Elise Pone is a 6-time boxing champ. She wants to inspire other women to step into the ring
Elise Pone has always been a fighter. Now the State College native is a champion, too.
As a youngster, she practiced Jeet Kune Doa, a style of martial arts employed by Bruce Lee, who pulled what he felt were the most useful methods of other martial arts to create his own unique style. After a hiatus from the sport, Pone is now a professional mixed martial arts and muay thai fighter for Invicta Fighting Championships.
“I did the whole work, family and kids thing and completely stepped away from martial arts,” Pone said. “Shortly after having one of my kids, I was looking for a way to get back in shape again and lose the baby weight. I just drove past a martial arts gym and thought, ‘Man. I should get into something like that.’ So, I set up a free trial class and really started getting into it again.”
Pone went on to go to the gym for a couple of days a week to do cardio training in 2012. She loved every second of it, became an instructor for kids classes and was eventually asked to compete. Today, the 37-year old holds a 1-1 record in mixed martial arts and a 16-1 record in muay thai with six championships in the latter.
She earned her sixth championship in the featherweight division (122.1-127 pounds) during a three-day competition at the Muay Thai World Expo from June 23-25. She won her first two matches in the first and second rounds, respectively, and won the championship in a unanimous decision, setting the record for title defenses in any women’s division of muay thai competition in North America.
From student to teacher
Thirteen-year-old Avery Sponsler is one of Pone’s trainees. He’s involved in 2-3 classes per week under Pone at Central PA Mixed Martial Arts and has trained since he was 4 years old. During his time training with Pone, he’s felt better with his progression in mixed martial arts.
“When I sparred today, I found out that there are some people that are really good and I can use some moves against them because I’m a lot shorter,” Avery said earlier this month. “Everyone is a little taller than I am. So, I found out ways to use my height to attack them. I generally work with morning classes with older people. Everyone spars a little differently and I found that I like to spar with the older people because they’ll teach me if I’m doing something wrong or if there’s something that I can do differently to make my sparring better. Elise does that.”
As a wrestler, Avery has learned many techniques to improve on his primary sport. Pone’s training has given him insight on how to take down opponents and use their momentum against them.
“I used to just do punches, kicks and blocks,” Avery said. “Now, I’m able to do knees and elbows and different types of kicks and punches. There’s a lot of growth there. (As a wrestler), it helps me with shooting and I see a lot of jiu-jitsu people stand straight up and they’ll put their hands out. They’re asking to get double-legged, as my father would say. I’ve been working more on penetration steps. When I sparred with (Pone) the other day, I used one leg that time. Now I know to use two legs.”
Ryan Gruhn and Pone run Central PA Mixed Martial Arts together at the West College Avenue gym. Gruhn is a two-time men’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt champion, adding to Pone’s accomplishments on the women’s side. Pone is a purple belt under Gruhn in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She also teaches Muay Thai, the women’s kickboxing class, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Youth Martial Arts at Central PA Mixed Martial Arts.
Conquering fears
Gruhn and Pone knew each other as young children, with their parents training in taekwondo together. Years later, the two met again because Pone wanted to join a gym. Inspired by her friend’s encouragement, along with the other fighters training in the gym, Pone decided to compete herself.
“The more I watched other people around me training for things, I thought, ‘I’m just going to make it a bucket list thing,’ ” Pone said. “ ‘I’m going to train for one fight, I’m going to overcome my fear and I’m just going to get in there and do the best that I can.’ It’s like 2% of the population that ever gets into the ring or cage. I thought that would be a good personal goal of mine to conquer my fears. I was absolutely terrified the whole entire time. When it was over I thought it was really cool.”
The most rewarding aspect for Pone was her realization that she was able to follow through with her dreams as an adult. She often put time in taking care of her family, going to school and other activities ahead of her own goals and missed competition. As a former track and field athlete and field hockey player at State High, Pone yearned to be an athlete once more.
Pone has six children — four stepchildren (ages 24, 23, 21, 20) and two biological children (11 and 8). Even with all of her responsibilities as a mother and a fighter, she finds time to run a business.
“I get to run the gym as my full-time job,” Pone said. “During the week I am there from 6 a.m.-10:30 p.m. and have a couple of hours each day on the weekends. Those times include teaching, coaching, training, business work, cleaning, advertising, etc.”
She also hopes to inspire other women to step into the octagon.
“When I first got back into it, I was super passionate about teaching the kids and giving kids skills that they could carry on throughout their life,” Pone said. “It kind of morphed into taking old people like me and showing them that they can do it. You can still set goals, you can still juggle work and your family.”
