Tara LaRosa reppn’ the 856

My column this week at 411mania.com is about female fighter Tara LaRosa. She’s the best female fighter in the world and just so happens to be from Woodstown, N.J., a place I know pretty well.

Woodstown is one of those small south Jersey towns that is so out of the way that if you pass through it, you’re either on your way to Atlantic City or hopelessly lost. I worked in Woodstown for about a year and though I never met LaRosa, I did meet her dad, who owns a sprawling plant nursery on the edge of town.

“I can name any flower in the world,” she told me. “I can tell you how to grow anything, what kind of light it needs, where you should plant it.”

So, LaRosa, who has a BJJ purple belt, also has a green thumb.