Canberra's Benjamin Reid and Sharnae Lignieres changing the face of combat sports with Pandemonium

"He asked if I had thrown a punch before, and I was like 'nope'," Lignieres said.

Now the 22-year-old Muay Thai fighter is changing the landscape for females in combat sports as she prepares to headline the next Pandemonium Fight Night show in February - should coronavirus restrictions have eased enough by that point.

Canberra fighter Benjamin Reid is the man behind Pandemonium with a goal to promote females in the sport, with Lignieres emerging as the perfect woman to lead the charge.

Lignieres fights at 66 kilograms out of Gaz Rees' Chooper's Gym in Dickson and she has her sights set on leaving her next fight with gold around her waist.

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"In the sport, women aren't recognised. Sharnae is a standout. I watched Sharnae train, I watched her spar, but nobody would match her and I didn't like that," Reid said.

"I really want to push women in the sport as well as men. At my last show, she took on Katie Mitchell, she has probably got more titles than Sharnae has fights.

"It was a very close fight, Sharnae took it on points, and that is testament to Gaz [Rees] as a coach and where Chopper's Gym is heading.

"It's really good to see her as a role model in the community and in the gym. Sharnae will rematch with Katie Mitchell in February, hopefully put that to bed and take a belt off her."

Lignieres headlined the most recent Pandemonium card in February before the coronavirus pandemic hit and forced gyms to shut. Now she is relishing the chance to step into the ring again.

"When you stop, some people are like 'do I want to do this?' The whole time I have been like 'I can't wait to get back in there, I just want to throw down, let's go'," Lignieres said.

"My partner used to fight. We went over to Thailand and watched these boys fight in one of the stadiums, and I was like 'I want to do it'.

"We flew back over to Australia. I walked into the gym and looked at Gaz and said 'Hi I'm Sharnae and I want to fight'. It is a huge platform for me to get my name out there."

Lignieres took top billing on Reid's most recent show when tenacious 26-year-old Ben Harvey's opponent pulled out late, leaving the 66 kilogram national title hopeful without a fight.

Reid is determined to get Harvey an Australian or East Coast title shot, a chance he has been working towards since he took a liking to Bruce Lee movies as a kid.

"His philosophy on fighting and martial arts drew me into the culture of the whole thing," Harvey said.

"I did karate for a while when I was younger and then got into kickboxing with Gaz. I wanted to challenge myself. We have a lot of our team fighting on Pandemonium which is nice.

"We all feed off each other's energy and when we're actually competing it's even better, because we're all there in it together."