Photo via Charmaine Tweet Sherdog page
Charmaine Tweet Talks Pallas Athena WFC Role and Kickoff Card
Charmaine Tweet is an Invicta FC veteran with a wealth of experience. Knowledge that is now being used to help the next generation of women’s MMA fighters.
Tweet is the Pallas Athena Women’s Fighting Championship event/ fight manager and PAWFC 1 is so close.
I spoke with Charmaine Tweet ahead of the promotion’s kickoff show on January 15th in Calgary, Alberta. Excerpts from our chat are below.
The star power in the PAWFC broadcast team and among the event’s special guests
“I mean, that’s one of the reasons I’m enjoying doing these interviews right now, too. To get me used to talking again, right? Not that I wasn’t talking before. But for a little background since I last fought, I actually became a correctional officer. So the types of discussions I would have are completely different. It’s nice to do these interviews and get used to the MMA world again, prior to me stepping into the cage to talk to the girls. So rather than doing color commentary, we’ve actually hired Felicia Spencer. To come up and do the color commentary with our other two commentators. What I’m going to be doing is almost kind of like a Joe Rogan-type role.”
Charmaine Tweet continued, “Where I will be interviewing the girls post-fight, pre-fight that sort of thing… You know, I kind of giggle because it’s like, we have no featherweights in the cage as of yet. But the featherweights that are going to be around the cage. I mean, it’s just amazing the names we have. We have Felicia, we have myself, and then of course we have the GOAT. We have Cris Cyborg doing a guest appearance there. So it’s really, really interesting the talent that’s going to be there. Inside the cage and outside of the cage.”
Charmaine Tweet
Having time away from combat sports to reignite the passion that Tweet has for it
“I had to step away from it and find something that was going to reinvigorate me. My last fight was actually a Thai boxing match in 2018. And I was looking down at the ring. As I was watching all the other fights go on. Because we were co-main event, end of the night type of thing. I was just looking down at the ring and I was like, You know what, I don’t wanna do this anymore.”
“This is the last time I ever have to step in there. And I was tired. I was burned out, my body was breaking down, and I just at that point did not want to do it anymore. What I found was that if I watched it, or if I involved myself in the MMA world, I’d start to get that itch again. But not quite enough to want to do it.”
“So it was a really weird time for me. Because I think every fighter always thinks that they have one last one in them. And watching it would make me think oh, yeah, you know what? I have one last one in me. And my body was telling me otherwise. But I didn’t like that. That back and forth that was going on in my brain. So I just said, Nope, I’m not watching it. I’m not talking about it. I’m not doing anything with MMA anymore.”
Charmaine Tweet continued, “Then this summer, Allan (White) and Clay (Belitski) had approached me and they had actually approached me to fight. I was still at the point where I was like, no. Don’t really want to step in the cage. I don’t want to do the work that it would take me to get down to fight weight. And no, I’m not really interested. Then they came at me with how would you like to work for us then? And that sparked my interest.”
Pallas Athena Women’s Fighting Championship
The camaraderie that exists between fighters who’ve shared a cage and reuniting with Cris Cyborg at PAWFC 1
“I’m super excited to get to this event and see Cris (Cyborg) again. This will be the first time I’ve seen her actually since we fought in LA. My coach is actually friends with Rose and Havey. And he had gone out with them that night after the fight. They kept calling me to say hey, Charmaine. Come out to the bar with us. I was like guys, I can’t. My nose is still bleeding. I can’t leave the hotel room. I’m gushing blood everywhere still. I haven’t seen her since we gave each other a hug in the dressing room after the fight. So it’ll be nice to catch up.”
Sarah Kaufman vs Claudia Leite vying for the PAWFC bantamweight championship
“That fight was actually contracted before I started working with Pallas. I started working with them in mid-August. So that fight was already in the works. Our matchmaker had that one set up. I know he has a lot of contacts in the fight world. So I think he just was talking with Marcello down in Brazil and found that opponent for Sarah (Kaufman). I’m excited for that fight. And I think it’ll be interesting. You know, I’ve watched a little bit of tape on Claudia (Leite).”
Charmaine Tweet continued, “I was getting ready to take on this role and she is no slouch. That girl can take a punch. She has a strong ground game. I never really noticed too much about her submissions. But she can hold her own on the ground, she’s got good top control. So I don’t know that it’s necessarily going to be a walk in the park for Sarah. Now having said that, Sarah comes with a ton of experience. A lot of times experience can outweigh the skills that a newcomer is bringing in. But it should be an interesting fight.”
PAWFC
Laura Fontoura vs Andy Nguyen in the event’s co-feature fighting for the PAWFC strawweight championship
“That one ended up coming about because we had lost the original opponent for Laura. The opponent we were working on for Andy, that one fell through. So it didn’t take very long for us to look at the matchup and go, that’s one we have to do. I think it’s very fitting for Andy to take on that championship bout also. Considering all the experience she does have, as you had mentioned. I don’t know. I don’t want to make any predictions as to what’s going to happen there. Veteran against the young fighter again. A lot of people would look at it and go well, you know that young fighter has got the speed, the stamina. Like what is she 21 I think? Not super old.”
“When you look at the fight game, typically you tend to think that those younger fighters even though they don’t have as much experience they have the stamina to go, go, go, go, go. But I mean when you look back, I also took on somebody it was a very similar age spread. Someone who was knocking people out left, right, and center. I don’t think she had a loss on her record.”
Charmaine Tweet continued, “I like to call it and no offense to Andy, I’m not saying anything about Andy being old, but I’d like to refer to it as that old lady strength. Old lady strength, old lady experience right? Like that’s hard to discount when you look at the fight game. Not calling you old, Andy!”
PAWFC 1
Broader scale plans for PAWFC throughout 2022
“We have been looking at a city and a venue for our next event. What we would like to do is have one event per season sort of thing. So we’re just gonna keep pushing forward. COVID isn’t going to affect anything right now. We’re nose to the grindstone. We’re gonna just do what we’ve been doing and cross our fingers that we don’t get stopped up with new restrictions. But yeah, the plan is to definitely have a few more events throughout 2022 and then into 2023.”
Parting thoughts for Charmaine Tweet
“Just go onto the website. Go onto the website, the Facebook site, our Instagram site. Find the link for the tickets, get some tickets. Rent the pay per view. I know that Canada is such a huge country. It’s hard for fans from all over. Because we do have girls coming from all over the country. Quebec, Ontario, that sort of thing.”
Charmaine Tweet continued, “Make sure that you find the links, buy the pay per view, support your fighters. If you do know some of the girls on the cards, check out their Instagrams. They have links to the pay-per-view, they have links to the tickets. There is an incentive program for them to have their fans, their family, their friends, watch the pay-per-view. So get out there, support your local fighters, support your favorite fighters. Help support Pallas Athena. So that we can continue supporting the girls and furthering their careers.”
