Life often feels like an uphill battle. Whenever you try to change, do some good, or turn a negative into a positive, it can feel as if the world’s conspiring against you. As if it doesn’t want you to succeed. As if whatever you’re trying to do doesn’t need to be done in the first place—that things should remain the same. I’m certain everyone’s been in this position at least once, and the real test of your character in such moments is how you react to that pushback. Some shrivel under the pressure. Others get angry, curse fate and its failure to bend to their will. Both options, inevitably, lead to no good. Then there are some who decide to keep going. To ignore the obstacles that stand between them and the life they envision. Talking to Chelsey, I came to understand she is one such person. As someone living dual lives as a teacher and mixed martial arts (MMA) athlete, she’s something of an anomaly. A rare individual whose main purpose now is not to fight solely for herself, but also for the growth of women’s MMA in Southeast Asia. By the end of our talk, I was certain she wouldn’t give up until she’d done everything she could.
Chelsey’s story begins in Dayton, Ohio. Born in a military family, she bounced around a lot as a kid. When she was still a baby her family moved to California and in fourth grade—after her parents’ divorce—Chelsey, her mom, and her older sister moved to Macon, Georgia. She describes Macon as a great little musical hub, with legends like Otis Redding, Little Richard, and The Allman Brothers Band either coming from the city or starting their musical careers there. Despite such a colourful musical history, Macon was a dichotomy in that it was also extremely conservative. Growing up as someone who’d always felt inherently different, Chelsey admits she never really felt truly seen or accepted in Macon. Despite feeling alienated, Chelsey was always a girl who was willing to involve herself in as many things as she could. At school she was part of every club imaginable: from guitar, piano, all the way to theater, but above all, it was fast-pitch softball that had her heart. The camaraderie inherent in team sports gave her a sense of belonging that she’s carried with her ever since.
A person’s childhood is one of the most formative periods of their life. That’s why whenever I sit down for one of these conversations, I always begin by asking the individual across from me to tell me what their childhood was like. When I did the same for Chelsey, she responded, “It was a good childhood with some rough times. Everyone has their own struggles and I like to think mine could’ve been worse.” Her statement was startling to me not only because of what she’d already revealed, but what she’d continue to shed light on as she spoke about the period. Despite always having food on the table and a roof over their head, Chelsey says her family lived paycheck to paycheck, a reality that brings about a certain strain on life at home. While her mom did her best to support them, the sad reality is that children require more than just food on the table and a roof over their head to experience a happy and fulfilling adolescence. More is needed but more is often hard to come by.
The effects of your parents’ divorce don’t end after a week, month, or year. They’re felt for a much longer stretch of time. While Chelsey couldn’t speak highly enough of how her mom handled the whole situation by juggling work as a firefighter whilst raising two girls, the reality is that when you’re coming home everyday to a family that’s missing one of its parents, spaces feel larger and rooms seem to have more gaps. She admitted it was difficult not having a strong relationship with her father growing up, but she knew there was little she could change and at that point, you just have to make the best with what you’ve got. Chelsey became good at compartmentalising her feelings—a skill which she now credits with her ability to excel in martial arts given that she’s developed composure and mental fortitude over the years. Having said that, while putting your emotions in a box, locking the key, and chucking it away might help one cope, it also leaves a lot of things unresolved.
Besides her parents’ divorce, there was also the issue with Macon itself. As stated, the city had a history of passionate musical creativity and was intensely conservative, but more so than both of these factors, it was also notorious for substance abuse. While Chelsey was able to avoid getting grabbed by addiction’s unyielding grip, her older sister found herself in a different position. To make matters worse, it wasn’t as if Chelsey and her older sister had a good relationship to begin with. She describes her oldest sister as being her biggest bully, with numerous instances of verbal and psychological abuse that Chelsey’s still trying to unravel today. The effects were, of course, devastating. However, no one will be able to understand their true severity but Chelsey herself. What she did reveal was that being bullied at home meant that she never let herself be bullied elsewhere. This came at a time when Chelsey, who’d been attending rougher public schools for most of her life, was moved to a wealthier private school given how serious the situation was becoming with her sister’s addictions. Ironically, she stated that she fit into the public schools more, and once she was dropped into this new private school environment, she made it a point to let those around her know she wasn’t to be messed with. She developed an overly-sensitive attitude and came across as aggressive and at times, downright belligerent. It was a tricky position to be in. Chelsey was already living a double-life: one filled with the struggles and strife of home and then school, where she was constantly surrounded by peers who were richer and seemingly happier. During this period, sports became her ultimate escape. She found that if you were part of a team you were still “in”, and those one or two hours of practice everyday gave you a release from everything else that might’ve happened that day.
Towards the end of high school, Chelsey had a choice to make about university. Initially she wasn’t sure if it was the right move but she credits her high school guidance counsellor for helping her out. There were tons of papers to fill, essays to write, and exams to complete, but she stuck through it and ended up joining Georgia State University as a Political Science major. One class in the subject made her question why she’d even taken it in the first place, and so she opted for a major she’d always been more interested in: English with Creative Writing. Everything went well but towards the end of her degree Chelsey started to wonder what she could actually do with an English with Creative Writing degree. Jobs didn’t necessarily abound in the field. It was around then she found a program in her school where you could get your masters in Teaching in one year and she started considering that as more of a safety net. She decided to give it a shot.
