The Arizona State University student took a couple minutes out of her busy week to talk with me about her upcoming event, her background and her thoughts on Women’s MMA.

Shasta “McNasty” McMurry is not only a full time student at ASU but also teaches cardio-boxing and is a personal trainer at LA Boxing. She is currently training in whatever time she has left out of Fight Ready MMA in Scottsdale, Arizona but this road to mixed martial arts started years ago.

Shasta didn’t have brothers like most women mixed martial artist seem to credit their starts to. She saw people wrestling and wanted to do it herself at the age of 10. Her mother signed her up and that is how it began. She wrestled on and off through high school in mainly exhibition matches since at the time she had difficulty even getting her weight up to the smallest of the divisions. Her family moved from Colorado to Arizona her senior year. When she began attending ASU she met up with a group of students who took part in grappling and she quickly fell in love with the sport and the wrestler was now doing jiu-jitsu and working her stand up game.

Her first fight came in June of 2011 under the World Fighting Federation in which she suffered an unanimous decision loss to her opponent. This last August she competed again at the T2 produced MMA Summer Showdown in Gallup, NM and things went much differently as McNasty was able to submit her opponent by rear naked choke at the 36 second mark of round number 1. The 21 year old is getting ready for this weekend’s 2012 World Series Grappler’s Quest in Las Vegas, NV.

On the subject of women’s mixed martial arts, Shasta was excited for it and acknowledged it is still in its infancy. While Invicta FC and the UFC now have women’s divisions, there is still room for more growth. With fighters like herself at the smaller ends of the weight scale they are usually the last to get brought into the fold. That is not a knock against them in any way. The UFC’s newest men’s division, the flyweights, are some of the most exciting fighters to watch in the sport as I am sure the same holds true for the smaller women fighters.

Another difficulty comes in training and inside the ring and that is the weight of the others. As neither of her first two opponents were able to make the 110 pound limit with the first coming in at 112 and the latest at 118. While Shasta doesn’t have a problem making weight, she does worry from time to time about training with some of the bigger men. When you give up 60 plus pounds it can be easy to pop a rib out of place or suffer other injuries in camp. Hopefully as the sport continues its growth we will see more people of all sizes taking part so that way everyone will have an equal opportunity to get ready to fight someone of their opponents stature.

Don’t for a second think that any of those difficulties or uncertainties of what is to come holds Shasta back at all. She made it clear she loves getting into the gym. She never feels like she has to make herself go; she goes because she wants to work harder than everyone else. She truly enjoys it and it was great to hear it come out in her voice as we spoke. She is a breath of fresh air and there are others out there that will continue to give mixed martial fresh new looks and legs to stand on.

Please find Shasta McMurry on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @shastamcmurry to show your support or check out her sponsor Lockdown Clothing so hopefully they will continue to sponsor these up and comers. Thanks to her management company Luta Elite MMA and its CEO Mercedes White for coordinating this.

Remember if you are in the Las Vegas area this Saturday check out Grapplers Quest at the Sports Center. The women will be starting off a huge day of men and women events at 10am with the no-gi divisions up first. Tickets are available now on their site for only $13 dollars to cover the whole day.