Kelly Ottoni runs a martial arts gym in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and wants to lead by example. That’s why she’s putting the gloves on at age 39 and taking on a tough challenge against PFL and Bellator veteran Jackie Cataline at Friday’s Invicta FC 56 event in Denver.
The former Jungle Fight bantamweight champion said her reasons for returning to MMA after more than two years away are to show the power of combat sports and change lives, not only her own. With more than 80 competitions under her belt in various forms of martial arts, from boxing to wrestling to jiu-jitsu to Muay Thai, Ottoni sees MMA with different eyes.
“Martial arts is a philosophy of life for me, but MMA is more about making money,” Ottoni told MMA Fighting. “It’s money to give me a better life as I get older, because I’m not only changing my life, I have other people around me who are as much of hustlers as I am and dream of better things in life, so I want to help the youth.
“You pay the price for a dream and work hard every day, and sometimes you still don’t achieve it and can’t have a good performance because you need a second job to pay bills. It’s hard to live as an athlete in Brazil. That’s extremely common in several sports, and that’s what I explain to my students. You have to dream and work hard to achieve it.”
Ottoni jokes she’s “quite an old hand” but her experience in martial arts is far greater than her 5-0 MMA record shows, and she feels “extremely happy and pressure-free” entering the Invicta FC cage for the first time. Open to fighting from anywhere from 135 to 155 pounds, she faces Cataline in a featherweight contest while looking for other great opportunities.
Her brother is Quemuel Ottoni, who has also held the Jungle Fight belt before. He was the first man to defeat future UFC and GLORY two-division champion Alex Pereira in MMA back in their Jungle Fight days, and is set to fight for a UFC contract against Kody Steele on the Sept. 10 card of the promotion’s Contender Series. She believes they could one day share a UFC card, but competing in the octagon isn’t her ultimate goal.
“I see Invicta FC as a door to other major promotions, but not only the UFC,” Ottoni said. “We have the PFL and Bellator. We have Larissa Pacheco as the current [PFL] champion. I’m not only thinking about the UFC. UFC is the World Cup and everybody knows that, but I want to make money. If I get to the World Cup, great, but I want to buy a house, I want to keep my NGO going. I’ll enter the door that opens for me.”
Cataline, her opponent Friday night, is 4-3 as a professional with two first-round finishes under the PFL Challenger Series banner. Ottoni, whose 5-0 record includes two first-round knockouts and one submission, says “it’s pretty clear” what Cataline will attempt to do.
“I’m sure she’s watched my fights and she will try to take me to the ground. That’s obvious,” Ottoni said. “There’s no other path for her, but she’s never fought anyone at my level. It’s about taking me down and holding me there, it’s about trying to stop someone that knows how to do jiu-jitsu.”
“The champion Alex ‘Poatan’ is showing the world what a striker can do, and that’s the thing I do best,” she continued. “My brother has always said I can beat these girls in MMA. I’ve always like to strike, I’ve always done jiu-jitsu and wrestling, but I’m kind of crazy. You cut me open? I’ll cut you back. That’s my style, you know? I’m a sniper looking for blood. I can’t walk backward. Hit me all you want, I’ll always smile at you and keep walking forward.”
