Tara LaRosa - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Tara LaRosa

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Complete

60%

Born
1978 (46 years old)

Birth Place

Woodstown, New Jersey, USA

Position
Fighter

Status
Retired

Ethnicity
White

Team Number

Height

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Wage Year

Player Cutout

Player Action Render

Sport

Fighting

Team
_Retired Wrestling

2nd Team

League
_No League

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Latest Results

					Invicta FC 8 Waterson vs Tamada	06 Sep 14
					Invicta FC 3 Penne vs Sugiyama	06 Oct 12

Description
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Tara Nicole LaRosa (born January 8, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist and grappler whose most high-profile successes occurred while competing in BodogFight, where she became the first and only BodogFight Women's Bantamweight (135 lbs) Champion. She later defeated HOOKnSHOOT 125-pound champion Cody Welchlin in a non-title bout at a HOOKnSHOOT/BodogFight co-sponsored event.
LaRosa has spent most of her career competing at bantamweight, although her natural weight class is the flyweight division. She dominated the bantamweight division during her seven years in it, and became a flyweight in 2009. Per Fight Matrix, she was #1 at flyweight between 2010 and 2012. She holds wins over top mixed martial arts fighters such as Amanda Buckner, Kelly Kobold, Shayna Baszler, Alexis Davis, Julie Kedzie, Sally Krumdiack and Takayo Hashi.
She has lived in eight different cities over the course of a decade in order to train at different gyms. During 2006, LaRosa trained and fought out of Rich Guerin's Yakima MMA gym in Yakima. Starting in April 2007, she trained out of Charles McCarthy's American Top Team affiliate for 6 months in Boca Raton. In September 2007 she joined the Philadelphia Fight Factory and trained with fighters like Zach Makovsky and Eddie Alvarez. LaRosa trained at Ivan Salaverry MMA in Seattle. She moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in January 2013 to train at Jackson's Mixed Martial Arts. On December 6, 2013, LaRosa was inducted in the New Jersey Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
LaRosa grew up in her native Woodstown, New Jersey. She attended the now defunct St. James Catholic High School. A love of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris action films inspired her to enroll in judo. Years later, she moved into mixed martial arts training and trained with Royce Gracie. Her first venture into martial arts was through shotokan when she was 17. LaRosa was active in field hockey, basketball, and softball. Her favorite sport outside of MMA is field hockey, which she played for 12 years after starting in the 5th grade. She earned a field hockey scholarship to attend Catawba College between 1996 and 2000. LaRosa graduated with a degree in physical education. While in college, LaRosa started training in judo and jiu jitsu. Her membership in the college's judo club led to her competing in tournaments.
Tara's parents are Carmen and Charlene LaRosa. She has a sister named Tiffany. Carmen and Charlene own and operate La Rosa Greenhouses, which they opened in Woodstown, New Jersey in 1979. Her family was initially against Tara being a professional fighter. They later attended some of her fights in New Jersey and supported her decision. Tara attributes her persistence to observing her father. Carmen had recovered from a financial setback with the family farm – bankruptcy – in the 1980s. Over several years, Carmen remained committed and repaid his debts. It motivated Tara and translated over in her desire for competition: "For me, fighting isn't about fighting – it is about competing. It's about testing myself and not giving up. I compete in everything I do. It's who I am."
To support herself outside of competition, LaRosa has worked in construction, as a personal assistant, bouncer, bartender, landscaper, and a medical marijuana delivery driver.
LaRosa's boyfriend, SFC Adrian Marcos Elizalde, was killed on August 23, 2007 when an improvised explosive device hit his truck in Al Aziziyah, Iraq. LaRosa was in Vancouver doing promotional work for BodogFight when she heard the news of Elizalde's death. They met as training partners while LaRosa was an instructor in modern army combat in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Elizalde, age 30, worked as an engineer in the U.S. Special Forces.
LaRosa endured a life-threatening experience in December 2010 during a second attempt to complete a 70-mile hike on Western Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands trail. Her first try that September had been incomplete due to a knee injury. Unbeknownst to her during her second attempt, the challenge would be compounded by a drop in temperature caused by the recent appearance of a weather front from Lake Erie. The ensuing heavy winds prevented her from maintaining a fire to keep warm after desperately finding a temporary shelter. The lack of cell phone reception led her to contact her mother, Charlene, through text messaging. Her mother called the authorities and LaRosa's location was found by GPS tracking of her phone. LaRosa was rescued by two rangers from Somerset County, Pennsylvania and later treated for hypothermia.
In January 2018, LaRosa participated in a sparring match against a comedian with no martial arts training named Kristopher Zylinski. The experiment was arranged by the Facebook page McDojoLife in response to Zylinski's messages in the comment section of an MMA article. The comment, which began "99% of women are too weak and lack the reflexes to do enough damage to stop 99% of men", was followed by a request to have Zylinski compete against a female MMA fighter, to which he replied "still 80/20 me." Anna Dempster and Sarah Patterson initially responded to the challenge but Tara LaRosa stepped in to replace them after each of them suffered an eye injury. On January 6, one hour before the fight, LaRosa and Zylinski were told by police that the event had been deemed illegal by Florida's State Athletics Commission. It was held later on and uploaded on January 22. It ended with Zylinski tapping out and stating that LaRosa won the fight due to better conditioning.
LaRosa began attending right-wing events following her retirement in 2015. In November 2018, LaRosa spoke at a HimToo rally in Portland, organized by a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer. LaRosa's presence at right wing events in Portland continued into 2019. Shortly after Veteran's Day, she was noted for subduing a counter-protestor while members of the Proud Boys filmed her and waited for police to arrive. The woman being restrained was heard saying "I can't breathe", while LaRosa reported that she was bitten during the incident. Police recommended no arrests to either party but noted that "there are conflicting versions of the events". Since then LaRosa has become a close ally to the far-right group the Proud Boys as she supports their beliefs. LaRosa has also advanced conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and published a list of people who had signed a petition against Donald Trump which she falsely claimed was a list of anti-fascist activists. On Twitter she has also written that "a civil war is coming" and recommended her followers purchase weapons. LaRosa has been criticized, however, by other supporters of the Proud Boys who oppose women's involvement in the group.