Dennis Chambers [DC] Can you talk a little bit about how you started fighting?
Sijara Eubanks [SE] I came about it, I guess, unconventionally. I was dropping out of school. I was not wanting to finish college but not sure what to do. I didn’t have any purpose in life. I just stumbled into a kickboxing exercise class one day and the instructor was like, “Oh, have you done this before? Because you’re good. You should come train with us.” I was like, “Sure. That sounds fun.” One thing led to another, and I started training jiu-jitsu.
I just fell in love with the art and the competition and the effort it took to take myself to new places. A year in, I was traveling to Brazil to do tournaments and sleeping in cars just to compete. I threw my whole self into it and was perfectly content being a broke jiu-jitsu fighter for six, seven years. Got seven world titles. It was just really crazy. I felt like I was on this amazing ride.
Then one day, a coach suggested I try MMA and at 30 years old, made my MMA pro-debut. By 32, I was in the UFC where I had ten fights, something like that.
[DC] When did you start coaching?
[SE] That started pretty early on, as soon as I got to blue or purple belt. I was one of the few women who were doing jiu-jitsu, and so I took advantage of that. I started teaching women’s only jiu-jitsu classes, doing women’s fitness classes and stuff like that.
Now that I’m not competing, I’m locked in full-time as a trainer, and it’s been fun training a wide breadth of people. I think people look at my career and they’re like, “Oh, you must want to produce other fighters.” But one of the things I love to teach is just everyday lifestyle clients, people who are training jiu-jitsu or kickboxing to relieve stress. So many women train to get through their struggles in life – that’s really who I enjoy teaching the most.
[DC] Let’s then talk a little bit about your journey with The Monsters. What was your reaction to being asked to be a part of a developmental workshop of this show back in February of ’23?
[SE] I have a lot of family in theater. My sister majored in dramaturgy and I have an aunt who’s a costume designer [Mika Eubanks, who is the show’s Costume Designer] but I didn’t know much about theater. I was like this could be a really, really, really cool opportunity.
I was just transitioning out of the UFC and I was in a spot where I was thinking, “what could I do?” and this felt like an opportunity to take my entire career and be able to do something different with it. You haven’t heard many people in MMA be invited to consult on a play.
[DC] Has there been anything about this process that’s surprised you?
[SE] I think what surprised me most is the amount of detail that goes into creating a play! But also, how it’s been dramatized. So much of it is realistic but it still brings a whole new story that you’ve never heard before.
[DC] What’s your experience been like working with these actors?
[SE] As a trainer, it’s an incredible thing to witness. Watching them from day one with their beginner shadow boxing, versus just this past weekend in rehearsal – they now looked like martial artists! I was so proud of it.
[DC] What do you hope members of the MMA community take away from this play?
[SE] How similar our story is to other people’s and how much art overlaps. I hope fighters can look at this and understand that we are martial artists and that art can be created in many different ways. I hope that they see themselves in this production.
And then I hope that the audience (people outside of MMA) will have an appreciation for what we do, understand who we are as fighters and not just people on TV punching each other.