By Danny Jones, @Tidy_MMA on X
On September 10th 2024, former LFA athlete Quemuel Ottoni withdrew from his Season 8 Week 5 Dana White’s Contender Series matchup with Kody Steele during the live broadcast. Per Guilherme Cruz, writing for MMA Fighting, Quemuel posted a video the following day in which he stated that his withdrawal was due to “a mix of everything, the anxiety, seeing the camera, seeing the cutman doing my hands, people I’ve seen the most, and that’s it”. Bruno Murata, Quemuel’s coach, made a statement of his own online – brought to attention by Nolan King in an article for MMA Junkie – in which he stated “I understand that Quemuel’s mental health must come first now”.
In the absence of lived experience, it may be difficult to comprehend the reasoning behind Quemuel’s withdrawal. Candid conversation pertaining to mental health in mixed martial arts, however, should be encouraged. As Black House MMA owner Ilan Xanthakis eloquently discussed in a blog post titled The Mental Game: Overcoming Fear and Anxiety in MMA, “The stigma surrounding mental health issues in combat sports can deter fighters from seeking the help they need… mental health is as important as physical health… seeking support is a sign of strength, not weakness”.
Deserving of reverence for her transparency, surging LFA flyweight Cheyanne Bowers often shares musings on her Instagram relating to mental health and mixed martial arts. Delivered through endearing vignettes, Cheyanne’s candid reflections offer insight and inspiration through courage and vulnerability:
“I spent 20 years of my life trying to take up less space. Avoided stepping on toes, avoided being loud, avoided eye contact, avoided breaking “the rules”, avoided all the parts of me that people deemed different. If I had continued on this path, I’d probably be dead. I got damn close… I don’t have any “secret sauce” behind my evolution. Time, patience, self acceptance, internal work, grace, love, compassion, discipline, and so much more… So I’m not sure what the first step is to rebuilding or rediscovering yourself but taking that step is the most important. And I’m here to help. Even if it’s only one person. The world needs more people chasing their best selves. If you’re still reading my late night, Monday musings; just know I love ya…” – Cheyanne Bowers, 13th February 2024 on Instagram.
“The time between fights has always been difficult for me. Fight camp is constant high pressure, high intensity, hyper focussed work. Then… there’s nothing. Everything and everyone goes back to their normal daily life. Fighters are supposed to enjoy the break, relax, and breathe; but when your pursuit of greatness is told to pause, I often feel lost. Floating without purpose. Thankfully, this time around; I have a network of people who can help me through those feelings. Who are helping me redefine my purpose. For now, I’m still floating…, but it’s easier to remind myself that I am more than a fighter, more than an athlete, more than anything that happens in a cage”- Cheyanne Bowers, 27th October 2023 on Instagram.
“Fighters are often praised for their warrior spirits. But it’s the adversity I’ve faced far outside of the cage that has built my warrior spirit. The obstacles I’ve overcome in the real world have better prepared me for my next fight, more so than any of my previous fights have. When walking out to the cage, it’s not the previous victories that give me strength and courage, but the numerous times I’ve fallen, stood back up and tried again. Don’t fear adversity, don’t avoid challenges. Chase greatness knowing that you’ll likely stumble more than once. It will just make the story that much better” – Cheyanne Bowers, 1st May 2024 on Instagram.
Make no mistake, Cheyanne is a ruthless mixed martial artist. Across thirteen bouts – eight amateur, five professional – the 30-year-old has amassed an 11-2 record in under three-and-a-quarter years. Of those eleven victories, nine were secured inside the distance. She is undefeated at flyweight, with all four victories of her 4-1 professional record – which constitute her current four-bout win-streak – contested at 125lbs. Only Aline Pereira, the sister of current UFC Light Heavyweight Championship holder and LFA alumnus Alex Pereira, has survived the distance with Cheyanne at flyweight. In that instance, Cheyanne entered the bout as the oddsmakers’ underdog yet dominated her Brazilian opponent to a unanimous decision victory, with scorecards of 30-26, 30-26, and 30-25.
Having this proficiency inside the cage, however, is what gives Cheyanne’s mental health musings such significance. Indeed, UFC analyst/commentator and former UFC athlete Michael Bisping said it best himself when UFC’s Alexander Volkanovski eluded to his own mental health struggles in the wake of his loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294; “to see them be so open with their feelings and their emotions and revealing that they are vulnerable and they do have mental health kind of issues here and there will help [others] to come from their own issues, because there’s still this stigmatism that it’s weak… seeing somebody like Volkanovski being so honest will help them come forward”.
