Rosi Sexton

Rosemary Ann Sexton (born 16 July 1977) is a British athlete, sports therapist, osteopath, and politician.

Sexton was a musician and played with the Reading Youth Orchestra while at school (from 1991 to 1995).

She reached grade 7 in cello and grade 8 in piano, then became an Associate of the London College of Music Examinations (piano).

In November 1994, aged 17, she played in the Royal Albert Hall, with the Reading Youth Orchestra.

She also played the organ ("though I never got very good").

In 1995, Sexton was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, where she took a first class degree in mathematics (1998).

Her tutor in mathematics was Tim Gowers.

She preferred pure maths: her particular interests were logic, combinatorics and number theory.

She then moved to the University of Manchester, where she achieved a Master of Science (MSc) degree in mathematical logic in 2000.

She went on to complete a PhD in theoretical computer science.

Her supervisor was Harold Simmons who held a joint position in the School of Mathematics and the Department of Computer Science, with whom she wrote two papers Point-sensitive and point-free patch constructions.

and An ordinal indexed hierarchy of separation properties.

The first of these papers has eight citations.

Sexton's academic interests have been discussed in an interview by David Colquhoun.

In 2000, after 10 years' experience in martial arts, she decided to train in Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as a way of proving to herself that what she had learned was applicable to real life.

A clue to the reason for this career change may be found in her comment "The other things I did, the music, the maths, just weren't quite hard enough"

Sexton made her mixed martial arts debut on 11 May 2002.

She won her first five fights before moving up in weight to face Gina Carano on 15 September 2006.

Sexton was defeated by knockout late in the second round.

Sexton debuted for BodogFight on 16 December 2006 and upset Brazilian submission specialist Carina Damm with an armbar late in the first round.

On 17 February 2007, Sexton faced Japanese striker "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba at a BodogFight event in Costa Rica.

Sexton won the fight by Technical Decision in the second round after Sunaba suffered a serious ankle injury.

Sexton fought once more for BodogFight and submitted Julia Berezikova on 24 August 2007.

At the same time, she trained in osteopathy, receiving a degree in that subject from Oxford Brookes University in 2010.

She currently practices as an Osteopath in the Birmingham (Solihull) area, with a particular interest in sports injuries and evidence-based practice.

She has written about the problem of performance-enhancing drugs (doping) in combat sports, and is a supporter of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, VADA.

She is a spokesperson for SafeMMA, an organisation dedicated to ensuring safety of competitors, and she runs a combat sports injury clinic.

She had a career in mixed martial arts (MMA), from which she retired in 2014.

In 2018, aged 41, she was promoted to black belt in BJJ by Paul Rimmer.

In May 2019, Sexton was elected as a Green Party councillor in the Shirley West ward of the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.

In the same election, her partner Stephen Caudwell was elected as Green Party councillor for the Castle Bromwich ward.

She ran in Solihull as a parliamentary candidate in the 2019 general election, losing to Julian Knight and coming in fourth with 3.7% of the vote.

In 2020, Sexton ran in the Green Party leadership election and came second.

Sexton was born in Versailles, France but moved to Britain at a young age, and grew up and received her education in the United Kingdom.

She attended Kendrick School, Reading.

Her father commented "what consistently runs through Rosi’s life is winning: she has a need to win. Her physics teacher said ‘Rosi has a meticulous approach to her studies and nothing short of perfection satisfies her' ".

On 28 June 2020, it was announced that Sexton would stand as a candidate in the Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.

The results were announced on 9 September 2020: Sexton came second, beaten by incumbent leaders Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry.

Sexton had been involved in martial arts since she was at school.

She already held dan grades in jujutsu and Taekwondo.