like obviously hit back but then also like a lot of fitness there's a lot of preparation in it. So it's like obviously there is a bit of biod it's not just all about it. So that's when I started then yeah I had um one light contact fight first and then and then I fought in Gway for the first time. That was three years ago. Three years ago tomorrow actually. >> Oh, really? Oh my god. Slowly. [laughter] So you had 19 fights. Fights since then. Yeah. 19. >> Sorry. >> You had 19 fights since then. Yeah. 19. >> Yeah, I had 19 now. Um, they're all mainly K1. I had one Mai fight in Thailand. Uh, and then my next fight now is going to be Muay Thai. >> Oh, lovely. And do you have any favorite fights? Like what's what's your favorite fight you had so far between? [laughter] >> Like every fight is different. I had like I had some technical fights and some fights that were like absolute worst. But like in terms of like how happy I was like after winning, I'd say was when I um when I bet Vicki on Rumble because like that was for a four-woman tournament and so the first fight I had was against Vicki and I won and then I went to fight Rachel and I won and I won the belts then. But that first fight I was so happy that I won because um I think no one really believed that I could like I think I was probably the only one that thought that I could do it. me and like a few like a few friends uh even like on social media like the hype was like definitely not for me. So yeah, I was really happy. I was like like at the end I was like yes, I shown you. >> I love you. So you proved them all wrong. Oh, that's great. >> Exactly. [laughter] >> And then since then like I've been having like more fights since that one. I think it was kind of like the fight that kind of put my name out there a bit. So >> definitely that one I'd say. >> Oh, that's great. I love I love that. So um so your next fight is semi-pro. Yeah. In October. Yeah. >> Um but you work >> in court. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So but you work a normal job. Yeah. So you're not a full-time fighter, I think. Um so what do you what do you do? What what do you work? >> Uh so my work I'm um I'm a scientist. I do like research about Parkinson's disease. So yeah, so I find it really interesting um because I came to Ireland first to do my PhD in Gway. Then I did a posttock there. So like working as a researcher and then I recently got this um contract as a scientist in Clark. So now I'm here for the next four years. [laughter] >> Lovely. Yeah. >> Uh, and how do you manage uh training at work, especially in fight camp? Because I suppose it's very hard to manage it. >> Yeah. Like it's it's hard enough to manage, but I feel like I'm a very organized person, so I managed to like fit everything in. Uh, but like usually would be like yeah, work during the day and then I'm more of like an evening training person. I don't really like to like get up early and go and go training. So [laughter] that would always be yeah after work and then um I know many people like might take a rest at the weekend but I like doing train a bit of training at the weekend because those are the days that even if I might have to go to work it's only maybe like an hour and then I have the whole day where I can do a run I can do sprints or you know do different trainings uh compared to what I would be doing during the week where I'm going to the gym hitting pads and sparring and these things. >> Yeah. Okay. And yeah, so far I don't have any more questions. I just want to tell you at the at the end um I should I should tell you from Dave. He thinks you're very underrated fighter. >> Thanks so much. >> He's very impressed. [laughter]