Jennifer Panichi, the dog trainer who dedicated herself to martial arts and dreams of the UFC screen

When you are a dog trainer Jennifer Panichi (32) helped in 2017 remotely to develop a project in Brazil on boxing, autism and dogs, he never imagined that it would end with a turning point in his life for which he has become one of the best known faces in martial arts events broadcasting venues and MMA.

Is that his story is based on three equally important legs to become who he is: his whores, martial arts and his interviews.

Jenny, a name that she herself emphasizes on social media, studied to be a trainer and inside Argentina She has taken courses in assisted therapy with animals and assistance dogs. Parallel to her work, she helped in nursing homes and therapy centers for disabled children, where she had brought her dog since she was just six months old. “It was to have a good time with people and help them”he recalled in dialogue with clarion.

Because of that job, a friend of a trainer advised him to talk to a Brazilian who had a project where he had to articulate dogs with autistic kids and boxing. “He wanted to start doing something different. We were talking about what to do with the dog he had, how to adjust it. We spent about two years with this. In 2018 he called me and told me that the UFC was coming to Argentina and that it would be came to Buenos Aires, for which I offered him my house,” he said.

Little did she know that her Brazilian friend also gave interviews for a Youtube channel directly related to the UFC. She offered me to help translate the interviews. She sent me to the hotel with him, sat me down with the fighters and made me talk to them in Portuguese and Spanish. i sent myself”, he detailed.

A key piece of information, which enriched her career, is that in 2016, Jenny had settled in Praia do Rosa, Brazil, for a few years, thus acquiring an almost native level.

After that experience he understood that he could take advantage of it. During the pandemic she started interviewing fighters on social networks and raised her profile. She was called to work for the Taura company, from Brazil, and she didn’t stop: she worked for CAM, AG Fight of Brazil, MMA Premium and various kickboxing events. Now is your chance to cover the nations from Mexico as a commentator and will seek accreditation at UFC Brazil.

On the other hand, her history with martial arts dates back to 21-year-old Jenny, who began recreationally losing weight and getting fit, but went on to compete and win semi-pro titles. Now hopes to return to compete soon.

“I never thought about being a fighter or getting to the UFC. My dream is to get to the UFC. If you ask me if I’m fighting… And no. I would like to be a Laura Sanko (host and commentator for the company, also a former combatant), for example. Being able to be in that environment, helping the fighters, being a manager, being in another world behind the sport,” he confessed.

– How were those beginnings in martial arts?

– I started testing, I liked it, I demanded a little more from myself and when I felt I’d hit the limit I moved to a more competitive place, for Dojo snake and after a while The cage. My first amateur fight was in a Pan American. The anecdote is funny. I entered first and in those tournaments he is the one who comes first and fights. And if you’re left without an opponent because of the weight… that’s a problem. “You get to pick an opponent because there are three your weight and one will be left out,” they told me. They pointed to a girl, and when I turned around, it was Ailín Pérez (currently in the UFC). Later, there was another woman with ten extra kilos that I ended up arguing with, but she was a newbie like me. Ailín had about seven watermelon fights at my weight, but I was physically exploited. A fear seized me… I told them: ‘better give me the other one‘.

Now I’m back with everything when I changed my academy again. I was going to fight on October 15th and in between my dog ​​died. Many things happened. Now they want me to fight in November, but I don’t have a specific date, rival or event.

– You have a close relationship with your dogs. No?

– My whores are everything. They are my daughters, my colleagues and those I grew up with. I thank the 10 year old girl for all that I have achieved in my life because thanks to her I have found my profession, I have entered the sport thanks to working with dogs, I take them to training (martial arts). I found the one who choked to death because she tried to stick her head in the food bag and her bag got stuck.

Sometimes I give fighters houses and she was only with two when I found her. I almost die. For me it was a very hard blow, that It hit me a lot emotionally for the fight I was about to have. At the time I had a teacher to whom I told her that I needed support because she was having a difficult time and she demanded more from me. She made me feel bad at the time of the competition where I was losing weight a few weeks before and I told her I couldn’t. I kept working out, but without the pressure of having to reach a weight. The worst thing is to give up, you don’t have to stop, I kept claiming myself but in due time. Emotionally it affected me a lot.

– Did you live as a coach before entering the sport?

