Andy “The Crasian” Nguyen: “I love to promote WMMA”
Andy “ The Crasian” Nguyen’s journey with MMA originally began as a spectator at an MMA event about a decade ago. Nguyen jokes she initially wasn’t impressed with the half naked men slugging it out in the cage but when two female strawweights came out to fight she exclaimed “Hold my beer!”, ran to the cage to watch the fight, and decided she was going to do it.
A short while later she had her first amateur mixed martial arts fight lined up but unfortunately her opponent didn’t show. Nguyen didn’t want to pay for a ticket so she entered the promotion’s ring girl contest and won that. Despite this minor inconvenience, Nguyen would eventually get an opponent that showed up and win her first amateur MMA fight within three months of seeing her first live MMA fight.
These days Nguyen is a pro fighter with 15 professional bouts to her name. She has fought for promotions such as KOTC, Bellator, Rizin, and Legacy. She also is now a matchmaker for King of the Cage, something she never gave much consideration to until the opportunity presented itself, stating “KOTC was coming close to my hometown. I wanted to fight, then I wanted to be a ring girl for my teammates. Then I decided, f*ck it, I can match make the whole region.”
She admits her first was incredibly stressful but now she’s on her fifth event and says it’s gotten much easier for her. She enjoys herself, claiming “I like to watch ALL the fights now and see the outcome of my matches. It’s pretty badass actually. I’m going long term with KOTC because I enjoy the staff.”
Nguyen is currently navigating her way through the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, stating, “This quarantine had so many challenges, in different ways and aspects of life. It was weird at first like we were all in a movie. Then trying to stay focused and fit was extremely difficult because the gyms were closed. My husband and I had to spend a lot of money towards equipment to improvise. We also spent a lot of time together and that’s challenging also. I’m now not only a matchmaker but a chef, baker and barber to him (laughs).”
Now that MMA events are allowed to take place again in certain areas, Nguyen is matchmaking for KOTC’s return card for July 25th in Augusta, GA. “The Crasian” says her advice to young up and coming fighters is ‘to stay as active as possible to gain not only fight, but life experience as well.’
Moving forward, Nguyen says she’d like to match make more events, stating “I love to promote WMMA. I enjoy designing posters and fight gear. All my fight gear has been designed by me.”
