Baldwin County girls wrestler has UFC aspirations
Catherine Mullis is proving that high school wrestling doesn't just belong to the boys, but her fighting dreams go way beyond the high school circuit.
' It's what I've loved forever'
Catherine Mullis remembers the first time she stepped on a wrestling mat.
"My dad woke up one morning and said, 'Get up, you're going to wrestling practice,'" Catherine said.
While that might seem like a strange request from dad to daughter, wrestling is a part of the Frank and Catherine Mullis master plan.
"I've wanted to do MMA since I was, gosh, 5 years old, since before they were letting women in the UFC," Catherine said. "I was like, ''I'm gonna be the first woman in the UFC.'"
Catherine's martial artist dad, Frank, has a large role in that dream. He's been teaching martial arts for over 20 years.
"She was born literally watching UFC, because I was watching UFC videos while her mother was giving birth to her, so that's what I think got it in her mind," Frank said.
Mixed martial arts stayed on Catherine's brain. Thanks to coaxing from dad, Catherine added wrestling to her repertoire at Baldwin High School and she is dominating.
She won USA state wrestling as a 9th grader, came in fourth at the GHSA state tournament last year and set GHSA state history with the first pin ever in the girl's tournament.
She's not just wrestling girls, though -- she has no qualms about taking on the boys.
"'Man, your guy got beat by a girl.' Tough, like, I wrestle like the rest of you. I put in work like the rest of you," Catherine said about facing jealous boys. "A lot of it is, 'I know I do jujitsu, so if I really wanted to choke any of y'all, you would all be unconscious.'"
She gets her warrior spirit at the Milledgeville Academy of Mixed Martial Arts, owned by Frank. He teaches jujitsu, Muay Thai, and other fighting styles.
It's here she hopes to launch a professional fighting career. However, Frank wasn't so sure at first.
"I didn't want her to get punched in the head for a living," he said. "We talked and she said this was her dream and I said, 'If this is your dream, then let's make it happen.'"
PHOTOS: Baldwin County girls wrestler has UFC aspirations
Catherine is the only of Frank's four girls to pick up fighting, and it's created a special bond.
"I mean, it's what I've loved forever even before I was allowed on the mat, because I always saw my dad doing it," Catherine said. "I've really connected with him over it. Not many people can say they have things with their parents that they can just bond over."
While the pair normally get along very well, having professional fighting dreams and working towards that goal has caused some stress in the relationship at times.
"It's been something that's brought us closer together and, like I said, there's been tension. It's hard for any parent not to try and live through your kid," Frank said.
Frank is involved but leaves much of Catherine's training to others.
He's content with watching her on the mat, knowing one day she'll be on the big stages of martial arts.
"I want to be up there. I want to be in the world of MMA. That's what I want to do with my life. That's who I am," Catherine said.
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