Mama Said Knock You Out: A Mother/Daughter MMA Duo

Joy (left) and Jordyn Edewards train mitts at Ramos Boxing Club in Albany.

When you think about mother daughter activities, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). But mother daughter duo, Joy and Jordyn Edewards, are challenging the norm and kicking butt along the way.

Jordyn Edewards, 22 of Albany, is just rounding off her first year of fighting in amateur MMA. 

“I started training about a year and a half ago,” Jordyn Edewards said. “I ran track in college, but my senior year I decided it just wasn’t for me. I needed another athletic outlet and my mom encouraged me to try boxing.”

Jordyn Edewards shadow boxes before class begins at Ramos Boxing Club in Albany.

Edewards’ mom, Joy Edewards, owns and operates Ramox Boxing Club in Albany. “I encouraged Jordy to train because I thought she needed a change,” Joy Edewards said. 

More than just an athletic outlet, Jordyn Edewards needed something she hadn’t found in track, she needed somewhere she belonged. “I saw the community [my mom] had there and I was struggling a lot in life, and didn’t really have a lot of people, so I tried it.”

Jordyn Edewards raved about the community she found at Ramos Boxing Club and the renewed self-worth the sport had given her. “The thing I love most about boxing is the community,” she said. “I’ve never found a more welcoming group of people, and our gym is probably the most welcoming place I’ve ever found.”

Having run track for so long, Jordyn really missed the connections she had doing team sports in the past. “Yes, [boxing] is an individual sport, but the team aspect of it, and finding people with the same goals is amazing,” she remarked. “We were all a little lost before we found fighting, and our fight group is like a group of misfits who became friends.”

Neither Jordyn nor Joy thought Jordyn would ever take the sport further than training, but it had a bigger impact on Jordyn than either of them realized it would. “I came to the gym just to work out and swore I’d never fight,” Jordyn Edewards remembers. “But here I am.”

Joy Edewards has had her fair share of experience with fighting. Though the mother of five didn’t discover her love for mixed martial arts until her mid-thirties, she had a fighting career which consisted of five MMA fights.

“We watched UFC all the time, and my husband was always like, ‘You can do this,’” said Joy Edewards. “Then, one day, he said, ‘Come on, I got you a present!’ He dropped me off at the jiu jitsu gym in Corvallis, and that was it. I fell in love with it.”

So when Jordyn made the decision to fight, Joy Edwards was surprised, but ecstatic. She said, “I totally encouraged it.”

Jordyn "Jordy" Edewards wins her MMA match in Portland on Aug. 26.

When injuries forced Joy Edewards to stop competing, she took over Victory Gym, now Ramos Boxing Club, and began her career as a coach and trainer. Joy Edewards co-coaches the competition team, and Jordyn Edewards helps with some of the younger kids.

Growing up the oldest of five children, Jordyn found a love for helping kids. She graduated from Bushnell University with a degree in education and she says, “my main career goal, after I pursue my fighting career, is to become an eighth-grade teacher.” 

Jordyn Edewards teaches a young boxer how to use the heavy bag during the Beginning Boxing Class at Ramox Boxing Club.

“I have a huge heart for kids and for teaching,” Jordyn Edewards continued. “I don’t think my teaching goal is too far off, but I’m taking a couple of years to pursue fighting while I’m young.”

Jordyn currently trains full-time; practicing three or four times a day, six or seven days a week. In the last year, she has had 10 amateur fights, and likes to stay in fighting shape.

“Boxing is my base and my main one, but I also train in jiu jitsu,  mma, wrestling, a big mixture of everything,” Jordyn Edewards said. “But as a girl, I’m usually the only, or one of maybe two girls in a gym, and  finding sparring partners can be really hard. I train with the guys a lot, but they have to bring their power down to my level because I’m so much smaller.”

Standing just 5’3, and weighing 115 lbs, finding other females her size to train with can be a challenge. She and her mom often have to travel to California, and even as far away as Miami for weeks at a time to train with other female fighters.

“Because my mom has fought before, having her knowledge and connections has really helped me out,” said Jordyn Edewards. “And having her with me all the time, like when we travel, has been really special.” 

Jordyn concedes that, “There are days where it’s difficult having my mom, who I’m so close with, train me.” But overall she sees the immense benefits of having her mom as her trainer. “She gets me and understands what I’m going through which has been really helpful as a fighter because our mental state is so important and that is something I wouldn't trade for the world.”

Joy Edewards is also enjoying their arrangement. “Being Jordy’s coach makes me pretty proud,” she said. “Maybe I’m living vicariously through her a little bit because I was older when I started [fighting], so I didn’t have the same opportunity because I was too old to be a successful pro or anything. But knowing that she has the talent to make it to the next level if she wants to… It’s going to be fun just to walk beside her.”

Joy and Jordyn Edwards pose after a workout.

Along with being Jordyn’s main trainer, Joy Edewards also corners her daughter during fights.

“Being a mom in the corner is hard and it took me a long time, and I still haven’t completely done it, but I’m working on separating the mom from the coach,” Joy Edewards said. “I’ve talked to dads who do it and they’ve helped me to turn off the parent side when I’m coaching.”

“Having my mom in my corner has been huge,” Jordyn Edewards said. “I know there’s a lot of fighters who have their dad in their corner, but I think  a mother-daughter deal is something the world hasn’t really seen before, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Jordy Edewards is currently booked to fight at ‘Arena Wars’ on Nov. 12 in Klamath Falls. Tickets are available at Aftontickets.com. 

If you’d like more information about Ramos Boxing Club, you can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ramosboxingvictory/.