From manicures to martial arts
BY NADIA MALIK
nmalik@dailyherald.com
Posted Sunday, June 10, 2007
Felice Herrig's day job is to make others beautiful, giving facials and pedicures at a Wheeling salon.
But her muscular arms are a clue to her life when she's not at work. Herrig, 22, of Buffalo Grove, is a kickboxer who's won two national and two world championships.
"In the ring, I'm just this mean, tough girl," the 5-foot, 4-inch fighter said.
She trains at Z's Martial Arts in Huntley and will be showcased on the Oxygen Network as a contestant in an eight-week reality series.
The series, "Fight Girls," premieres at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Felice Herrig is a two-time national and world champion in kickboxing. Herrig, nicknamed the “girlie girl” in the Fight Girl competition, also likes her day job at Experience Spa in Wheeling. Herrig lived with nine other girls in Las Vegas for the duration of the show, shot earlier this year, which pits two of the contestants against each other in each episode.
One girl goes home after a fight every week, and the five remaining head off to Thailand, the home of Muay Thai fighting, the kickboxing form in which they compete on the show.
The five winning Americans compete against Thai fighters. Someone gets eliminated weekly.
Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand, said Christina Gilmartin, communications manager for Oxygen. According to the U.S. Thai Boxing Association, the martial art originated in "ancient" battlefield tactics used by the Siamese army.
Some women in Thailand train in Muay Thai almost from birth. That makes them intimidating opponents for the five American women who compete against them, Gilmartin said.
The first episode prominently features Herrig, who faces a fight in the ring - and also with one of her roommates in their house.
Herrig said she'll be watching the show at the Huntley martial arts studio alongside the people she trains with.
Although she knows the outcome, she can't spill the details on how far she goes or who wins in the championship fight.
She'll also be one of the bloggers from the show who will regularly update what actually happened behind the scenes. The blog is at
www.oxygen.com/fightgirls.
During the show, Herrig is billed as the "girlie girl" who takes the time to do her hair, makeup and nails even before a fight. The Fight Girls Web site describes her as the "adorably, saucy Italian."
But to Herrig, her appearance and fighting go hand in hand. She does both to take care of herself, she said.
"You can be a girl and feminine and still fight," she said, confident that if she ever had to use her skills in public, she'd easily be able to defend herself.
Herrig took up kickboxing at 18, following in the footsteps of her father, who has been practicing martial arts since he was 17.
"When they find out, people always say, 'You're so feminine and girlie. I just can't imagine you being a fighter. You're so sweet,'æ" Herrig said. "They're surprised at how good I am."
She broke her arm in the ring last year. Two weeks later she was back at Z's, training for her next fight.
Herrig spends at least five days a week in the gym. Even with that background, though, she found some of the workout routine in Vegas tough.
The girls were in the gym twice a day, and Herrig had to go from 125 to 115 pounds in four days to get down to a lighter weight class. She ate a handful of food every couple hours just to keep her going and drank gallons of water.
"You get to the point where in your mind you wouldn't mind going home," Herrig said.
But her ring name, "Lil Bulldog," was given for a reason.
"Kickboxing, that's where all my dreams are," she said. "I put my focus on kickboxing so I never look back and think about what I could have done."
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