All eyes on: Tanja Angerer

She is currently the No. 2 women in professional MMA "Pound for Pound" in Germany and No. 6 in Western Europe. We are talking about Tanja Angerer from A-Team Martial Arts, who, like the "foreign legionnaires" Judith Ruis and Christina Brauchle, trains regularly with the German Top Team and is also referred to fights through them. Tanja had her first contacts and joint training sessions with the GTT more than 10 years ago, and she has always been a regular at Peter Angerer's training sessions and seminars. Over the years, a friendship built on respect and loyalty developed, which ensured that Peter Angerer used his contacts in Japan to enable Tanja to progress from a sporting perspective.

And most of all, that's what the last two years have had in store, as the last four fights have given the 34-year-old thoroughbred athlete's career a huge boost. Her victory over Japanese MMA talent Sayuri Yamaguchi at SHOOTO KINGS earned her the first and long-sought ticket into Asia's top MMA league DEEP Jewels, where she defeated Daichi Date by unanimous decision on points. Then last December came the first big international test of endurance when she faced Japan's Mika Nagano (16-10-0) again in Tokyo and managed to wring a hard-fought draw, with even one of the Japanese judges seeing the fight for Tanja.

With her last fight at SHOOTO KINGS VIII: Samurai Spirit against the Swiss Bestare Kicaj she finally cemented her position in the German Pound for Pound Rankings. In a true test of her mettle, she won early in Round 3 with an armbar after taking two rounds of hard hits from Bestare while standing. So Tanja is ready for the next big fight in Japan, which is currently already in preparation, because Top Shooto promoter Kazuhiro Sakamoto was present on site at the fight and was visibly impressed by the fighting performance.

But also in Grappling and BJJ Tanja is always a name to reckon with in Germany. In the open class at the ADCC German Open Championships 2018 she lost in the final only to her teammate Judith Ruis and it must be said that the women's classes at ADCC is firmly in the hands of the women from the German Top Team. We are proud that Tanja is a BJJ brown belt in our family and we are looking forward to her next adventures in Japan!