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Rank 2471 (?)

Last seen: 1 month ago Tonya Evinger

  • Nickname: Triple Threat

  • Age: 27
  • Location: UNITED STATES
  • City: Oak Grove
  • Gender: Female
  • Hometown: Odessa, MO
  • Story: If there was a female version of Matt Hughes, it might be the outspoken Tonya Evinger. Not only did she grow up on a farm in Missouri, but Tonya also played plenty of sports while growing up. Just like Hughes, she excelled in wrestling.

    There aren't many wrestling programs in the U.S. for women and that has hurt the development of women's MMA because it doesn't have a strong wrestling pool to draw talent from. However, Evinger is the exception to that rule. To call her a tomboy would be an understatement because when she wasn't beating up her brothers on the family farm she wrestled for the men's varsity team starting during her sophomore year of high school.

    Evinger wrestled at high school national tournaments for girls in Oregon and was the event's first-ever three-time champ. She would later wrestle at the U.S. nationals in freestyle wrestling as a junior, where she finished as high as no. 2 in the country. Evinger became so good that her high school ruled her to be at a pro level and prevented her from wrestling during her senior year of high school (even though she was wrestling boys). Tonya took her act on the road after being told she couldn't wrestle as a senior and started competing overseas in France and Turkey, where the women's wrestling is considerably better than it is in the U.S.

    Evinger accepted a scholarship offer to wrestle on the women's team at Missouri Valley College. The school was a private, religious school in which Evinger graduated from in 2004 with a degree in criminal justice. She eventually decided to quit wrestling because it was taking too much of a toll on her body and she transitioned to MMA. She made her pro MMA debut in 2006.
  • MMA Record: 7-3
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