On September 20th 2024, Cheyanne returns to the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota for the third time in her career to compete for the Interim LFA Flyweight Championship. Matching up against Veronika Borisova at LFA 193, it will be Cheyanne’s seventh bout with LFA, but her first main event for the promotion. Ahead of the biggest opportunity of her career to date, Cheyanne spoke with LFA.com, and offered candid insight into her personal journey with mental illness.
“I struggled with a super severe eating disorder when I was a teenager” Cheyanne explains. “… Mine was definitely mental health and control based. I was hospitalised for that for a very extended period of time, and that was the first time I was introduced to therapy of any sort. Like most very small-town Midwest people, I did not grow up with knowing that was a resource you could use. It was very frowned upon, that type of stuff… As a teenager, I was like ‘I don’t need this’. Then I quickly realised getting into adulthood, I was like ‘Man I no longer have Mom and Dad to rely on for situations’… all these friendships you had in high school/college disappear just cause of life, and I quickly found myself alone. I do spend a lot of time in my head – I’m very intellectual – and so sometimes that can go south very quickly”.
“My at-the-time boyfriend – now husband – he was like ‘Hey’ I’ve done therapy on-and-off for years, here’s where I go, go check them out see who you like’” Cheyanne continues. “I found [my therapist] Melissa probably three years ago now… I was super sporadic the first year or so, [but have] been super consistent the last couple [of years]”.
“She has made me realise that all the adversity that we go through, all of the challenges, is making it so that we are better prepared for the next one” Cheyanne says. “I used to get in the cycle of ‘Well I can’t do that because I had this happen to me’ or ‘I’m afraid to do that because I had this happen to me’. No. Instead of finding it that way, [I now see that I] already overcame that. [I] already survived that big challenge. [I] use that to build confidence for the next challenge, because they are going to come. Regardless of how beautiful we think our life is, there’s always going to be the next obstacle that we have to overcome. So, I’ve really reframed the ‘Poor me, why did this happen to me’ to ‘Okay I’ve already survived that, I’ve overcome that – let’s use that to give me strength and confidence to move forward into the next one’. [I] know that this ladder of skills built up because of all those things I’ve overcome, to now help me to take that next step up the ladder”.
“Mental health is definitely something I really want to push and advocate for as I start to get this bigger fan base and get a larger reach with people” Cheyanne adds. “Especially in the Midwest. It’s still very kinda hush-hush, and I really want to change that – especially with young adults. We get so caught up in the rat race of life, of trying to be successful – get the next steppingstone, get the house, the car, the marriage, the babies, all that type of stuff. It’s just like we are not on a timeline, we can hit all of those goals. We just have to do it at our own pace”.
“In not just necessarily MMA, but other sports too, I feel like [for] a lot of athletes – or people who are just hobbyists, more so for MMA – the violence that you see on the TV or in the cage, whatever it may be, is a lot of times how we feel internally” Cheyanne explains. “It’s very chaotic – it’s reactive. But being able to display that physically allows us to bring all of that anxiety down. Cause I know every day I go into practice, I have hundreds of tabs open up here [in my head], and by the time I leave, there’s only like four, and I can process and think much better. So, I think it’s kinda our way of taking all of that noise that’s happening in our head, and putting it out into the physical world, and allowing our brains to be like ‘Okay, I can recalibrate here’. It’s definitely a little bit of therapy for me as well”.
Cheyanne exemplifies that one is not defined by their mental illness. For those who find resonance or comfort in her words, know that her transparency is indicative of her strength and resilience. It is through such transparency that conversations surrounding mental health both in, and outside of, mixed martial arts is normalised, and the taboo of such conversations is ultimately vanquished. There is no shame in vulnerability – only strength.
Perhaps it is Great Britain Top Team who captured the value of mental health awareness in mixed martial arts best, in a simple sentence concluding their article Mental Health Awareness in Mixed Martial Arts: Fitness, Benefits, and When to Speak Up – “In a sport where strength is celebrated, let’s remember that seeking support is a sign of strength, too”.
The author extends his utmost gratitude to Cheyanne Bowers and Jamie McClintock for making this article possible.
Image provided by Cheyanne Bowers (@chey.bowers on Instagram); photograph credit to LFA.
