Alana Cook will be making history in a few ways with her Oktagon MMA foray over the weekend. At Oktagon 93 on September 12th, Cook clashes with Niamh Kinehan, with the former becoming the first Canadian woman to compete for the powerhouse European MMA promotion. Even beyond that historical trend, ‘The Alanamal’ will also become the first indigenous woman as well as the first member of Niagara Top Team to fight for OKMMA.
While Alana Cook has previously spoken in French, she has also gone the extra step to learn Czech for her fight in Brno. Cook emphasized the importance of wanting to immerse herself in the culture of the Czech Republic as she spoke on MMA Canada ahead of the bout. Alana Cook has been refining her skills at Niagara Top Team with names like Jasmine Jasudavicius, Aaron Jeffery, and Mike Malott frequently grinding it out in the gym. Another NTT compatriot, Cam Nelson, also had a fruitful and historic promotional debut in his own right at UFC Shanghai recently.
Also decorated Pan American Games medalist Hannah Taylor has taken her deep wrestling pedigree into a promising MMA career guided by NTT, one that Cook sees involving Taylor vaulting to the UFC within the next three years. The electric nature of the room, especially on Monday per the BC native, carries a particular energy that seems destined to course through the mixed martial arts world in a generational fashion.
Alana Cook respects Niamh Kinehan’s polished game but outlines path to victory at Oktagon 93
Alana Cook prepares to battle ‘The British Razor’ here, and she has quite the Muay Thai pedigree. Addressing the litany of titles in the WBC, WMO, and more that her adversary on Saturday has captured, Cook said [via MMA Canada],
“All the letters, all the alphabet letters she’s got [laughs].”
When assessing her opponent Kinehan’s stand-up pedigree and spotless record within MMA so far, Alana Cook stated [via MMA Canada],
“Well, I’ve taken a few O’s before from people, so it’s business as usual. Her name’s Niamh Kinehan, so I believe she’s Irish or British. I’m not quite sure, but props to her. Like, any woman that can do that, that’s very incredible. She’s very talented. I’ve obviously watched her fights and she’s got a really, really big following. So, the way I’m looking at it is, the audience already knows what she can do, but no one knows what I can do yet. So, I’m really excited to show Oktagon what I can do.”
“Obviously she’s very talented. She’s very dangerous. I haven’t looked at the stats. I really don’t like looking at that. I always just kind of pretend or think of myself as the underdog. I just consider myself always the underdog going into it and being like, you know what, I’m gonna have to be scrappy. I’m gonna have to. This is going to be the toughest fight of my life. I think just always having that mentality of, she could whip out anything, right?”
“Just being prepared for everything. Again, luckily at NTT [Niagara Top Team] there’s so many different looks and so many different people that come in, that I get to see all those different styles. So yeah, I have a lot of respect for her. I think she has a very, very polished style. But I’m an ugly fighter, baby. So, let’s go. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I think we’re both going to build up the fight. It’s going to be good. Main event next time, for sure [laughs].”
