Fight Path: Bellator 137's Arlene Blencowe went from carnivals to rings to role model

Arlene Blencowe

When Arlene Blencowe was in her mid-20s, her life changed direction completely.

Before then, the native Australian was a family woman, with two kids and an interest in boxing and combat sports long in her past. She was focused on her son and daughter and what she could do for them, just as her own hard-working mother had done for her growing up.

Then, her relationship with her children’s father ended. It was a drastic difference, and in hoping to support her daughter, she looked for a life shift.

“Having a daughter was the biggest inspiration for me to want to be the type of woman that she can look up to – a strong, independent, driven role model,” Blencowe wrote to MMAjunkie in an email.

“So that is what I became. I wanted to show my kids that it’s never too late to start your life over or to pursue your dreams.”

Blencowe’s fighting dream is coming much closer to a sweet one. Despite a 5-4 record, the 32-year-old has won three straight heading into one of her biggest appearances yet, a matchup against longtime pro Adrienna Jenkins (18-5) on Friday at Bellator 137 in Temecula, Calif.

It will mark about five years since Blencowe shifted her focus to fighting with an amateur boxing fight that turned into a pro boxing career. She has since become a world champion boxer, professional MMA fighter, motivational speaker and fitness coach.

It is a story she hopes can inspire others to seek out change, even if it’s later than they might prefer or when they’re older than they would like to be to try something new. She had previously trained in combat sports – it’s how she met the father of her children – and she was passionate about it. But she waited until her 20s before she made it her career.

Now she’s hoping that career can take another step on Friday.

“What originally started with wanting to show my children,” Blencowe wrote, “has now expanded to the thousands of followers I have on social media.”

Country girl

Blencowe grew up in a small town in the Queensland state of Australia. She went to a small school in the rural area, and while there wasn’t much nearby, she took advantage of what she could at the school, especially in playing sports.

She excelled at sprinting, and she was able to travel around the region to compete against others, sometimes even at carnivals. Her athletic accomplishments were her main connection to the wider area.

Her mother had a major impact on her. The Filipino woman was an inspiring figure for both Blencowe and her sister.

“(She is the) hardest-working woman I know,” Blencowe wrote. “She started work (in the) early hours of the morning but would still have our lunches and uniforms ready each day. In the afternoon when she finished work, she would come home and still have a home-cooked meal and clean house every day. Come to think of it, she never stopped. These hard-working values have been passed down to me.”

Wanting to help, Blencowe started her own work at 11. She picked vegetables, spending long hours on the weekends or when she was out of school to try to save some money.

“I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty or do the hard yards to get something done,” she wrote, “and I think that helps me every day with my training and striving for my goals.”

At 13, she first went into a gym and tried some boxing training. She didn’t know it then, but it started a passion that would lay dormant until she needed a big change in life.

Starting over

When she was 26, Blencowe saw her relationship with her children’s father break down. She was a mother of two, but she was also someone looking for a new passion in life.

She thought back to those days in the gym and the enjoyment she felt in training. Hoping to show her children that a rebirth was possible, she went into fighting.

It was 2010 when she took her first amateur boxing fight, and she impressed. At one time, she hoped to represent Australia in boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but she became a professional to try to help her family.

Within a year of turning pro, in June 2013, Blencowe won the WBA welterweight and WIBA super lightweight titles with a unanimous decision victory. She was still a young professional, but she was a world champion.

And by that time, she was also an MMA pro. Earlier, during a long gap in between her boxing fights, a coach suggested she try some wrestling and jiu-jitsu training and possibly explore entering MMA as well.

Blencowe became an MMA pro in April 2013.

“I loved,” she wrote, “connecting with the (four-ounce) gloves!”

She didn’t find the same early success as in boxing, as she started her MMA career 1-3. She was still too raw on the ground, and it cost her.

In September 2013, at 2-4, she scored her first MMA knockout, and it was a turning point. She topped Mae-Lin Leow at an MMA Down Under event in Australia and suddenly gained more belief in her all-around game.

It was a fight that confirmed her change of careers, provided more confidence and set her up for a run that will continue on Friday with her Bellator appearance.

“It was where my confidence kicked in,” she wrote. “I no longer saw myself as just a boxer, more so a mixed martial artist. This gave me the courage to not worry about where the fight was taken. My performances since then have shown that I am becoming more well-rounded. Hopefully I can maintain my win streak.”

Catching up

In May 2013, Mark Cherico told us about his introduction to MMA, which came when he noticed a neighbor carrying training equipment out of his truck and asked him about it. Still stringing from his father’s premature death from colon cancer, Cherico took to the new passion. He rebounded from his only loss by topping Darby Halferty with a second-round knockout this past weekend at Pinnacle FC 10. He improved to 8-1.

In November 2011, Chidi Njokuani told us about the time when, at age 10, his older brother (and future fighter) Anthony came home from school and told Chidi to pack up his things because he was going along to muay Thai training. That eventually paid off for Chidi, who went on to his own MMA career and improved to 13-4 this past weekend with a decision victory against Max Griffin at Tachi Palace Fights 23. He is now 8-1-1 in his past 10.

For more on Bellator 137, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.