Tara LaRosa

Tara Nicole LaRosa (born January 8, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist and grappler whose most high-profile successes occurred while competing in BodogFight, where she became the first and only BodogFight Women's Bantamweight (135 lbs) Champion.

She later defeated HOOKnSHOOT 125-pound champion Cody Welchlin in a non-title bout at a HOOKnSHOOT/BodogFight co-sponsored event.

LaRosa has spent most of her career competing at bantamweight, although her natural weight class is the flyweight division.

She dominated the bantamweight division during her seven years in it, and became a flyweight

She earned a field hockey scholarship to attend Catawba College between 1996 and 2000.

LaRosa graduated with a degree in physical education.

While in college, LaRosa started training in judo and jiu jitsu.

Her membership in the college's judo club led to her competing in tournaments.

LaRosa's first MMA fight was an April 2002 bantamweight bout against Shelby Walker in HOOKnSHOOT.

She used her judo skills to get Walker to the ground, get the full mount and landed punches that led Walker to tap the canvas with her right hand at almost three minutes in the fight.

LaRosa's next opponent was Angela Wilson on another HOOKnSHOOT card.

LaRosa won when she hurt Wilson with a right knee, obtained full mount on the ground and unleashed punches, which resulted in a TKO win at 4:59 in round 1.

At a Shooto Americas event, LaRosa submitted Ginele Marquez by armbar.

LaRosa's first loss came in May 2003 at the hands of Jennifer Howe, who was then considered to be the top female fighter in MMA.

With weeks notice LaRosa replaced Howe's original opponent and competed for the vacant HooknShoot flyweight title.

She was defeated by TKO after 2 minutes in the first round.

She took a year off from MMA competition and returned to face and defeat Linda Langerak.

LaRosa faced Alisa Cantwell at XFO 4 on December 3, 2004.

She won the fight by armbar submission.

It was her quickest victory, despite her illness on the plane

en route to the Lakemoor location of the bout.

During 2006, LaRosa trained and fought out of Rich Guerin's Yakima MMA gym in Yakima.

She faced Hitomi Akano at MFC: USA vs. Russia 3 on June 3, 2006, and won the fight by unanimous decision.

LaRosa signed with BodogFight and debut against then #2 ranked Amanda Buckner in a highly touted 3 round battle in Costa Rica.

Starting in April 2007, she trained out of Charles McCarthy's American Top Team affiliate for 6 months in Boca Raton.

In September 2007 she joined the Philadelphia Fight Factory and trained with fighters like Zach Makovsky and Eddie Alvarez.

LaRosa trained at Ivan Salaverry MMA in Seattle.

in 2009.

Per Fight Matrix, she was #1 at flyweight between 2010 and 2012.

She holds wins over top mixed martial arts fighters such as Amanda Buckner, Kelly Kobold, Shayna Baszler, Alexis Davis, Julie Kedzie, Sally Krumdiack and Takayo Hashi.

She has lived in eight different cities over the course of a decade in order to train at different gyms.

Her favorite sport outside of MMA is field hockey, which she played for 12 years after starting in the 5th grade.

She moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in January 2013 to train at Jackson's Mixed Martial Arts.

On December 6, 2013, LaRosa was inducted in the New Jersey Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

LaRosa grew up in her native Woodstown, New Jersey.

She attended the now defunct St. James Catholic High School.

A love of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris action films inspired her to enroll in judo.

Years later, she moved into mixed martial arts training and trained with Royce Gracie.

Her first venture into martial arts was through shotokan when she was 17.

LaRosa was active in field hockey, basketball, and softball.