{"id":262,"date":"2012-12-13T17:28:26","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T22:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/?p=262"},"modified":"2012-12-13T18:32:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T23:32:57","slug":"former-nfl-cheerleader-becomes-mma-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/2012\/12\/13\/former-nfl-cheerleader-becomes-mma-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL Cheerleader becomes MMA fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-266 alignright\" alt=\"rachelwray\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray.jpg\" width=\"224\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray.jpg 621w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/>A former NFL Cheerleader turned MMA fighter?<\/p>\n<p>Former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader Rachel Wray had threw down her pom poms for gloves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been a cheerleader or dancer my whole life and I moved here from Arkansas to cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs. I started working out at Title Boxing Club with some of the girls for an alternative workout. I really enjoyed it and started taking private lessons after a little while. One day, I came in and they wanted me to spar. I was nervous about someone actually punching me in the face, but I did it.\u201d she told <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.kcmma.com\/2012\/09\/26\/rachel-wray-chiefs-cheerleader-turned-mma-fighter--.aspx\">KCMMA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wrey admits things did not get off to the way she had hoped inside the ring but that only made her work harder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis drove me to want it even more. I knew I had to make a choice between fighting and cheerleading. I chose fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-267\" alt=\"rachelwray2\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray2.jpg\" width=\"390\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray2.jpg 390w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/files\/2012\/12\/rachelwray2-300x265.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Check out the below videos of Wray&#8217;s first right, she clearly knows her way around ring. With a 2-0 record she is beginning to generate a bit of an internet interest.<\/p>\n<p>Wray\u2019s next fight will be in January at Harrah\u2019s in Kansas City.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t-qDQ4ex6z8\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PsA8JJLsoVI\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former NFL Cheerleader turned MMA fighter? Former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader Rachel Wray had threw down her pom poms for gloves. \u201cI have been a cheerleader or dancer my whole life and I moved here from Arkansas to cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs. I started working out at Title Boxing Club with some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[41],"coauthors":[3],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-back-page-featured","category-news","tag-rachel-wray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/backpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}