a gritty first-round submission win<\/a> over Team Michael Bisping\u2019s No. 1 pick Anna Melisano. The 31-year-old was all smiles after moving one step closer to a UFC contract, and has stood out for her cheery attitude through the first two episodes that have aired so far.<\/p>\nAmaya is no stranger to dark times, though, having suffered a pair of severe knee injuries in her youth, once in high school, and again in college. Having dedicated much of her life to track and field as well as basketball, seeing those dreams cruelly cut short was difficult for Amaya, to say the least. In an interview with MMA Fighting, the TUF 34 strawweight contestant opened up about overcoming mental health challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started when I was 16,\u201d Amaya said. \u201cI truly believe something\u2014I don\u2019t know if it was the anesthesia or just this huge change in, like, you know, you\u2019re 16, your whole identity, at least for me, I was so obsessed about sports in general. Track and field, everything, my whole identity was wrapped around that and being a high performer. The second I couldn\u2019t do that, that did something to my body and my brain and that was when I was 16 that\u2019s when I started feeling what I call \u2018the blues.\u2019 It\u2019s kind of like in Halloweentown when everything turns gray and just feeling sad, this weird feeling that just comes over you.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nothing that precipitates it, it\u2019s just like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s weird.\u2019 Because people are like, \u2018Maybe there\u2019s a trigger,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, no, it just happens. You could be in the middle of this crazy, happy party around your family and suddenly everything just kind of seems like, beeeeeeep, and you\u2019re just like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be here anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
People are like, \u2018Maybe there\u2019s a trigger,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, no, it just happens. You could be in the middle of this crazy, happy party around your family and suddenly everything just kind of seems like, beeeeeeep, and you\u2019re just like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be here anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the world of MMA, fighters who reveal they\u2019re having issues with mental health often receive a mixed reaction. Current UFC stars like Paddy Pimblett, Joe Pyfer, and even two-time middleweight champion Sean Strickland have spoken openly about their mental health struggles, but such conversations can still be taboo in fighting and in the broader sports landscape, with many athletes being told from an early age not to discuss these topics publicly.<\/p>\n
Amaya doesn\u2019t subscribe to the notion that she should remain silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very interesting,\u201d Amaya said. \u201cOr when people are like, \u2018Oh, you seem very comfortable talking about it.\u2019 Am I supposed to shut up and be ashamed about it?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my experience and there were times when I was crying in the bathroom before practice, because it was just coming out of my eyes. I call it \u2018crying spells\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018What is going on? Why can\u2019t I control this?\u2019 I felt like I was losing my mind, but I still kept putting one foot in front of the other and I\u2019m like, one day. Tough times don\u2019t last, it\u2019s going to be OK. Hopefully, it helps somebody else, that\u2019s why I also speak about it because maybe I\u2019ll say it in a way that it makes sense to somebody to get through to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the TUF 34 season premiere, Amaya was the third pick of Team Daniel Cormier and the sixth pick overall, just narrowly missing out on being left off of the show entirely with only eight of 10 strawweight contestants making the cut. She made Cormier look like a genius with her dominant win over Melisano.<\/p>\n
Amaya trains with Team Sikjitsu in Spokane, Wash., and counts two-time UFC bantamweight champion Julianna Pe\u00f1a as one of her mentors. Pe\u00f1a is also someone Amaya trusts most when she needs to talk mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cJulianna and I, we have very deep conversations about it,\u201d Amaya said. \u201cI feel like we both have had tough experiences and we\u2019re pretty big supporters of each other, so when you feel a certain way and you communicate it to somebody that understands, instead of being like, \u2018Oh my God, do I need to make sure you\u2019re not going to kill yourself?\u2019 No, they, like, maybe giggle, and be like, \u2018Yeah, been there. You\u2019re going to be OK. We got this.\u2019 So it\u2019s very nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy coach, on the other hand doesn\u2019t understand it, but he approaches it in more of a curiosity kind of way. He tries to get to know instead of being like, \u2018That\u2019s f*cking fake.\u2019 You know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
With Amaya and Melisano being the first fighters to compete on this season, they received plenty of camera time, which might not be the case in future with the focus typically being on the two fighters competing on a given episode. Asked what producers might have left out of her episode or what she wants viewers to know about her that might not make it out of the editing room, Amaya focused on communicating a broader, hopeful message.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe not so much about me in general, but there\u2019s a lot of times people don\u2019t put their name in the hat because everybody else is so much more confident and saying it to the world and they\u2019re like, \u2018OK, I don\u2019t feel like that about myself or whatever so I don\u2019t belong there,\u2019\u201d Amaya said. \u201cYou belong there. You\u2019ve just got to put in the work and you can make your own style. You don\u2019t have to fit everybody else\u2019s style. You can be the first one of your own kind and that\u2019s essentially what I want people to know about me. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do, too, is just to pave your own way, so I hope everybody else can do that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is dealing with mental health issues, please reach out.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., the 988 Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-985-5990, or by text via 988 or at 988lifeline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Amaya knew from a young age she was destined to be an athlete. She never expected she\u2019d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-755411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}