on the opposite coast, melinda is hitting the hair salon. she s not getting a fancy up-do. this is a boxer braid. i don t know if they think we re going to use it as a weapon or something. the countdown to her fight is on. she s competed twice in the last two years and lost both times. my goal is to get my first win. i want to be strong. i want to be the winner. her daughter, briana, has come to every one of her mom s matches and tonight will be no different. looks so nice, mom. oh, good. i ll get you a mirror so you can look at it. i love that. it s very pretty. but down state, hannah has had a setback. just a week before her face off
pelvic bone, which sucks because there s tons of nerve endings in there. it s super painful. you ve been hurt a lot, i assume? yeah. i ve had tons and tons injuries. i train really, really hard. accidents happen and you recover and you heal and, you know, you start again. at least you don t have balls. at least i don t have balls. exactly. there s always a plus side to every situation. exactly. in a violent combat sport, injuries pose a constant threat to a fighter s career. hannah knows the risks involved and has chosen to put herself on the line. but mma fever has spread beyond ranks of seasoned athletes. even children are now taking up the sport. critics call it kids cage fighting.
hours a day six days a week for her next match. full disclosure, i actually hate fighting. i just don t like to see people hurt each other. but mma is a huge sport. and in recent years, a lot of women have been getting into it. and i want to understand why. so what exactly do you love about mma? some people see it as just two people fighting, but i sort of it two people beating the out of each other. it really comes down to the technique, being able to perform under so much stress inside the cage in front of thousands of people. it is almost beautiful. hannah lives at her mom s house in long island. right now her entire life is focused on her upcoming fight.
best idea because of your ability to defend yourself. the last thing you need is to not be able to put this arm up and somebody puts a foot to your head. gotcha. i ve seen the work that hannah puts into the drills, diet, long weekends at the gym. but this time there will be no payoff. hannah is out of the match.
to get ready for fight night, hannah trains with two different coaches. joe, who helps shape her ground work, and alex who trains her on her standing game. in all honesty, do you see her going pro and going to usc? she s got what it takes for sure. it s a long road. but if you keep at it, she could do it. she s a purple belt already at the age of 20. most people don t make it to that level. how do you think hannah s chances are for the match at the end of march. her skins are better than her opponents in my eyes, but anything could happen in a fight. you get hit, and that s the end. it s like, oh, my god. all that two months, three months of hard training and you get clipped and it is over. what do you guys think of women fighting mma? i think it s good for the