“Lionheart” Jillian DeCoursey Reviews “Bruised”
If you’re a fight fan and not following “Lionheart” Jillian DeCoursey on social media, you should probably remedy that and give her a follow.
Not only is she an active competitor in MMA and grappling, but she is likely tweeting along with the thousands of fans watching any fight card she’s not on. DeCoursey even predicted Julianna Peña’s UFC 269 win against Amanda Nunes back in March. Mentor, master, and student of the game wears multiple hats and doing that has given her a depth of knowledge that fans should be paying attention to.
As busy as she is, she still made time to jump on the Coast-2-Coast Combat Hour podcast and give her review of “Bruised,” on Netflix. “Bruised” is the latest movie based on the world of mixed martial arts directed by and starring Halle Berry that was released back in November. MMA movies usually get a bad wrap from the start, but this is the first one to focus on a female character that is in what many believe to be a male dominated sport.
“Overall, it was a good movie,” DeCoursey said. “ I think it brought a spotlight to women’s MMA. Whether people like the movie or they didn’t like it doesn’t matter. It’s publicity right?”
However, that does not mean she, like many that saw the film, did not have their criticisms. Usually, fans will knock the fighting in an MMA film, but DeCoursey brought a good point about the film.
“The only criticism I would say is that it kind of fell into a lot of like the same realm of MMA movies right? Where it’s like you know like ‘coming from the streets’ and like building yourself up. Which is a big part of a lot of fighters but it’s also not every fighter, right? You know people come from all different backgrounds, especially within women’s MMA. You see a lot of people that are professionals right? But transition from having like, I don’t know, like a prestigious job or something like, an educational type job and they were like, ‘You know what? I’d love to fight.’”
DeCoursey admits being a little biased because she fits that bill, but it was also one of the stereotypes in the early days of MMA that made the sport so hard to get to where it is now.
“I guess I’m being biased, but I would like to see a film made like that right? Like, whether it’s for men or for females, showing ‘Hey, the other side of it is, not everybody that fights isn’t always coming from like the streets.”
DeCoursey last fought for Invicta FC which was the promotion featured in the film. She competed in their Phoenix Tournament last June and has a pro-grappling match scheduled on January 29 under Dead Serious MMA’s “Men of War” grappling competition airing on Fite TV. See the full interview above.
