Erin Toughill on Time Warp, Strikeforce Signing

Originally posted on MMAweekly.com

It’s not uncommon to see MMA fighters appearing on myriad of television networks, doing a multitude of things.

One of the more unique opportunities outside the sport that has presented itself to athletes was an opportunity to showcase techniques at up to 100,000 times their normal speed on the Discovery Channel’s popular Time Warp series.

Not only did UFC star Kenny Florian help launch the show on its pilot episode, but he recently returned with Dan and Dave Camarillo along with female sensation and American Gladiators star Erin Toughill for the most recent episode, premiering Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.

MMAWeekly.com caught up with Toughill to talk about her experience on Time Warp, as well as what’s next for her in her fighting career.

“Apparently one of the producers on the show, Rudy (Fischmann), trains and is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, and is pretty knowledgeable about the sport,” said Toughill on how she got involved with the series. “They wanted a handful of people that represented each discipline to the best of their abilities, and I know he wanted to pick one woman in particular.

“I guess he was a fan of mine and requested I be in there. He picked me specifically for the striking element – the punches and elbows – so that was a big honor and pretty awesome.”

Toughill, along with the Camarillo brothers, traveled to Boston and met up with Florian for a day’s worth of taping that included Florian working Muay Thai, the brothers demonstrating judo and jiu-jitsu, and Toughill the aforementioned striking game.

“They wanted me to hit this guy in the stomach, and it was the craziest thing seeing all the (impact energy) flow,” stated Toughill. “Kenny and I did this one part where he was holding a watermelon and I hit it, they caught it in slow motion and it just exploded, that was pretty awesome.”

When MMAWeekly.com spoke to Time Warp host Jeff Lieberman in May, he specifically mentioned being hit by Toughill, and how he wouldn’t want to do it again any time in the near future.

“I think sometimes it still freaks people out who don’t know the sport that a woman can do that stuff,” commented Toughill. “I didn’t even hit him hard, but they had a very visceral reaction to it.