Nearly nine years since her last fight, former amateur standout Taylor Guardado is turning pro and looking to make an instant impact. Competing under her maiden name of Taylor Stratford, Guardado was once considered one of the hottest rising prospects in female amateur MMA. Starting her career as a teenager, she amassed a 9-1 amateur record with wins over the likes of future big-show fighters Raquel Pennington, Amanda Bell and Ashlee Evans-Smith, and her only defeat came against a certain rising star named Ronda Rousey. Now 28 and a mother to a 2-year-old son, Guardado says it’s time to enter the fray once again, this time as a professional, as she leaps straight into Invicta Fighting Championships’ eight-woman, one-night bantamweight tournament, Phoenix Series 3, in Kansas City, Kan.
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