MFF: 1) Why do you fight?
EK: "Combat sports are the only sports I’ve ever excelled at. I think its because they take a level mental toughness and an ability to endure pain that simply doesn’t exist in the more mainstream sports. My athleticism is only average, so I never excelled at the traditional girls sports, but I have always been pretty fearless and I don’t mind taking a beating. And a lot of fighters don’t admit to this, but I really do take pleasure in beating the crap out of someone, whether it is my opponent, male sparring partners, or even my own sister. I am definitely in touch with my primitive violent instincts and some times violence just feels good."
MFF: 2) How did you get into fighting?
EK: "I followed my younger sister, Katy Klinefelter, into the boxing gym when I was 16. We had no clue what we were getting ourselves into, we just wanted to try something new. We knew absolutely nothing about boxing, we had never even watched a boxing match on TV before and had no intention of ever getting hit or hitting someone else. After a few months at the gym we just copied what the guys did. The guys sparred, so we sparred. The guys fought at local shows, so we did too. After a while we realized we were pretty good at boxing so we just stuck with it. After a 7 year amateur boxing career (which included winning 13 National tournaments and 2 international tournaments—including the 2006 Pan Am Championships) I turned pro in boxing. After a year or so in the pro ranks I was just not happy with the number of fights I was getting. Boxing is nearly dead in Iowa and I was used to fighting 10-12 matches a year, like I did in the amateurs. I decided to try to take up MMA just to get more fights, because during my time in boxing I saw that boxing was declining and MMA was on the rise. I had my first amateur MMA fight in December of 2008, had 7 amateur fights, and turned pro in November 2009."
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