Danielle Taylor (fighter)

Taylor was born in Lancaster, California, United States on October 25, 1989, and she is a full-time Deputy Sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic, California.[4]

Taylor started training in boxing, when she first got on with the Sheriff's Department in 2010, as she believed she needed to know some self-defense for her job. After struggling to find boxing matches to compete, she moved her focus to MMA, and she began to add wrestling and jiu-jitsu into her training. She was encouraged by her coach to try on MMA competitions and fell in love with the sport, where she fought a total of 5 amateur fights with record of 4 wins and 1 loss, paving the path to her MMA career [3]

She joined King of the Cage (KOTC) promotion for 2 years, from March 2014 to March 2016. She picked up all first five bouts and captured women's strawweight division championship from Glena Avila. However, she did not manage to defend her title against Jamie Colleen, but was able to reclaim the title by TKO from Colleen in the rematch in KOTC: Night of the Champion in 5 March 2016,[5] and soon later she joined Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2016.

Despite her small stature, 5 feet 0 inches, she has above average power for the strawweight division. She has the ability to power in with a right hand knockout punch, where she would face fighters who have reach and height over her that can control her from outside and on the clinch.[6]

Being a full-time custody assistant at Wayside Jail for Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, she trains not only on her off days but also on her workdays. She puts on a 48-hour work week, where one of the day is considered a "County double - a 16 -hour shift", spreading over the course of 4 days in a week (4 on and 3 off). On her "County double - 16 hour workday', she would start her work from 6 am to 10 pm and goes for a 1–2 miles after work to get the blood flowing for not being in the gym that day. For the 8 hour work day, she would work on her conditioning exercise at Chain Fitness for an hour and then head out to Saekson Muay Thai for striking training under Julio Trana.[7]

She had five amateur fights in both strawweight and flyweight divisions, from May 2013 to January 2014, under KOTC and Tuff-Nuff promotions, with four wins against Lena Hellqvist, Chelsea Lewis, Rachael Smith and Samantha Hester, and one loss to Wendy Julian.[3]

Danielle made her professional career in Flyweight division (125 lb) on KOTC debut, facing Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson at KOTC: Beaten Path main card, in California, securing a unanimous decision win in 3 round bout.[3][5]

She was up against Jillian Lybarger on 26 Ma 2014 on her second fight in Arizona on KOtC, Alliance, referring by Mike Beltran. She was victorious, with TKO (punches).[3]

Danielle submitted Nikki Lowe with an armbar on round 1 on August 7, 2014, on KOTC: Point of Impact, where the event was held in California.[3]

On her 4th professional fight, she secured a unanimous win decision over Maria Andaverde California at KOTC: Battle For The Belt promotion.[3]

On 12 February 2015, Taylor was granted a Strawweight Championship fight facing Glena Avila, and stole a split decision win with Herb Dean as the referee on KOTC: Short Fuse and crowned the- KOTC Strawweight champion.[3]

Danielle Jamie lost her first title defense five months later to Colleen, where she was knocked out on August 29, 2017, at KOTC Bitter Rivals in California on round 4.[3]

After her last loss, Taylor made a comeback with a TKO win against Calie Cutler at Las Las Vegas on KOTC: Sinister Intention event on October 17, 2015, with the record of 6–1–0 in 2016.[3]

Danielle started her 2016 fight on March 5 on KOTC: Night of Champions in California and managed to reclaimed the 15 Ib strawweight title from Jamie Colleen at 5th round with TKO punches.[3]

Taylor signed with Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2016 with a 7–1 record and fought the entire career under KOTC banner.[5]

Taylor made her promotional UFC debut in on August 6, 2016, with 9 days notice at Salt Lake City, US, on UFC Fight Night: Rodríguez vs. Caceres She stepped in for the injured Justine Kish, facing 8th-ranked Maryna Moroz. She suffered a split-decision loss.[8]

In her second bout with UFC she gained a win over South Korea fighter Seo Hee Ham (16-8MMA, 1-3 UFC), at UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Brunson on 26 November 2016 at Melbourne, Australia, with a split-decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27).[9][3]

On UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs. Lobov at Nashville, United States Dannielle faced Jessica Penne ( 12-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC) on the preliminary card on 22 April 2017. She secured a win with unanimous decision, outpointing with scores of 29-28 across the board from the judges, where John McCarthy was the referee of the bout.[5][3]

Taylor faced JJ Aldrich on January 14, 2018 at UFC Fight Night: Stephens vs. Choi.[10] She lost the fight via unanimous decision.[11]

Taylor faced Zhang Weili on August 4, 2018 at UFC 227.[12] She lost the fight by unanimous decision.[13]

On August 30, Taylor was released from UFC.[14]

After the release from the UFC, Taylor signed with Invicta FC. She made her promotional debut against Montserrat Ruiz at Invicta FC 33 on December 15, 2018. She won the fight via unanimous decision.[15]

She then entered the Invicta Phoenix Series 1 Strawweight tournament, facing Juliana Lima in the quarterfinals. She lost the bout via split decision and was eliminated from the tournament.[16]

In late 2020, Taylor signed with Xtreme Fighting Championships and is expected to make her promotional debut against Jessica Aguilar at XFC 43 on November 11, 2020.[17]

• King of the Cage (KOTC)
  • KOTC Strawweight Champion (2 times)[3]