Fredia Gibbs

Q. Tell everyone who you are, what you do and where you’re from?

A. My name is Fredia Gibbs, they call me Cheetah, I’m a former 3-time world champion kickboxing, multi kickboxing.

Played professional basketball, track and field, a little bit of everything. I enjoy winning. I’m from Chester, Pennsylvania, a small urban city outside of

Philadelphia.

Q. How did you get the name cheetah and what does that represent?

A. We all know cheetahs are fast ha-ha. Basically, I attended a high school where our high school colors were orange and black, I was on the basketball team as well as ran on the track team. My mom used to come to my meets, I remember for track,

I’ll never forget, she always used to watch me run the 3rd leg on the 4x4 relay team. One day I was zooming around to pass the baton to our 4th legger and we won!! I’ll never forget my mom saying, “Sissy you look like a cheetah running around there with that orange and black.” So that’s how I acquired that name, the cheetah. I just kept it with me.

Q. Who are some women that influence you to be the woman that you are today?

A. Oh Geesh. Well I was raised by some pretty strong, intelligent women. Obviously my mother, she was an extremely strong woman. My grandmother, my father’s mother, as well as my mother’s mother. They were the first, you know, women in my life who were very strong. Outside of my family as a young kid growing up, my role model was Christy

Love, back in the 70s 80s. Wilma Rudolph as well, she was someone who looked like me as a young child growing up. So,

I certainly looked up to her and Oprah

Winfrey!

Q. How did you become the most dangerous woman in the world?

A. Ha-ha that’s a funny title.

How I became? I actually fought the most dangerous women in the world. I was a 3-time world champion at kickboxing, and I was given the opportunity to fight on an international pay per view world championship channel called Battle of the Masters.

It was going to be showcased in San Jose, California. I accepted the fight and asked them who I was going to be fighting, they said “you’re going to be fighting this girl from France and her name in

Valerie B. Henning, her record is 27-2, oh and by the way, she’s the most dangerous woman in the world”. I was like “the most dangerous woman in the world? Y’all got to be kidding me! Y’all are always putting me in there with some tough people.

Every fight yall give me, I always got to fight for my life.

Now you put me in a ring with the most dangerous woman in the world. Holy cow!” I’ll

never forget when they told me that, so I called my mom and told her they had me fighting the most dangerous woman in the world. My mom was like “how the hell is she going to be the most dangerous woman in the world when you are. You go out there and tell her Isaid that you are the woman that your mama warned her about”. Cause they were promoting her all over the world. Spending like $500k of marketing from Europe to the USA introducing her because the plan was to introduce her to the world since it was popular in other countries. The plan was to introduce kickboxing to America because it was super big in Europe and the other countries. I was obviously the underdog and I went out there and I’ll never forget walking toward the ring and heard a bunch of people yelling “that’s the black girl who came here to get knocked out” and that really surprised me. It kind of pissed me off a little but I just said a silent prayer saying, “tonight Father, we are going to shock the world”. Sure enough, we went in there and it was a tough fight. I really had to fight for my life, it was hard. In the 3rd round, my leg got tired. I already had a couple cuts over my eye and I just said another solid prayer: “Father, my legs are getting tired, I need your help”. At that time, it was on and popping, he answered! Threw a kick, came back with an overhand right. She went ahead and I spinned a second overhand right, the impact knocked her out. BAM! That’s when I shocked the world in front of 1.5 million people on national pay per view and made American history, becoming the first African American female kickboxing champion for the first time ever GLOBALLY! I’m the first! Standing alongside Jack Johnson.

Q. So how did you feel when you won the world championship on the time of your mom’s birthday?

A. Do you really want to know?

People always ask me that question and I have to really think about it. First, I was like an awe feeling of an everyday person but then I really had to dig deep down into my soul and just retrospect about that moment of how special it was. All the adversity, trials and tribulation and distractions that I had to encounter and endure in order to et to that point, in order to leave with my hands raised. So, to answer your question, it was so deeply spiritual, it was like I was making my transition from Earth to Heaven and I was standing here in front of God and I had won with my hands raised because He had assigned me. At that time He had crowned me with my crown and said, “you may enter these Golden Gates”. That’s how deeply spiritual and powerful it was to me and that impact, I feel it until this day. You dig?

Q. Yesss! Okay so me asking, do you think of yourself as a fighter or a warrior?

A. I am a warrior! You know. But don’t get me wrong like Oprah said back there in the color purple, “I got to fight for my life, all my life I got to fight.” That’s all of our lives; we all got to fight, that’s why in Ephesians God gave us as souls, the armour of

God for us to wear and protect because we got to fight. So, you know I consider myself a warrior, a fighting warrior.

Q. What would you say to your bullies and how did they help you get to where you are today?

A. What I would say to them is thank you. What I would really say is, in my experience with the bullies and people who bullied me from a young age; I would just say thank you one and two: you guys really need to check yourselves.

When you bully children it really has a very lasting, lifelong effect on them I know that it has on me.

Just the fact that I became this great champion and I’m sure it has on other people but more so what I’ve learned in observation of bullies is that every last one of them who used to tease me about my body is now fat and out of shape. Every last one who used to tease me, they don’t compare to where I am today. If kids are being bullied at home; they need to find counseling to help themselves so that they don’t go out and project onto other people what they are receiving at home. That’s what I learned.

Q. What’s the next big thing for you? Are you working on any projects or events that are coming up?

A. Yeah. Wow. Thank you very much for asking. I did a 9 minute 43 second YouTube video called the “Most Dangerous Woman:

The Fredia Gibbs Story.” It actually went viral and entered two film festivals, it has reached a lot of Hollywood heavy hitters and that means all diversities.

I’ve been approached by some heavy hitters and were looking at doing an autobiography of doing a Fredia Gibbs story.

Then looking at doing a feature film, from the feature film we’re looking at doing a tv series. So many great things. One more thing I want to add is that the state of Pennsylvania historian, his name is Phil Damiani director at the sports legend museum at Pennsylvania; they’re making a seven-foot bronze statue in my honor. The sculptor's name is Jennifer Fudaski, she’s a famous sculptor. She made Mike Smith's seven foot statue in Philadelphia and a bunch of other celebrities. My statue will be the first in Pennsylvania but more importantly, it will be the first martial art combat statue of a female on the entire planet, alongside Bruce Lee. That’s truly an honor, especially being an African American woman.

Q. Congratulations! What would be your advice to the next generation of female leaders?

A. That’s a very good one. The best advice that I can see is to find someone who looks like you that you can look up to, who’s very positive, living a good life, saying the right thing, doing the right thing and making the right things happen. You want to pretty much emulate them and be passionate about your goals.

Set them; they do come true, be passionate about them and just understand that if someone says that it can’t be done; smile and reply “maybe it can’t but I and you won’t be the ones who said so until we tried” because there are a lot of people out there who are going to tell you that you can’t do something. If you listen to them, you can’t!

Just go ahead and believe in yourself. That’s the most important thing.

“ I was a 3-time world champion at kickboxing, and I was given the opportunity to fight on an international pay per view world championship channel called Battle of the Masters ”

Q. Where can the readers follow you?

A. Everyone can find me on all social media: @IamFrediacheetahGibbs.