Kitchener, Ont.’s Ellie “Belly” Dempster made history in Las Vegas on Friday, becoming the first ever women’s flyweight champion in Power Slap.
“I’m so grateful about it. And I’m still a little bit in shock,” Dempster told CTV News during an interview on Monday.
The 29-year-old, who fights out of Las Vegas, is now a perfect 3-0 in her Power Slap career after she defeated Zoe Dubois in a five-round unanimous decision in the first-ever women’s title bout.
“I think I’m deserving of it because I was making all the content. I was doing the interviews. I was speaking upon the sport for so long. So, the performance was not great. But everything before it was,” Dempster said.
She said a whirlwind brought her to this point in her life.
Dempster grew up in the Huron area of Kitchener, roughhousing with her brother and playing sports like football and rugby. But fighting was never on the table.
“I’ve always been into really aggressive sports. But then, yeah, fighting was only a thing once I moved to Thailand. My family is so gentle. They’re such kind people. It wasn’t like we watched it. I don’t think I ever watched a fight in my entire life,” she said. “It just is not the way I was raised.”
Dempster lived in Australia, before eventually moving to Thailand to teach.
“I was working with a (non-governmental organization) that rescued children from sex trafficking. And I looked at the situation, and went, ‘If adults aren’t taking care of you, how do I teach these kids to take care of themselves?’ And I was like, ‘I’ll teach them self defence.’ And I awkwardly had to look at myself and go, ‘I don’t know self defence,’” Dempster said.
That led to pursuing Muay Thai professionally, where she eventually posted 12 wins, nine knockouts and two losses. She was then invited to an MMA event in the U.S.
Dempster’s fighting career was briefly sidelined by an ACL injury, but she bounced back, landing in Power Slap, an American slap fighting promotion company.
While some frown at Power Slap for its lack of defence, Dempster said it has strict rules, and competitors train their bodies to take hits.
“You’re taking the highlight of MMA, which is a knockout, and making that into a thing. How is that not a sport then? What makes something a sport is commission, it’s rules. We have every single thing that make it a sport. So how is it not? I think the misconception that people have is that, yes, you can’t defend yourself, but there are also ways that you can work that right? You can work your body, you can work your defense. And that’s the part that people aren’t seeing yet,” Dempster said.
“Working your traps, your back, there are neck exercises, there are things like that. As the sport grows, more people are taking it seriously because we’re seeing that there is a technique to it.”
Although she hasn’t lived in Canada since 2015, Dempster said being a Canadian is mostly helpful in her travels. But she’s often considered too nice, despite trying to knock people out.
“That’s the part that’s killing me. It’s the Canadian niceness is not meant for combat sport. And we saw that on Friday. It was the main event. Two super nice girls. That’s not what people wanted to see. So that will not happen again. But that’s the hardest part,” Dempster said.
The nickname “Belly” was something she picked up while fighting in Thailand.
“I kept seeing my fight poster driving on the little songthaew going through the streets. My name would say ‘Belly,’ and I would tell them my name is not ‘Belly’ — it’s Ellie. And then two posters, three posters. And finally, I’m like, let’s lean into it. Why not?" she said.
“I’m such a passive person and now it’s just kind of funny.”
Dempster hopes to defend her new title in Power Slap, but is also focused on seeing where her combat career can take her.
“My career is just getting started. Start hitting 30. And for guys that’s when you start dwindling down. For females, oddly enough, we’ve got more of a pathway for us,” Dempster said.
Fighting for a cause
Dempster tries to highlight charities during each bout.
“Every time that I get on stage, I do it for a reason. In Karate Combat, I raised $30,000 for BAAN DOI, which is the orphanage, and we were able to put more kids in school. We were able to get more children out of sex trafficking. I had to reflect and look at myself and go, I have more of an impact being a voice than I do being a teacher. And so, I made the decision to move to America,” Dempster said.
She’s started auctioning off her shoes following each fight and raised $115,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“I’m going up there for people and for children who need to have light shed on them and on their situation, and that’s why I’m doing it. So, this time I’m working with Firefighters for Healing,” Dempster added.
“Obviously we need to see what’s going to be at auction. I need to speak to Dana (White) with that still, but it’s going to be big.”
