The 28-year-old, originally from Montreal, Canada, recently swapped rings, changing from boxing to Muay Thai, under the guidance of Fight Science head coach Rob Horrocks.
She travelled to Whanganui last weekend for her first fight in the latter discipline, as part of the ‘Night of the Assassins 8’, held at Springvale Stadium, where she faced Shayana Karauria — and demolished her.
Having previously won all five of her boxing bouts, Vassalos now has a 6-0 undefeated record.
Vassalos took up boxing after moving to Queenstown about eight years ago, but after finding herself in an "endless training camp" during Covid, she decided to take a break.
"I didn’t fight for, like, two years."
Initially taking up Muay Thai for fun, she quickly fell in love with the sport — a recent six-week training camp in Thailand "set my full-on fire".
She reckons her new discipline is better for her body, and she’s enjoying learning how to use her legs in fights.
"It feels empowering — I feel like I can move my body for the first time.
"It can be brutal, but the way I see it is there were so many shots to my head and body, boxing, that at least it’s all distributed now.
"I took a really hard shot from her on Saturday and it kind of felt like I blacked out for a sec, but in my head I was like, ‘I’ve been hit like that before, and I’ve been hit like that harder in sparring at the gym on a Friday ... so it’s fine, I’ve got this.
"Your mental game in the ring is one of the key components — I think boxing gave me a good mental game ... I just went in there and had fun."
Vassalos is hoping to fight at ‘The Tussle in Tahuna Fight Science Fight Night’, being held at the Industrial Pl gym on Saturday, December 14, from 3pm.
