BREWER, Maine — As a registered nurse and a mixed martial arts practitioner, Angela Young lives in a world of contrasts.
Working overnights in the critical care unit of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, she helps the most imperiled patients cope with injury or illness.
During weekday workouts with her husband and trainer Chris Young — founder of Young’s MMA in Bangor — and on occasional Saturday nights in a sports arena in front of paying spectators, she competes in a most physical one-on-one challenge.
“People have asked how do you come in and take care of people as a nurse and yet train the way you do with the intentions as they are, which is to end the fight whether it’s by knockout or submission,” said the 32-year-old Young, who is the mother of a 6-year-old son.
“I tend to have the same philosophy about MMA as Chris does. I see a fight as a huge mental chess match. There’s obviously a huge component of physicality, but it’s such a puzzle to try to figure out and the health risks and injuries — which I’ve had along the way — kind of do take a backseat.”
That approach by the former University of Maine cheerleader, as well as her commitment to balancing motherhood, medicine and MMA, has earned her a loyal base of support not only at home and the gym but also in the CCU.
“There were a few people like me who at first were like, ‘Holy, I can’t believe she’s going to do that,’” said Berta McDonald, a registered nurse who works with Young and frequently attends MMA shows. “Being in nursing we know what can go wrong. You don’t want her to come out needing someone to take care of her because it can happen, but 99.9 percent of us are all supportive.
“The coolest part about Angela is she steps in the ring and her job is to make someone submit, to hurt them or make them want to stop, to win the fight. The flip side is, she’s a caring, compassionate nurse. When somebody’s hurt, she’s the first one there to help. She’s the first one to cry if she loses a patient or you lose yours. It’s like one hat to another, completely opposite, an oxymoron.”
Nearly 20 of Young’s colleagues attended her most recent fight.
“Not all of them really understand the sport or have a particular interest in MMA but they’ve been so supportive of me,” Young said. “It was very touching to look up in the stands after I fought and see so many people from [EMMC].”
Young, who fights again May 14 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has heard all the concerns about MMA’s physical nature.
“With a couple of struggles I’ve had with injuries, I have had to go to the hospital,” she said. “One of the first things everyone says is, ‘Stop doing it,’ or ‘Why are you doing it?’
“For me it’s no different than any other sport — injuries happen. I think I was injured more cheerleading than I ever have in MMA.”
Dual introduction
Young first tried martial arts at age 15 at the same time she met her future husband.
“I was always interested in fighting movies, and it was back in the early ’90s when Steven Seagal was popular,” she said. “I told my mother I wanted to learn to box, and as it turned out her best friend’s son was teaching a kickboxing class.
“I remember the day we met like it was yesterday. Chris showed me a jab and a right hand, and he was very easy to talk to, a fantastic coach. I fell in love right off the bat.”
The couple didn’t start dating until she was in college, and by then her athletic attention had already turned to cheering, first at Brewer High School and then for three years at UMaine.
After graduating in 2006, Young began her nursing career, got married and had their son Kaden, with physical fitness taking a back seat until her husband opened his gym, initially in the basement of the family’s home.
“I started taking fitness classes and lost a decent amount of weight,” she said. “I also noticed some other girls were staying after for the striking classes, and it piqued my interest. I thought I wouldn’t mind learning that stuff again because I wasn’t new to it.”
Young soon got the urge to compete.
“Once somebody graduates from college, unless they’re going on to the pros or somewhere like that, that’s usually where the competition ends,” Chris said. “I think she was just hungry for that competitiveness again.”
Young took up wrestling and jiu-jitsu, but testing those skills in an actual match was a heightened level of commitment that while natural for the coach in the relationship didn’t come as easily to the husband.
“Honestly, she probably would have been fighting a long time ago if I had been a little more supportive of it,” Chris said. “Having your wife getting punched in the head, though, that’s tough, and I knew what fighting was. I’d gone through it, and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing her go through all the harsh realities of the game.”
Young kept training, and a glimpse of one of those training sessions finally convinced her husband to go along.
“[MMA pro] Aaron Lacey and David Lord, my primary jiu-jitsu coach, both worked with me one-on-one for months and one day I was grappling with another student and I left the gym and Chris called me five minutes later and said, ‘We’ve got to get you a fight,’” she said.
“I remember him saying, ‘I didn’t think you were learning that much, but I’m blown away with how much you’ve learned in a short period of time.’”
The cage as a stage
Young’s first bout came last Sept. 12 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston against Rachel Reinheimer, a Massachusetts fighter with one victory to her credit.
“I actually contacted [New England Fights co-owner and matchmaker] Matt [Peterson] before the first fight,” Chris said. “I said if we’re going to do this, I need you to make it the first fight of the night because there was no way I could sit through the entire evening and do what I have to do for my other guys if I knew my wife was going to be fighting.”
Young lost a three-round decision, suffering a broken nose in the process.
“I think there was a lot of pressure I didn’t really acknowledge or know was there,” she said. “My whole mindset was to go in there and be technical and for the fight to come out a certain way. I don’t regret that, but all the nerves had me holding back a lot more.”
MacDonald and her husband, Randy, an emergency room nurse and Bangor firefighter, were among Angela’s friends from EMMC at cageside.
“I had tears running down my face, it was awful,” she said. “To know Ang had trained so hard and then watch her be defeated, that was tough. When she left the cage she came and sat ringside and put her arms around me and cried.
“But she was more determined than ever.”
Young’s second fight came two weeks ago in Lewiston against Newcastle’s Hannah Sparrell.
While Young gave up several inches in height and reach, she used the leg and shoulder strength she first developed while cheering to take the fight to the cage wall and mat.
“My fight camp to get ready for Hannah was the best camp I have been through so far,” she said. “There were a lot less nerves working against me this time. I felt a lot more like myself and I had a lot more fun.”
This time Young had her hand raised in victory after three rounds.
“I really wanted this for her because she works so hard,” Chris said. “It’s really tough being a mom and a career woman and then putting in the time it takes to do this. I have guys who struggle doing this and they’re young guys who don’t have the responsibilities she has and they can’t even keep up with it.”
Training challenges
Two days after her first win Young was back in the gym, preparing for her upcoming bout against Massachusetts teen Kylie O’Hearn.
The quick turnaround — training camps often last eight weeks — can test the resolves of fighter and trainer, even if they haven’t been married for nearly a decade.
“With my wife it’s difficult because obviously we’ve known each other for a long time and have a different relationship than I do with my other guys,” Chris said. “Sometimes me bossing her around and being the coach can create some interesting tension.”
The everpresent time management challenge also is heightened during training camp.
“That’s the hardest aspect,” Young said. “We have a routine, and Chris and I are a team when it comes to our family. Chris spends a lot of time at the gym, and Kaden, being in kindergarten, he’s at school during the day. He comes with me to the workouts and sometimes will go to the kiddie classes, then I work overnights specifically because this is how I get to see my family more.
“Sometimes it gets very hectic.”
Hectic, but rewarding in a family sense.
“At the end of the day it’s elevated our relationship to a different level that I don’t think a lot of people can say they have after 10 years of marriage,” Young said. “I’ve known Chris for nearly 20 years now and it’s been a really interesting process. We sit down and talk once in awhile about how it’s really neat to go through this with each other.”
It’s a balancing act that likely will continue for the foreseeable future.
“I’ll support it until she decides she doesn’t want to do it anymore,” Chris said. “It’s one of those things where I’m not going to tell her when it’s time to hang it up. I have enough guilt about holding her back as long as I did because of my own issues with it, so honestly if she wants to go pro, I’ll support her going pro.”
