Former OCU wrestler Emily Ducote prepares for Invicta title fight, stays ready for UFC opportunity

The goal of Brazilian jiu-jitsu is to deny your opponent the ability to move, to make them submit on the ground.

As both competitors roll on the mat, they're fighting each others' strength, weight and flexibility. Add a rising heart rate, and it can feel like you're drowning if you're the person on the bottom. 

Jiu-jitsu can be a nightmare if a person is claustrophobic. 

Emily Ducote is not one of those. She can handle tight, cramped spaces. The 27-year-old is a professional mixed martial arts fighter and former Oklahoma City University wrestler. She currently competes in Invicta FC, a women’s MMA organization that’s been home to multiple Ultimate Fighting Championship stars. 

Ducote has a 9-6 record, but she's close to achieving UFC status and was offered a short-notice UFC fight earlier this year before it fell through. On Friday night in Kansas City, Mo., she’ll be fighting for the Invicta strawweight title against Danielle Taylor (11-4).

Winning a belt in a major organization like Invicta would be a huge boost in Ducote's career.

“I am very ready and very excited to get back in the cage,” said Ducote, who trains with American Top Team OKC.

Ducote lived in California, back and forth between San Jose and Los Gatos, and first started martial arts when she was age 12. Her grandparents, avid UFC fans, suggested she try taekwondo. Ducote was instantly hooked and earned a blackbelt. 

“I loved martial arts,” Ducote said. “I loved the discipline more than anything. The routine, the structure. I'm a very structured, planned-out person, so it just fit right in with my personality.”

Ducote, joined the wrestling team as a sophomore at Los Gatos High School. Already a huge MMA fan, she realized how important wrestling could be when it came to improving martial arts.

All UFC fights start out with both athletes on their feet. Having the skill to bring an opponent to the ground can be a crucial advantage. Ducote, already a blackbelt in taekwondo, saw wrestling as a means of improving her fighting abilities.

She excelled in wrestling, and was a runnerup in the state wrestling tournament as a senior. 

“That was like a fire under my butt,” Ducote said about joining the wrestling team. “You had to be good, and I'm a very competitive person as well. And I'm interested in martial arts, so I just wanted to be better ... I just loved the whole aspect of it.”

Ducote arrived at Oklahoma City University in 2012 to join the wrestling team. She left the team before her sophomore year, saying school was never really her focus. She just wanted to focus on martial arts. 

Before moving back to California, Ducote took a suggestion from a friend to try out Giulliano Gallupi’s classes at American Top Team OKC.

Gallupi, a native of Brazil, is a third-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He was trained by Ricardo Liborio, co-founder of American Top Team and one of the best practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the world.

When Liborio and American Top Team wanted to expand from Coconut Creek, Florida, Gallupi was tasked with opening a gym in Oklahoma. He moved to Oklahoma City and started American Top Team OKC in 2009. Since then, Gallupi considers Oklahoma his home and the gym members his family. 

“I came here by myself ... my family lives in Brazil, so this is what I create,” said Gallupi, gesturing toward his students. “My family’s here ... if you see me going to dinner with somebody, it will be with people from here. If you see me going to a birthday party, it will be with people from here.”

Gallupi took Ducote in and began training the 5-foot-2, 115-pounder in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It wasn't long before he gave Ducote an opportunity to partake in her first amateur fight. She accepted and lost. She also lost her first professional bout to now-UFC fighter Emily Whitmire in 2015.

The setbacks only inspired Ducote to get better.

After her first pro loss, Ducote won two consecutive professional fights before joining Bellator, another premier MMA circuit. Ducote won two fights there.

Ducote is currently in a six-week camp in preparation for a title fight, but she’s been ready to compete since November, before it was canceled due to her opponent’s team being affected by COVID-19. 

Ducote will be on the lookout for short-notice UFC fight opportunities after Friday night, something fighters outside of the UFC have to be prepared for in order to get a shot. The challenge of waiting requires being ready at a moment’s notice when fighters get the call, which means year-round training for Ducote. 

“I don't just train when I have a fight, I stay here all the time,” Ducote said. “And I'll do training trips and I'll kind of just try to better myself at all times so that if something were to come up, I would be confident that I was ready.

"And that was the situation (with the UFC earlier this year) and it just didn't work out. They offered it and I accepted it, it was really, really close to happening. And then it just didn't work out. 

“But that makes me realize I'm on that (short) list of people that they'll call if they need a short-notice fight. So it is a good little confidence booster and just a good little motivation to know that I am very close to where I want to be.”

Update: Ducote won Friday night.