When assessing Olga Rubin’s chances of dethroning Julia Budd, it helps to know the kind of hurdles she’s already overcome in pursuit of her MMA dream.
A native of Russia who has grown up in Israel since childhood, Rubin didn’t even start training in martial arts until she was 23 years old. Though the martial arts scene in her adopted home has shown spurts of development over the past decade, Israel is still not recognized as a hotbed for cagefighting talent. So already, Rubin faced an uphill climb.
Then there was the the matter of Rubin having to deal with an unexpected blessing in 2016.