Carmarie “Karma” Matos, born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The sport of physical contact was always her passion. Her father was a boxer and the sport was in her blood.
At 9 years old, Carmarie told her father Carlos Matos the following: “Daddy, I want to fight.” Papi full of emotions took me to practice. I was motivated for a while until daddy had to move to the USA—at which point it was difficult for me to continue.
When Carmarie decided to get into the boxing, she said that both her mother and grandmother did not like the idea, as it was a strong sport for a girl. Carmarie said that she ignored her feelings and so she began playing in basketball with the Indias de Mayagüez.
Carmarie said, “One day, I would stay at my brother’s house and I saw a mixed martial arts (MMA) movie. I could feel the adrenaline rushing up and through my mind it just happened— this is what I want. I started kicking without knowing and while doing so I thought about where I could practice kickboxing.”
“I taped my Tae Kwon Do (TKD) master uncle and called my grandmother. The next day I was already practicing. By then I was 11 years old. I continued in the Indians of Mayagüez at the same time that I practiced TKD. At the time, I started practicing Kick Boxing so I was already in three TKD sports, Kick Boxing and Basketball, because it was the sport that my family told me would give me scholarships for University.”
“In my neighborhood, I used to put on gloves with my neighbors and with my cousins I would fight. He started participating in TKD competitions, Kickboxing and seeing one victory after another. So I decided to quit basketball and focus on what I am really passionate about”, added Carmarie.
Carmarie said that she left TKD, and began boxing, so then she was now boxing and participating in kickboxing. At about that same time, she had had a kickboxing fight in which she lost.
Carmarie said, “I went to two undercards (boxing) and those first two fights I did were both defeats. Many doors were closed to me. I lost too many opportunities and one of the many reasons was because I’m a woman, there is no help from the heart unless your available to risk yourself without having evidence of being victorious. I received words of encouragement from both my team and my family and remained more focused than ever.”
“I did kickboxing, MMA and boxing fights coming out one after another with my hand raised thanks to my team. It should be noted that to achieve this I had to make many sacrifices and leave many other things. My preparation was based on long hours of training for months, strict diets, physical therapy for injuries sustained and various physical exams.”
“From then until now, thanks to the sacrifice, many more doors have been opened to me than those that were closed at the beginning.”
Carmarie talked about her future goals, she said the following:
“My goal as a child was always to be the best boxer, the champion and today, I want to be because it is my dream. I just want to be an inspiration for many young people who, like me, have the feeling that their dreams will never come true.”
“I want to open doors, I want to be a motivation, I want to proudly represent my people in Mayagüez and my island in Puerto Rico.”
“Last but not least, I want to thank my coach Douglas Ríos, my managers Richard Borges and Jonathan Gaudier and the whole Ds management team for the opportunity I will made the most of it in my professional boxing career.”
Carmarie’s fight history thus far: Boxing (amateur): 20-2, Kickboxing: 6-1 and MMA: 1-0.”
Carmarie was scheduled to make her debut last February 2020, in Houston, Texas, it was canceled due to the Corona Virus pandemic.
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