Marloes Coenen
Dutch fighter who took up jiu-jitsu as a girl, competed at the first ADCC with women's divisions and won Strikeforce gold with an armbar.
Biography
Sources for this profile
Wikipedia (English), article on Marloes Coenen, read 2026-10-21(opens in a new tab)
Marloes Coenen is a retired Dutch mixed martial artist, born in Olst in the Netherlands.
Where in the source: Infobox and lead - "Dutch mixed martial artist"
Accessed:
She was born on 31 March 1981.
Where in the source: Infobox - birth date line
Accessed:
Her brothers and her grandfather were involved in martial arts, her grandfather having trained in jiu-jitsu, and she began training at Shooto Holland with Pierre Drachman and Martijn de Jong at age 14.
Where in the source: Early life section
Accessed:
She debuted in MMA in November 2000 and won the 2000 ReMix World Cup during her first run of victories.
Where in the source: Mixed martial arts career section
Accessed:
She reached the final of the 2007 K-GRACE tournament and lost it to Roxanne Modafferi by split decision.
Where in the source: Mixed martial arts career section
Accessed:
On 9 October 2010 she beat Sarah Kaufman by third-round armbar in San Jose to win the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship.
Where in the source: Strikeforce section
Accessed:
She defended the Strikeforce title against Liz Carmouche on 5 March 2011 by fourth-round triangle choke, then lost it to Miesha Tate on 30 July 2011 by fourth-round arm-triangle choke, the first time she had been submitted in MMA.
Where in the source: Strikeforce section
Accessed:
She headlined the first all-female Invicta FC card on 28 April 2012 against Romy Ruyssen and won by unanimous decision.
Where in the source: Invicta FC and Dream section
Accessed:
She signed with Bellator in August 2014, and after losing the inaugural Bellator women's featherweight title fight to Julia Budd by fourth-round TKO on 3 March 2017 she announced her retirement from MMA.
Where in the source: Bellator MMA section
Accessed:
At the ADCC World Championships on 27 and 28 May 2005, the first with women's divisions, she beat Yuki Kondo Kubota and lost to Stacy Cartwright in the over 60 kg division, then beat Cartwright and lost to Tara LaRosa in the absolute division.
Where in the source: Grappling career section - "first women's divisions"
Accessed:
Wikipedia's infobox lists Golden Glory among her teams, and the article reports that Golden Glory announced her release from her Strikeforce contract on 3 August 2011.
Where in the source: Infobox team line; Strikeforce section
Accessed:
Last Word on Sports, interview with Marloes Coenen by Aaron Wurtzel, 10 August 2016(opens in a new tab)
In her own account she started with Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a girl after deciding to learn self-defence for her bicycle route to school, because her mother considered kickboxing too far away; she then competed in grappling matches and had an amateur Shooto fight at 18.
Where in the source: Interview, answer to "How did you get into fighting?" - "I started with BJJ"
Accessed:
She recalls that in the Netherlands of her youth there was no blueprint for MMA, that it was called free fight, and that a Minister of Sports tried to forbid it.
Where in the source: Interview, answer on seeing fighting as a career - "tried to forbid it"
Accessed:
She says she chose Bellator after getting fights with Invicta irregularly, wanting to fight as she was getting older, and trusting Scott Coker, who had built Strikeforce.
Where in the source: Interview, answer on why she went to Bellator - "Then Scott came up"
Accessed:
Jits Magazine, throwback article on ADCC 2005 and the first women's divisions(opens in a new tab)
In the over 60 kg division at ADCC 2005 she won her opening-round match by submitting Yuki Kondo Kubota with a kneebar and then lost to Stacy Cartwright; in the absolute division she won a rematch with Cartwright before losing to Tara LaRosa, finishing 2-2 at the event.
Where in the source: Over 60kg and Women's Absolute sections - "a 2-2 record"
Accessed:
Wikipedia (Dutch), article on Marloes Coenen, read 2026-10-21(opens in a new tab)
The Dutch article lists her as a Dutch Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion.
Where in the source: Titles section - "Nederlands kampioen Braziliaans Jiu Jitsu"
Accessed:
The Dutch article says that from January 2022 she works as analyst and commentator for Discovery+ Netherlands.
Where in the source: Lead paragraph - "analist"
Accessed:
Lineage
No teaching connections are shown on this page.
Open lineage