– I devoted myself to dog training. He trained ordinary domestic dogs. ‘Hey, my dog ​​is barking. I need you to come fix itI’ve been lecturing about this. I’ve been a trainer almost all my life until about three years ago when I started with the sport completely and put the topic of dogs aside. I also started teaching sports. More late, everything else like messing with dogs, training them to be around wheelchair users and children with autism, or the elderly, it was all honorary. I have worked many years of my life doing dog therapy for children with disabilities. Here I was one of the few people who did it a few years ago, I have a mention of the Buenos Aires Legislature and an engraved plaque for me and the dog to help people.

– And it was your online interviews that made you change your profession…

– All I got was through social networks. After realizing they were arriving everywhere, it took me a long time. What opened the door to everything for me was the online interviews where I started getting to know people and those people’s contacts. It has nothing to do with the number of followers, but with the quality of who follows me. From Minotaruro Nogueira, who can only follow a thousand people, to Alex Pereira, who He didn’t give anyone a ticket and I did. It is also the respect that is earned within the environment. They invited me to train with them and some just don’t feel like going to an interview at the time. I respect them, but I make contacts. In another context, later I ask them if I can give them a note. The most important thing for me was the leads I generated within the environment.

– In times that want to change certain things: is aesthetics still important to get there?

– A friend of mine told me the other time that I couldn’t live off my body, because I train all the time, and I tell her that my body and my face are what will take me where I want. I tell everyone. Unfortunately, you have to think so. It’s not the same for a girl who plays sports, who’s overweight, who doesn’t preach sports, to have someone who’s fit and has a presence.

We are talking about a male environment and it adds to them. Even though today there are many more women, the ones who drive are all men. It is true that it helps to look better, to have a beautiful face. Aesthetics is what first enters through the eyes. It’s a lie when they tell you they just make sure they know… It’s a lie. The input is from the physical and then from everything else.

I had fun with the interviews, I am a person who has great facility in speaking, in explaining myself. You realize when there is someone interviewing that they like sports or not. So knowing what he was talking about helped. Everyone talks about the machismo of the environment, but I have always felt very respected, accompanied and they gave me the job I wanted.

– And the environment of journalism?

– When I started, everyone introduced me as a journalist and me I never did a journalism degree. I have always made it clear, in all the notes. At the beginning I received from different quarters a couple of comments like ‘look here, she is not a journalist and arrives and we who are journalists are not‘. I found out because they came to me with gossip. I always made it clear that I wasn’t and that I really enjoyed the sport. After, everyone who hired me did it for the work I did. It has nothing to do with whether or not he had a college degree. I don’t look at what others are doing, on the contrary, I have the best with everyone. My function in networks is to communicate, “influence” in quotes.

– Has speaking Portuguese helped you?

– Much. She opened doors for me to cover everything. Having that I’ve eaten all over Latin America. If I didn’t have Portuguese, maybe I would have reached the ceiling on touch or not achieved what I did. This opened doors for me. Now I’ve been studying English for two years because I said to myself: ‘Stop, if Portuguese opened all this to me, I guess if I have English‘. I got the visa in February, it took me two years to get it. I’m taking the step by step to be able to get there on my own and without anyone’s help.

– Have you thought about switching to MMA?

– I would like. I did jiu jitsu (BJJ) from time to time, it’s something I got a taste for. And that’s what I was missing, because I have the striking part: I do boxing and kickboxing in parallel, with my two teams. What I can’t find is my stationary BJJ gear. I go between Nueva Unión and Positive, which are two places that I like because of how they teach me. I have doors open to all gyms and I love it. I can’t wait to delve deeper and move into MMA.

– Now that you name several academies. There is often competition between schools. Isn’t that something that slows you down?

– This is something I always talk about. I started kickboxing in a gym in Mataderos because I liked the equipment and I go there from time to time. They asked me if I would fight for them and I said: ‘I hate the sense of belonging. I tell everyone when I go to training. I’m not the competitor that everyone expects… I like to learn. I go here or there for a reason. For me, it’s about opening my mind and learning from everyone.

In my particular case, everyone knows I am like that and have respected me my whole life. For me it’s something that needs to be discussed from the beginning, because it’s a problem for the student and for the teacher. From the teacher for not letting the ego aside and realizing that sometimes you have to make students fly, either because they’ve reached their limit or need something else. And from the student for being manipulated when they say: “You don’t go here because you are a salesman‘. Why not? If in another place they can teach me things that make me a better professional. The problem is, sometimes they won’t let go of your handfor being the good one or because they are afraid of losing you.