From fleeing the Gulf War as a child to challenging her family to pursue the sport she loves, Randa Markos is no stranger to adversity. But the Ontario UFC fighter, who’s been nicknamed “Quiet Storm” says she uses the lessons from her tough childhood to help motivate her in the octagon.
Markos, 29, is rising in the ranks of UFC and will face her next big opponent, Ireland's Aisling Daly, on the UFC 186 undercard in Montreal on Saturday.
Ahead of the big fight, Markos, opened up about her past to CTV's Canada AM.
Markos was born in Baghdad, but was forced to flee with her family when she was just three because of the Gulf War. Her father was in the military at the time, and made the difficult decision to pack up his family and leave, eventually re-locating to Windsor, Ont.
The shock of moving to a new country was overwhelming for the entire family, Markos said.
"It was a crazy journey getting to Canada, and once we got here, there was a lot of hard times trying to adapt to another country, adapt to another language," she said. "Everything was completely different."
The transition appeared to hit her father hardest. He became an alcoholic and became physically and verbally abusive.
"He was raised differently, with a different mentality, to think it's OK for men to beat their wives, or that women should never have anything to say," she said.
Faced with a troubled home life, Markos eventually found solace in an unlikely pastime: wrestling. For her, logging hours at the gym proved to be a welcome break from what was going on at home.
"It was my chance to escape home and the different things I was dealing with," she said. "I fell in love with it right away.
"It was something that I did for myself. When I did good, I felt good for myself. If I did bad, I knew I had to go to the gym and train harder."
But her traditional family didn't approve of her newfound passion, believing that it wasn't an appropriate sport for a girl.
She recalled one instance, where she disobeyed their orders and went to a wrestling practice against their wishes. Soon enough, her family came to the gym and pulled her away "by her ears."
Eventually Markos began to train in mixed martial arts and entered the competitive world of UFC. She said her past helps her deal with the pressures and demands of the high-profile sport.
In fact, the first fight she ever entered she started having flashbacks of some of the things she's seen and experienced. But rather than let the flashbacks derail her, she used them to fight harder.
"All the anger, all the supressed memories came out and I let it go. I loved that feeling and that's why I kept going,” she said.
"Every time I get in there, it's my chance to just let everything go.”