Now, she has a new belt for her efforts.
Last Friday night, the 26-year-old Dunedin fighter won the Xtreme Fighting Championship (XFC) straw weight amateur women's title in Brisbane.
Archer said she was absolutely rapt and felt a real sense of achievement and pride.
She said due to a lack of MMA opponents she had been taking kickboxing fights for about the past 18 months, so the sense of occasion was not lost on her.
``I feel like I am at the top of my field in Australasia and I just wanted to prove a point,'' she said.
The fight was for five three-minute rounds and Archer muscled out a commanding decision win over Jessica Lavers-McBain (36).
Lavers-McBain is a current combat wrestling world champion with many Australian and Oceania freestyle achievements.
Archer took some heat while standing in round one and again in round four but she stuck to a simple game plan of clinching hard against the cage fence while also tipping Lavers-McBain over, followed by ground strikes.
``I thought I would use my strength and height to my advantage and pin my head under her chin and nuzzle in.''
Archer credited her superior strength and conditioning, her mental toughness and her team as keys to winning.
Her record stands at five wins, three losses and one no-contest. All fights, including her six kickboxing fights, have gone the distance.
At 1.65m tall, Archer does not see her height as a disadvantage.
``I work a lot on closing the distance and getting in behind long rangy people, but being smaller allows me to shoot for takedowns easier and I can get down low and come underneath their striking.''
Archer fights for another Australasian title in Melbourne later this month. She plans to defend any titles and perhaps compete in the Asia Championships in China later this year.
She hopes to turn professional eventually, depending on how active she can stay as an amateur.
Archer was born and raised in Mosgiel, and attended Taieri College.
In her last year of high school, she tore the ACL in her right knee while playing netball. This led her to the Olympic gym to ``get rid of some frustrations'', and about five years ago she joined the Olympic Fight Centre. She began competing for Team Hammerhead about a year later.
She said people, including her former high school teachers, were shocked when they found out she was a fighter.
Her family were ``super supportive'', although initially her father did not talk to her for a week when he found out she was fighting.
After her title win, he was the first person she rang, and Archer said there were tears of emotion from them both.
With four jobs - fitness trainer, merchandiser, early childhood relief teacher and grappling instructor - Archer balances her work life around competing and training.
She trains at least five days a week, often three times a day.
Meanwhile, Brogan Anderson had his XFC middleweight title opponent pull out with injury.
Promoter Matt Toa said he hoped to reschedule Anderson's fight for Dunedin's XFC show late this month. He was confident Anderson would fight regardless.
- Jack Salter
