This one is very special to me — my SECOND competitive match after my ACL reconstruction!

Lara the Warrior – 171 cm / 70 kg

Andy – 173 cm / 64 kg

And who better to test whether Lara the Warrior is really getting back into fighting shape than Andy?

You all know Andy by now. She’s incredibly experienced, technical, relaxed on the mats and notoriously difficult to beat. She might be lighter than me, but anyone who has watched her wrestle knows that those 64 kg come with a LOT of skill, timing and experience.

And because I’m such a nice person, I even decided to give Andy a l*ttle advantage... ;-)

Before facing her, I had already wrestled my first competitive match of the day against Isa Fight (168 cm / 77 kg). So Andy definitely wasn’t getting a c*mpletely fresh Lara!

This makes Andy my second competitive opponent since my ACL reconstruction, and for me it was another big test of how much of my old fighting shape, confidence and instinct I have managed to get back.

Am I really back?

You can judge that for yourselves. :-)

But there is something else I really love about this match. I think you can see VERY clearly just how much both of us enjoy wrestling.

This is real competition. We both want to win, neither of us is interested in simply giving anything away, and the result isn’t scripted. But underneath all that competitiveness, there’s also that unmistakable energy you get when you put two women on the mats who genuinely love what they’re doing.

Andy brings her beautiful technical movement, experience and timing. I bring my strength, pressure and the Lara determination that I’ve been waiting months to properly unleash again.

We fight for positions, look for openings, try to outsmart each other and genuinely enjoy the challenge the other woman brings.

After months of rehabilitation and slowly rebuilding confidence in my reconstructed knee, being able to wrestle a competitive match like this again feels pretty damn good.

Grappling Female Wrestling Wrestling TapLab26 Lara the Warrior vs Andy with C4s.com