Katja Kankaanpää
| Katja Kankaanpää | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Katja Kalliokoski June 30, 1981 Seinäjoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland |
| Other names | Killer Bunny |
| Residence | Seinäjoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) |
| Weight | 115 lb (52 kg; 8 st 3 lb) |
| Division | Strawweight |
| Style | Karate, BJJ, Submission wrestling |
| Fighting out of | Seinajoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland |
| Team | MMA Seinajoki / Team Botnia Punishment |
| Trainer | Marcelo Giudici, Jarkko Latomäki |
| Rank | Purple belt in BJJ |
| Years active | 2010-2015 |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 14 |
| Wins | 10 |
| By knockout | 1 |
| By submission | 4 |
| By decision | 5 |
| Losses | 3 |
| By submission | 1 |
| By decision | 2 |
| Draws | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Website | [1] |
| Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
Katja Kankaanpää (Finnish: [ˈkɑtjɑ ˈkɑŋkɑːnpæː], born June 30, 1981) is a Finnish former mixed martial artist who competed in the strawweight division. She is currently signed with Invicta FC. Kankaanpää started martial arts training at her teens when she was 15 years old with Goju-ryu karate. Later she had interest about combat sports by training submission wrestling and other combat arts. Katja leads the Nordic (all Skandinavia) strawweight rankings and Finnish women, all weight classes MMA rankings. On January 2, 2015 she was awarded 'Nordic Female Fighter of the Year'. The same month, Finnish sports journalists honored her as 'Sportswoman of 2014', category MMA. In addition to her career in MMA, the BJJ purple belt competes in submission wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments. As of September 13, 2015 she retired from MMA.
Her debut fight against Paulina Suska at Oulu Fight 2, was won by unanimous decision. In her next three fights versus Dalia Grakulskyte, Niina Aaltonen and Ekaterina Tarnavskaja Kankaanpää was able to achieve an untimely victory by submission or TKO. The next five fights went the whole distance with four unanimous decision wins against Karla Benitez, Mei Yamaguchi, Aisling Daly and Juliana Carneiro Lima. Only against Simona Soukupova she fought to a split draw. On May 17, 2014 Katja returned to the cage at Lappeenranta Fight Night 10 in Finland where she defeated Ukrainian Alyona Rassohyna via submission in round 2. This fight took place outside her InvictaFC contract.
According to her manager, Kankaanpää took the fight against Daly in Cage Warriors to get Invicta's attention. Kankaanpää was offered a contract with Invicta Fighting Championships immediately after she emerged victorious from the fight with Daly. Invicta initially wanted longer deal, but eventually agreed with Kankaanpää and closed a three-fight contract in early 2013.
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