It’s been a while since Amanda Lucas last competed in MMA, but she’s not planning to leave the sport.
Amanda Lucas, daughter of Star Wars creator George Lucas, scored her fifth straight win in MMA with a decision victory over Yuiga at DEEP in 2012. She planned to compete twice since, but it never materialized. Now, Lucas has taken a time off to become a mother.
“Originally I was supposed to fight twice in the first half of 2013, but the first fight fell through and I was injured before the second one,” Lucas told MMAFighting.com. “I did a couple jiu-jitsu tournaments, PanAms and a super fight at the UFC Fan Expo, and was consistently in the gym. It was around this time that I realized that I really just wanted to have a baby. I am 32 now, and my biological clock was ticking, as cliché as that sounds.”
“Honestly, I always thought I would be a wife and mom,” she continued. “Maybe teach some dance on the side. When I discovered MMA, I found a passion and went with it and that pushed my plans for a family back a few years. Once my husband and I decided we were ready, I was mainly focused on getting myself as healthy as possible. And, of course, trying to get pregnant.”
Lucas and her husband, Jason, are expecting their son Felix in July.
“I don’t have any time frame on my return,” she said. “My son is due in three months and my plan right now is to focus on being the best mom I can be.”
Lucas, who won the DEEP openweight women’s championship in 2012, continues to train despite the pregnancy.
“I was incredibly sick for the first four months of my pregnancy. Now that I am feeling great I am back at the gym almost every day,” she said. “Obviously I am limited in what I am able to do, but I have doing three or four days a week of conditioning with my strength coach Norm Turner, and an occasional pad session.”
She won’t return to the ring or cage anytime soon, but she’s not worried about ring rust if she does compete again.
“Honestly, I don’t really think about that,” Lucas said. “I train and fight because I love it. I am passionate about MMA and when I decide to fight again it will be because I enjoy the challenge. If I am training and I feel like it’s just not there or that I might hurt myself, I probably wouldn’t fight again. I do plan to earn my BJJ black belt one day, so I will be competing in tournaments for sure.”
Lucas plans to cut down to featherweight or bantamweight if she returns to MMA. She went 5-1 in MMA fighting at 155 pounds, but finding opponents in this division is not an easy task.
“My goal was always to fight at 145, which was what my last fight was scheduled for,” she said. “Invicta has a 145lbs weight class and I would be happy to fight for them. I am sure as the UFC continues to grow they will expand into other weight classes, as they did with the men’s divisions. Obviously if I have a chance to fight for the UFC it would be a dream come true.
“I think the best opportunities for me are at 145 or even 135. But I am going to have to see how everything plays out after I have the baby.”