Enforcing discipline in the classroom shouldn’t be a problem for Gemma Auld.
The Ayrshire primary school teacher is discovering there aren’t enough hours in the day as she juggles the commitments of the day job with her burgeoning talent as a mixed martial arts (MMA) combatant.
After arriving relatively late to the sport, the 33-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past 12 months, quickly racking up a 6-0 amateur record and a clutch of gleaming trophies to go with it.
Struggling with a lack of suitable opponents, a move into the professional ranks seemed an inevitability and it is Professional Fighters League [PFL] who have now afforded Auld that opportunity.
As she prepares both for the start of the new term and also her professional debut at the Hydro in Glasgow on September 28, Auld admits it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind trying to combine her dedicated training programme at the famed Higher Level gym in Bathgate with teaching.
“Turning professional is a big step so I’m still trying to figure a way to make it all work,” says the Kilmarnock-based fighter. “After the summer I’m going back to school part-time which is good as it means I can join the pro training sessions in the morning. Being able to call that my work is a massive thing for me, although I’m still going to be teaching four days a week. But I’ll figure out a way.
“I hadn’t really targeted turning professional this summer but I knew I was going to start running out of amateur fights. So when the opportunity came up with PFL I knew I couldn’t say no to that. The timing was perfect and getting the chance to make my debut at the Hydro couldn’t be better.
"Usually I don’t normally have friends at my fights but I’ve opened this one up to everyone as it’s such a big event. I went to the PFL show in Newcastle to get a feel for it and now I can’t wait to fight at the Hydro.”
Auld admits becoming a professional athlete wasn’t in her thoughts growing up, when her brother and sister were the ones in the family considered to have the bulk of the sporting talent. A chance introduction to Muay Thai, however, led her eventually to MMA training and then, after a while, competing.
“I had been training consistently probably since I was 20,” she recalls. “And then when my gym closed I went to a wee Muay Thai gym, just to keep doing weights mainly, as it was near my house. I then started doing classes for fitness and then found there was an MMA gym in Ayrshire so went along to that.
“At that point I was just striking but got convinced to try MMA. I started doing jiu-jitsu and loved it straight away. I was getting beaten in every round and still enjoying it! I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to fight as I thought the pressure of that would ruin the fun of training for me. But I started doing well in the jiu-jitsu competitions and decided to try it.
“I had my first fight in June last year and got a first-round finish and it just grew from there. I’m so glad now that I gave it a go. People ask how I got into MMA but it wasn’t a clear path I followed or anything like that. It just sort of happened! It will be the same in the pro ranks. I just want to prove that I belong there.”
Auld has made no attempts to hide what she does in her spare time from her pupils - quite the opposite in fact. The 10 and 11-year-olds she teaches are among her biggest fans, especially when their teacher brings in her medals and trophies for them to hold. Her enthusiasm has also led to some of the children giving martial arts a go themselves.
“I’ve been teaching now for eight years and I love it,” she adds. “We’ve got a gym in Kilmarnock that does Muay Thai for kids and a lot of them go to that and are quite into it. They all watch my fights on YouTube and are really excited at the thought of me fighting at the Hydro!
“They were among the first people I told about my contract with PFL on the day it got announced. I was teaching primary six last year so they were all 10 or 11 so they all know what’s going on and understand what I’m doing which was pretty cool.
“Everyone always says they must be so well behaved given what I do but they’re just as cheeky as any other kids!”
Tickets for Gemma’s debut at PFL Europe Glasgow at the OVO Hydro Arena on 28 September are available through Ticketmaster.
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