Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Debater Now Mixed Martial Arts Pro

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Emily Corso graduated from Sitka High School in 2006 as a two-time debate letter winner who was headed to Reed College in Portland, Ore.
    Now she can list “fighter” as her occupation when filing her yearly tax return.

Emily Corso, left, squares off at a recent match. (Photo provided)

    Corso, 26, turned a Reed P.E. requirement into an interest in jiu jitsu. She then turned an interest in jiu jitsu into an interest in competitive fighting and she’s transformed that into a profession. And not just a “making some money on the side” profession. That P.E. class has led to a “quit her job and pay the bills as an athlete” profession.
    “I was just doing it for self-defense at first,” Corso said. “One of those ‘small-town kids wants to feel comfortable in the big city’ sort of things.”
    Corso is now 3-0 as a professional mixed martial arts fighter, having won her third bout two weeks ago. She won twice by submission and once by technical submission, with all three bouts ending in the first round. Corso was a talented debater and a good student, but she said she’s as surprised as anyone that she took to competitive fighting.
    “I don’t think a lot of people thought it made sense,” she said. “No one was saying, ‘oh, yeah I always thought you’d become a professional fighter.’”
    Corso said one of the reasons she took to fighting is because it made her work for success in a way that her other talents did not.
    “I had that little surge of enjoyment at the beginning. It was the first thing were I really wanted to work hard at it. At school it was really easy and I just did what I needed to to get good grades, but with this, the motivation is really inherent every day in practice,” Corso said.
    Corso got better as she practiced, and as she improved she found that she spent more of her life in the gym or on the mat.
    “I didn’t expect it to be this thing. But it’s just kind of taken up more and more of my life over the years,” she said.
    Corso has been at it for almost eight years now, and the sport has taken up enough of her life that she was willing to turn down a “dream offer” at a nonprofit to stick with her training.
    “I actually got an offer for the type of job I thought I always wanted,” Corso said. “It was the type of job I always hoped I could get but I told them thanks but no thanks.”
    In turning down the job, Corso committed to a career of morning meetings with the squat rack and having her footwork micromanaged by a coach, none of which makes Corso regret her decision.
    “Initially, when I was getting ready to tell them no, I was worried about it. When I did it, though, it felt really really good.”
    Of course, Corso’s success in the ring is another reason to believe she made the right choice. Corso, who fights at 125 pounds, finished off two of her first three opponents in under three minutes. Both times she won by submission via a rear-naked choke hold: a technique in which a fighter gets behind the opponent and wraps an arm around the opponent’s neck, allowing them to squeeze off the opponent’s oxygen supply between their forearm and bicep.
    The move was a frequent staple of Corso’s amateur fights – where she went 9-1 –  and is indicative of her style, which is to get opponents to the ground rather than square off with them like a boxer. Mixed martial arts, as the name would suggest, invites a variety of fighting styles. Corso likes to put her work in on the ground and she said having to apply her strategy to someone else’s style adds a cerebral component to the sport that appeals to her.
    “I’m definitely more of a submission artist. They say it’s like chess, right: everyone knows all the moves and all the routes to victory. It’s just a matter of taking advantage of opportunities. The idea is to get to yours before they get theirs,” Corso said.
    That nuance to the sport allows Corso to approach her training and her matches from the position of a strategist rather than just a brawler, she said.
    “There are a lot of people in the community that have kind of a chip on their shoulder ... In the beginning there were a lot of people who were just street tough,” Corso said. “The new generation of people take a different approach and that’s where I am. I like a lot more intellectual and analytical approach to fighting.”
    Corso said she’s gotten better and smarter about fighting. She’s also gotten more comfortable in the ring. She still gets excited for matches but now it comes more from anticipation than nerves.
    “The excitement is absolutely still there. When I started out I was really nervous. Every time I had that nervous, adrenaline, shaky feeling for the first few fights and now I’m just giddy the day of a fight and I’m so amazed that I get to fight that day,” Corso said.
    Naturally, when Corso took an interest that involved two people going toe-to-toe in a cage she also took on the concerns of her friends and family. MMA is historically a safer sport than the public assumes it to be (men’s MMA has fewer injuries than football) and as a ground fighter Corso isn’t taking many punches. She said she’s taken her share of bruises and dings but nothing that causes her to worry.
    “Everyone else definitely does a lot of worrying for me,” she said. “I’ve had minor injuries like joint injuries but I’m not worried any more about being crippled doing this.”
    While she’s not concerned with her own health, she does worry about how her parents Deb Corso and Tom Corso might handle watching her fight. Deb Corso, who’s currently working on a masters in Fairbanks, said she’s not yet made it to see her daughter fight, partly because of distance but also because of Emily’s concerns.
    “She thought I would climb over the cage,” Deb quipped. “I think it’s been more for my protection in her mind.”
    Deb said she’s not overly concerned that her daughter will get hurt, adding that she remembers enough from her own youth to know that boldness is a part of success.
    “You just got to take risks,” Deb said.
    As a kid, Emily kept detailed lists of goals and what she wanted to accomplish, her mother said. While Deb doesn’t remember ever seeing “professional fighter” on the list, she’s not surprised that the same drive has pushed her to being a good fighter.
    “Once I wrapped my mind around what she’s doing and I started researching MMA a little bit I realized that it suits her really well,” Deb said. “When she was younger she was going to be a veterinarian and she was going to win Nobel prizes.” 
    All of which there’s still time for. Emily Corso said she’s not sure how long she’ll compete but she’s going to make a run as a professional and see how far it carries her. After that, her mother said, there will be plenty of time to chase down those Nobel prizes.
    “It’s not going to change the world right now and I know that,” Deb said. “She’ll move into that other realm when she gets there, like we all do, and when she gets there she’ll do great but right now she’s doing exactly what she needs to do.”
    “She’s a gladiator, man. I’m really proud of her and I’m happy for her.”