MARK ETHERIDGE: Kiara Fegen goes from being bullied at school to winning mixed martial arts gold

Within 10 years she has gone from being bullied at school, to busting her knee good and proper, to picking up a bronze and now finally a gold medal at the 2023 and 2024 International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) world championships respectively.

That’s the remarkable story of Gauteng’s Kiara Fegen, who had the bonus of a 23rd birthday to celebrate just a week after coming back from the 2024 championships in Uzbekistan earlier in November with a lightweight gold medal.

“I was having a hard time at school with some girls bullying me and asked my parents to teach me how to fight,” recalls East Rand-based Fegen.

“They found a ju-jitsu gym in Alberton for me. But my first night of training I absolutely hated it … I didn’t like the fitness or people being in my personal space and I remember getting home that night and telling my parents that I wasn’t going back. My dad replied by saying: ‘Well it’s a three-month contract so you have to go back’.”

A few months later the bug had bitten and because her skills had developed so quickly, she was fighting boys her own weight group. Now she’s been doing ju-jitsu for 10 years (she has a purple belt) and added mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mix for the past four of those years.

After she moved to the Achilles gym, it brought in specialist
ju-jitsu coach Rulof Jackson, whose gym was affiliated with the well-known House of Tinkerbell/Arte Suave gym in Springs.

Young Fegen was happy in more ways than one. “It worked out perfectly because I had a big crush on a guy that trained in Springs, [fellow MMA fighter] Nathanial ‘Kakarot’ Komana.”

Things were looking good but after the crush came a crash as she injured her knee in September 2022 while competing at the Submission Kings competition.

She tried to shrug it off as part of MMA but four weeks later entered a fundraiser competition to help her and the SA team get to the 2022 IMMAF world champs, which were rescheduled to February 2023.

“In that first match I went for a submission and my opponent landed on me weirdly and I felt my leg go again.”

Four weeks of hobbling about in a knee brace saw no improvement and she admitted to her mom, Michelle, and mom’s partner, Calvin van Zyl, that she could barely lift her leg.

Next step was a doctor, who had trained under an orthopaedic surgeon, and who sent her straight to the emergency room.

“I wasn’t very happy with the surgeon and begged him to only do surgery after the world champs but after the MRI scan we saw that it had to be done immediately, exactly a week before my 21st birthday!”

Good choice as, after operating, the surgeon told her that she’d severed her posterior cruciate ligament, had a minor tear in her anterior cruciate ligament and had two tears in her meniscus.

The recovery period given was nine months and it was a dark time for Fegen, family and friends. “I was in such pain but was too scared to take many of the pain pills because one of them was an opioid.”

Family and friends stuck with her though and early 2023 saw her using the off-time to make her and Komana’s relationship official on January 10. The latter has been her main MMA coach for the past few years.

A lot of hard work but no formal competitions saw her finally making the team for 2023 world champs through the understanding of SA team coaches Dwain Meredith and William Oberholzer.

That was in Tirana, Albania, where she lost in the second round of the semifinals. “Getting the bronze medal wasn’t bad considering it was my first competition back from injury.”

This year has seen her back to full strength and she was confident going into the world championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

It didn’t help though that the entire five-strong SA team (reduced from 20 due to a lack of funding) suffered from upset stomachs through the entire competition, yet they still brought back three medals.

Fegen stands 1.66m tall and normally weighs about 68.5kg. But to put it into perspective: “I was fighting at lightweight (70.3kg and under) and I ended up fighting both my matches at 66kg because I couldn’t get up to 70kg. 

Her first bout came in the semifinal against Angola’s Maria Liberal. “I knew she was mainly a boxer so I got things to the ground as quickly as possible and managed to finish things off in the first round.”

Onto the final against Finland’s Iris Nihti. “I watched her first fight and saw a few gaps and realised if I pressured her I could capitalise. In the warm-ups one of my teammates, JJ Karagiannidis, saw she was doing a lot of double-leg work and knew I could ninja-choke her … and it turned out exactly that way. I did just that and won gold in the first round.”

There’s the inevitable question: does the lure of Ultimate Fight Championships (UFC) draw her in? “One day … not many people make it but it doesn’t hurt to dream. I used to watch Ronda Rousey a lot because I was always compared to her because of how many submissions she goes for, and Valentina Shevchenko because she’s so quick on her feet and I aspire to kick like she does one day.”

Meanwhile, the bullies are a distant memory. “My ju-jitsu gave me the confidence of knowing I could easily defend myself.”

She didn’t even need a 23rd birthday present on her return to SA. “Everyone kept asking what I wanted but all I wanted was to get the gold at the 2024 IMMAF World Championships. And I did that.”

National team coach and MMA SA board member William Oberholzer (who also runs the Forge Academy in KwaZulu-Natal) says the sport is “healthy and growing”.

“In the past few months alone, we have had promotions in Gauteng, the North West KZN, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape. These promotions are growing and providing great platforms for youth, junior and senior athletes.”

Oberholzer says this year’s nationals, held in Durban, were the best attended yet.

“This year MMA SA national teams have attended the IMMAF Youth World Championships in Abu Dhabi, IMMAF Africa Championships in Namibia and most recently the Senior/Junior IMMAF World Championships in Uzbekistan. Travelling and competing at these events is a huge undertaking for the teams as the financial costs are self-funded. We are very proud of everyone involved in each of these ventures.”

His thoughts on SA’s latest golden girl?

“Kiara is a pleasure to work with — she has goals and will work to achieve them. I believe she can do amazing things in the world of MMA.”