In front of more than 2,500 spectators gathered at the Zénith de Paris, Blot, 1.61 m, lost against the Lithuanian Ernesta Kareckaite, fifteen years younger and fifteen centimeters more, on a split decision of the judges.

At the dawn of her forties, she thus suffered her first defeat in mixed martial arts, she who had climbed in the past on numerous podiums in judo, wrestling or sambo.

For AFP, the Breton returns to her career in combat sports.

"I started with judo at the age of 5, I left for sports-studies at 15 and I went to Paris at 18 to join Insep", she explains.

A career as a judoka therefore seemed all mapped out, but the path turned out to be more winding than expected.

For lack of sufficient results to enter the France team, she decided at the age of 25 to leave the tatami mats and became a train controller at the SNCF.

Triple French Judo Champion

Then after a break of more than a year, she finally resumed judo in parallel with her work: this is where the click came and at the age of 30 she won the first of her three titles of champion of France.

“Having a stable job relaxed me. I no longer had a Damocles sword over my head telling me + if you lose, you have nothing, you will be forced to struggling +. There I knew that if I lost, I had a life, I had a job.

But despite her progress, she failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016, the selectors preferring to bet on a younger judoka, and she then turned to wrestling.

"I did the world championships but I was up against girls who had years of struggle, I only had two or three. We had to face the facts".

Laetitia Blot, French mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, poses in Paris on January 20, 2023 © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

So in 2019, when the discipline was about to be legalized in France, those around her convinced her to take up MMA.

"They told me: + With your track record, it's sure you'll get there +. At first I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to damage my face," she recalls.

"They showed me photos and they said to me + Don't worry, look, they are pretty girls, Ronda Rousey she is beautiful +. They managed to persuade me thanks to that".

"It's inhumane"

"I didn't have any MMA culture at all, I hadn't looked into the question and I threw myself into it as a new challenge because I still had some up my sleeve. Inch'Allah, I arrived , I was in a pinch,” she jokes.

But to lead his career, sacrifices are necessary.

"It's inhuman", blows the one who had to take leave to prepare for her fight.

"I put my social life aside, my life as a woman aside. Between work and my sport, I have no rest. I spend my life 7 days a week, either doing one or doing the other, or to do both. It's violent".

Despite her defeat on Sunday, Laëtitia Blot still aims bigger and dreams of the UFC, the most prestigious of MMA leagues.

"It's a goal, we'll see. (To access the UFC), you have to win but also that they are interested in you. They are the ones who decide, and in addition they also decide in relation to your Instagram, to your followers. I am day to day, my goal is to win and that's it".

France's Laetitia Blot (l.) faces Lithuania's Ernesta Kareckaite (r.), in the fight for the title of flyweight world champion, during the mixed martial arts event Hexagone MMA 6, at the Zénith de Paris , January 22, 2023 © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

She will have the opportunity to prove it during her next fight with the Hexagone MMA organization, on June 3 in Béziers.

© 2023 AFP