Social worker encouraged despite loss in muay Thai bout

Prior to her World Combat Sports Challenge featherweight title bout last Saturday, Beth Cook said training was like studying, while the fight itself would be the test.

Cook lost that bout when a thigh injury forced the scheduled five-round bout to be stopped in the fourth round. But Thiago Azeredo, her trainer at Chandler's Sitan Gym, said Cook passed the test with high marks.

"She lost the fight but she did good," Azeredo said. "They're going to be talking about a rematch. It was a really good fight. There was a lot of back and forth. The crowd went wild."

Jenna Castillo defeated Cook in the main event of a seven-bout fight card called Female Fury at Kezar in San Francisco. Castillo was the more experienced fighter, but Cook (whose record dropped to 5-0-2) did her share of damage.

Castillo reportedly had two black eyes after the bout and both fighters had to receive treatment.

"The training is the studying," Cook said before the fight. "You kind of need a test to see what you've learned and what you need to work on. Win or lose, the door will be opening for me to get better fighters to fight and more fights, more often."

Azeredo said the plan now is to have at least two more fights before a potential rematch with Castillo in six months.

Cook, who is a social worker, got into muay Thai boxing because a back injury forced her to give up distance running.

"I ran track my whole life, from junior high through a college scholarship," the 33-year-old Cook said. "I started doing this because it doesn't affect my back as much. I like to compete. . . . It's something intense. It's about as intense as track, maybe more."

Cook has been competing in muay Thai - a fighting style in which competitors can use their hands, feet, knees and elbows - for about five years.

She jokes about how she tries to talk people out of difficult situations at work, but she resolves conflict in a different way in the ring.

"I think it helps with my job," Cook said. "I've been in situations where people do become violent. I think, 'Well, they might hit me.' That's happened. So I just try to talk to them."