EVERETT — After Miranda Granger played her final game in center field for the Bellevue College softball team in May of 2013, she felt a little adrift.
With that portion of her athletic life over and no real desire to continue playing softball at a four-year college despite opportunities to do so, the former Glacier Peak High School standout was searching for something to fill the Texas-sized competitive void in the pit of her stomach.
It didn’t take long before the cage called her home.
Granger, who earned her black belt in taekwondo under the tutelage of Charlie Pearson at Charlie’s Combat Club (C3) in Everett at age 12, and was weaned on competitive martial arts from a very young age by her father, Gordy — also a black belt and student of Pearson’s — returned to C3 after two weeks off to begin mixed martial arts training.
To those who know Miranda, it was an entirely predictable outcome.
“I’ve known I wanted to be in the cage since I was six years old. It’s something I’ve always known,” Granger said. “Every single coach and every single former teammate I told that I was doing it said, ‘It doesn’t even surprise me at all.’”
As the popularity of mixed martial arts soars around the country, here is an intensely competitive and aggressive athlete with a built-in martial arts background, complete with a willingness to hit and be hit.
It’s a natural fit, one that has progressed to the point that Granger will fight Lakewood’s Shelby Miller at CageQuest 6 on Nov. 21 for the CageQuest Female 125-pound championship in just her third MMA bout.
“It came fast, but I’m ready for it,” Granger said of her title shot, which was three fights and a lifetime in the making.
“Miranda always had the fighting spirit inside of her,” said Pearson, who is Granger’s primary trainer at C3, along with Chris Garcia. He added that Granger’s heart and will to win are still her greatest assets in the cage.
“When she was a little kid, I just remember her being a little feisty thing. That same spirit was obviously with her during her time as a three-sport athlete, and nothing can really show your fighting spirit as well as fighting. She continued on her path, challenged herself and let that spirit out.”
After nearly a year of fight training — both Granger and Pearson say that C3’s students who are preparing to enter the cage go through different, and more intense, training than others — Granger took what she called “a good step into the cage” by booking a kickboxing fight in December 2014.
The bout was part of an AX Fighting Championships card, one of the many shows that Pearson and Aric Wiseman of Lynnwood-based Alderwood MMA have co-promoted at Edmonds Community College’s gym over the years.
Granger said she just wanted to fight; Pearson, Garcia and her other coaches at C3 wanted her to ease back into the competitive realm by fighting a style that played to her striking strengths.
She scored a first-round technical knockout, but came to appreciate the caution preached by her coaches for making sure she was really ready before making her debut.
“Once I realized what it took, I don’t think mentally I would have been ready, and even if I won, I wouldn’t have appreciated it as much,” Granger said. “They break you down mentally and physically, and then they keep going. It takes a while to push through that barrier. It took me that long to get into that mindset.”
As immersed as Granger’s family is in the world of competitive fighting — her younger brother and sister have studied under Pearson, her aunt earned her black belt at C3 and her uncle and grandfather were boxers — it is still difficult for Gordy and Cheryl Granger and the rest of Miranda’s family to watch her fight.
“Her mom wasn’t really excited about having her beautiful daughter in there punching it out with other girls, but she trusts me and she definitely trusts Charlie. Once she realized Miranda’s skill level it got a little easier,” Gordy said. “But it was tough, tougher than I thought. I have ultimate faith in Charlie’s abilities and how much he cares for Miranda. He would never allow her to do something that he didn’t have confidence she’d be able to do.”
Granger’s first mixed martial arts fight came at AX Fighting 48 on March 21, where she recorded a first-round KO/TKO of Crem Frazier, a bout that was stopped by the referee with Granger pummeling a prone Frazier against the cage.
Granger said that the pre-fight nerves came in waves, beginning a week from the bout.
“You’ll get into panic attacks almost, then it goes away and you’re like, ‘I got this’ and then it spikes again,” she said. “I found out the night before (the event) that I was late in the card and not going to be fighting until 10 p.m., so that’s a solid five hours of freaking out. I sat back there with my teammates, put my music on and tried to act as calm as I could, but I was playing the fight in my mind 17 times. But once it was time to go out and I heard my song come on (“I’m Comin’” by Will Smith) everything went away. I’m a religious person and I knew I had God on my side. No matter what happened, He was going to be there to protect me. Whether I won or lost, I just wanted to go out there and do what I could. That calmed me, and once I was in there, I was fine.”
Granger’s second MMA bout, against Canada’s Elysse Stevenson at AX Fighting 50 on July 18, was a tougher challenge because of the quality of the opponent and the book being out on Granger’s striking ability.
“Miranda is very comfortable throwing punches and throwing kicks,” Pearson said. “She likes that, and the girls that she’s fighting don’t like doing that with her. They try to grab her and take her down. We’re working on not getting taken down, and if we do, what to do when it happens. She’s entered a couple of grappling tournaments and is undefeated. We’re just getting her comfortable using all of those tools when she’s fighting. She just likes to hit so much that she forgets about the grappling aspect.”
Granger and Stevenson went the distance, with Granger winning a unanimous decision in front of her raucous Danger Granger cheering section.
“There is something about Miranda where she just touches people,” Gordy Granger said. “She just touches people, and you can see that in the people that come out to watch her fight.”
One of those people is Brad Johnson, who was Granger’s softball coach at Glacier Peak in her junior and senior seasons of 2009 and 2010, the first in the history of the school, which was founded for 2008-09 school year.
Granger was a first team All-Wesco selection and an honorable mention All-State pick following her senior year.
Johnson, a technology education and drafting teacher at Snohomish High School, where Miranda went as a freshman and sophomore, has attended all three of Granger’s fights and wholeheartedly endorsed her decision to return to mixed martial arts.
“Miranda has a very infectious personality, where if you talk to her for a little bit you want to hang out with her more,” Johnson said. “And that’s what makes her fights so exciting to watch. She brings a large fan base with her. People that know Miranda, played sports with her or know her from other things, they all want to see her fight. She has a big following, and I’m sure she’s bringing a lot of publicity and money to Charlie’s Combat with what she’s doing.”
Pearson demurred when asked about how many fans were in attendance at this month’s bout, which he co-promoted, but did say that the combined drawing power of Granger and Miller, along with their won-loss records, have made for an enticing title match in November.
“Both the girls are super-popular, and any promotion would be lucky to book that show together,” he said.
Regardless of whether Granger wins or loses in November, or in the bout Pearson is hoping to arrange for her between now and then, the path of the mixed martial artist is one that she appears to be on for the long haul.
She and Pearson both expressed a desire to continue to book amateur fights while she, as Pearson said, “gets her technique in line with her fighting spirit,” but there seems to be little doubt, barring injury or something else unforeseen, that Granger will eventually turn professional.
“That is everyone’s goal coming in here, but I’m really trying to take one fight at a time,” she said. “But it’s hard not to think about the future, and with women’s MMA on the rise it’s hard not to dream. I could see something in my future but don’t want to speak too soon. As for right now, i want to continue what I’m doing and wherever it takes me I will be more than willing to go.”
Pearson is also well aware of Granger’s ambitions.
“Miranda does some of the wrong things in fights, but her spirit to win overcomes some of the mistakes that she’s making,” he said. “Once we get things together we think she can be a serious competitor. I know she has aspirations of doing some big things in the sport, and we’re taking the opportunities as they come, and we’ll keep it up until we’re ready to move on to bigger and better things.”
There haven’t been any bumps on the road so far, but if Granger should suffer a defeat?
“If it happens, it happens and I’ll move on to the next,” she said. “But I don’t plan on losing.”
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