Employed in the French Navy, which allowed her to travel the world, Eva Dourthe has now settled in the Paris area, where she teaches martial arts to her colleagues from the military. A fighter at heart, the Frenchwoman also leads by example, and brilliantly directs her MMA career.

Eva Dourthe could have dedicated her life to judo. She was even well on her way, since when she was 21 years old, the young soldier had already spent 17 years on the tatami. But a black belt and the high national level do not replace the flame of passion. “It was difficult because I thought I only knew how to do that,” she recalls today, at 35 years old. “I loved what I was doing, but I felt like something was missing.” The sought-after ingredient: percussion. “I needed a little challenge. I needed to hit. I was never apprehensive about hitting.” After a childhood spent in a kimono, Eva, a young adult in the French Navy, started practicing rugby from several years, English boxing and jiu-jitsu. A perfect bridge to mixed martial arts. “Then, when I went to live in Paris, I met Johnny Frachey, an MMA coach, and that’s how I landed in a club.” Trained by judo, very useful for “body shapes, grip and imbalances”, she proved to be successful gloves to fists, and quickly rose to the belt of the European Beatdown.

“Fighting in France, that’s what I was missing”.

Eva Dourthe is a seasoned athlete with several years of practice and now considers herself complete, despite a slight “deficit in fist-fighting”. “I manage to challenge a lot of girls standing, but my boxing is not very academic, not really in line.” Regardless, MMA is now entirely part of her lifestyle, as in addition to her daily workouts, the former judoka teaches martial arts classes in the military. “Before, I used to go on missions for several months for the navy, I did all of East Africa and all of the Eastern Mediterranean. But now I’m a teacher, specializing in combat sports. There are only two women doing this in France. With terrorism, everything that revolves around self-defense has really become popular. Giving classes during the day and taking them in the evening… A rhythm of life that Eva Dourthe has on a daily basis. But stopping her job for all that was not an option. “If I only do MMA, and it becomes my only source of revenue, I’m afraid I would train more for compulsion than for pleasure. It’s important that the passion doesn’t go away.