Danielle Nicole Taylor (born October 25, 1989) is an American mixed martial artist. She was the Strawweight King of the Cage (KOTC) champion (2 times), competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women's strawweight division and is currently competing for Invicta FC.
Background
Personal background
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.
MMA background
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
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 on 5 March 2016, 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.
She does conditioning at Chain Fitness and trains striking at Saekson Muay Thai under Julio Trana.
Mixed martial arts career
Early career
2013–2014
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.
King of the Cage
2014
Danielle made her professional career debut in the Flyweight division (125 lb) of KOTC, facing Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson at KOTC: Beaten Path main card, in California, securing a unanimous decision win in 3 round bout.
She was up against Jillian Lybarger on March 26, 2014 on her second fight in Arizona at KOtC: Alliance. The bout was refereed by Mike Beltran. She won by TKO (punches).
Danielle submitted Nikki Lowe with an armbar on round 1 on August 7, 2014, on KOTC: Point of Impact in California.
On her 4th professional fight, she secured a unanimous win decision over Maria Andaverde at KOTC: Battle For The Belt in California.
2015
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.
Danielle lost her first title defense five months later to Jamie Colleen, where she was knocked out on August 29, 2017, at KOTC Bitter Rivals in California on round 4.
After her last loss, Taylor made a comeback with a TKO win against Calie Cutler in Las Vegas on KOTC: Sinister Intention event on October 17, 2015, with the record of 6–1–0 in 2016.
2016
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.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
2016
Taylor signed with Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2016 with a 7–1 record.
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.
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).
2017
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.