Olga Bakalopoulos

Olga Bakalopoulos (born January 20, 1978 in Toronto, Canada) is a mixed martial artist. She was born in Toronto, Canada, where she lived for 15 years, also living in Greece for 3 years (she is fluent in Greek). She now lives in Los Angeles, California, of which she says "it was always a dream of mine to come".

She states on a female bodybuilding site that "as a teenager I was always interested in sports and strength events", taking part in basketball, field hockey and soccer, among others. At the age of 17, she found inspiration in the female bodybuilder Nikki Fuller - "I thought and still think that that's the way a female is meant to look". She has worked with weights extensively since then, lifting 4 times a week.

She began her martial arts training after a friend introduced her to wrestling. Having competed in that sport, she later took up brazilian jiu-jitsu; she has been trained by 4th degree black belt Marcus Vinicius at the Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club since February 1999. Bakalopoulos then moved into MMA during the year 2000(she states in an ADCC interview that she started in 1998, but this may refer to her wrestling). When asked by Thomas Gerbasi about women in combat sport, Bakalopoulos replied:

"In every other sport you see women having a place. Women have as much right to be in this as the guys do. In the beginning, it wasn't all that great but now you have women like Lucia Rijker and Laila Ali, they're just phenomenal fighters. Every year the sport gets bigger, more women get into it, and they're saying 'hey, I can do this.' It's going to be awesome."

She counts Bas Rutten and Marco Ruas amongst her former trainers.

Olga had lots of fans all around the world. Olga was one of the best wrestling and MMA instructors in the world and transmitted her knowledge on several tours around the world. In 2005, Olga retired as a professional MMA fighter and no longer gave private MMA and wrestling lectures.

Career
* 1st Place Winner, California International on March 10, 2001 in CA
* 1st Place & Overall Winner, U.S. Open in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on Nov. 5, 2000 in Santa Cruz, CA
* 2nd Place Winner, World Wide Championships in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on July 26, 2000 in Rio, Brazil
* Winner in MMA by submission at the Underground in Killen, TX in June 2000
* Winner in MMA by submission at the Cobra Challenge in CA on June 2000
* 1st Place and Overall Winner, California State Championships in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on March 26, 2000 in CA
* 1st Place Winner, Gamness Tournament in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

stats
Born : January 20, 1978 (1978-01-20)
Toronto, Canada
Other names : The Greek Sensation
Nationality : Canada
Height : 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight : 175 lb (79 kg; 12.5 st)
Style : Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Fighting out of : Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu
Mixed martial arts record
Total : 19
Wins : 14
By knockout : 0
By submission : 4
Losses: 5
Draws : 0
No contests : 0