Julie Kitchen steps out of retirement!

Julie Kitchen didn’t rise to become “The Queen of Muay Thai” the way professional fighters do. She wasn’t pounding away at heavy bags and doing punishing sparring partners from the ripe age of five. For her, martial arts began as simply a way to shed weight after giving birth to her twin daughters at the age of twenty-three. She may not have foreseen 14 World Championships in her future at the time, but life is full of surprises, and now she’s ready to come out retirement and hop back into the ring.

Kitchen’s fight, which will pit her against her fellow Muay Thai champ Lindsay Haycraft, will be the first in a series of upcoming Muay Thai matches hosted and sponsored by Awakening Fighters, which focuses on promoting and raising awareness of full-contact female fighters. Kitchen and Haycraft’s fight will be the first bout in the organization’s first major event, Awakening One: International Female Muay Thai. Other fighters to participate in the event will be announced in the coming months.

Awakening Fighters is currently holding a Kickstarter campaign to help facilitate the event. Be sure to stop in to the official Kickstarter page to pitch in. For more information on the upcoming fights, be sure to visit Awakening Fighters official website and Facebook page