As part of the course, Chelsey spent a few weeks in London. She met a guy called Konstantin there she hit it off with and even after she left, they continued texting and Skyping. There came a point towards the end of Chelsey’s master’s course when she suggested he come over to the States for a visit. Konstantin agreed, booked a flight, and ended up staying with her for three months. When he had to figure out plans for leaving, they decided they didn’t want to say goodbyes and go back to texts and Skype calls. So they got married instead. And so Chelsey, fresh out of college, now had a husband on top of her masters. Though it might’ve been a brash move, they were young and brashness is expected among the youth. However, what came unexpectedly was the fact that after a while, Konstantin said that he didn’t really want to live in America, and that they should go someplace else. Chelsey, with her masters in Teaching, decided that China would be the best option. There were tons of teaching opportunities there and once they landed, she could also help him find a teaching job. They bought a ticket and flew off, newly weds into a new life.
Once in China, reality hit. The job Chelsey had landed turned out to be a scam. First, her boss held back her salary. After that, a myriad of visa issues meant Chelsey and Konstantin would have to leave the country. The glamour of married life had also faded with Chelsey realising that Konstantin’s character didn’t align with hers. An argument one evening brought everything to a head and resulted in their separation. The dream was falling apart and Chelsey had to figure out her next move. Her mom told her to come back to America where she could take a breather before taking her next step but the truth was, Chelsey didn’t want to go back. In a last ditch effort, she made a Facebook post asking people for donations to survive. The grace of others put around $400 in her pocket. From there, it was a matter of deciding where to go. Some friends she’d made in China were travelling to Vietnam for Tết and Chelsey decided she may as well join them. Though she knew nothing of the place, there didn’t seem any better option.
Chelsey moved to Vietnam in 2019. Despite it being Tết when she arrived, she still managed to find work as an English teacher. She quickly fell in love with Saigon. She always felt as if everything was too expensive in the States, resulting in people having to grind non-stop. In Vietnam she felt as if she could actually live. And for Chelsey, living meant getting involved with some kind of sport. She decided to join a boxing gym and from the day she laced up her gloves, she was hooked. Little did she know how big of an impact this one decision would have on the rest of her life.
Chelsey’s foray into martial arts started with boxing. It didn’t take long before she decided to participate in an interclub boxing bout. Constant exercise meant she was the lightest she’d ever been, competing at 62kg but given a 1kg allowance. Though she was yet to experience the deadly concept of weight cutting, she was already aware that if she wanted to continue competing, she wouldn’t be able to fight below 60kg. Despite that, when she spoke to her coach, he was clear that fights above 56kg were hard to come by, much less above 60kg. This was Chelsey’s first exposure to the narrative surrounding female fighters: if you want to fight, you have to cut weight. The fact of the matter was, women’s weight classes were limited and so for someone like Chelsey who’s natural walking weight is around 65kg, she’d have to cut if she wanted to gain experience in the ring. Deciding she didn’t want to stop boxing, but also uninterested in making a habit out of depleting her body for fights, Chelsey found a workaround. Why not try other martial arts?
Muay thai and jiu jitsu came next. Each discipline had her more engrossed in martial arts. She wanted to learn every technique, every tiny nuance that could make her a stronger and better fighter. When I asked which was her favourite, Chelsey replied, “Boxing’s my first true love, but grappling’s my favourite. Something just clicked with it, how within one roll you’re constantly being presented with problems you need to solve.” She loves how difficult each training session can be. She loves the bond she feels with those she trains alongside. She loves the feeling she gets once she’s done: mind clear, body beat, but in a strangely euphoric way. Chelsey was living her dream life. Training striking either at K1 Fitness & Fight Factory or Saigon Muay Club while she grappled at Arkain in District 7. Her teaching job brought her an equal amount of satisfaction, with Chelsey stating that though she wound up teaching by circumstance, she ended up really enjoying it. For her, teaching gives you the opportunity to impart something to your students that’s always going to be different based on the individual student. As such, you have to learn to grow with them, to figure out what they can teach you just as much as what you’re teaching them. More than anything, she just wants her students to feel loved in the classroom and she makes sure they’re aware of that.
Years passed. By 2022, Chelsey had competed in one boxing match and two muay thai fights, but she was interested in putting everything together for her MMA debut. She signed up to Lion Championship without really knowing what she was getting herself into. She didn’t realise it was Vietnam’s first-ever legal, sanctioned, and televised national MMA promotion with a 200 million VND purse for the winner of each belt. Looking back on it, she describes the experience as one beautiful, terrible mess. Competing in the 60kg category (the heaviest weight class Lion has for females) meant that Chelsey had to cut weight. She stuck to a strict diet of 1,200 calories during fight camps which took her body and mind to such extremes which resulted in body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Thinking about food would make her cry but Chelsey had been through a lot by then—life had always been an uphill battle. She stuck through and kept fighting.
Chelsey was supposed to have four bouts in total: prelims, quarter, semi, and then the title fight. She made it all the way to the title shot when the unthinkable happened. Her opponent pulled out. Lion couldn’t find a replacement fighter and so they told Chelsey that the title fight wouldn’t be happening that year. She could try again next time. Needless to say, this almost broke her. She’d put her body through so much and now they were just going to cancel the event? She was angry, torn, devastated—words tried but failed to encapsulate the emotional toll the experience had on her. Her body, pushed to its limits, reacted with a rotator cuff injury on her right shoulder. Chelsey took one month away from training. That turned into two. Before she knew it, six. She was at such a low point she knew that if she wanted, she could hang up her gloves and never step foot inside the cage again. That could’ve been the end. It still would’ve made a good story. Of someone who’d had the odds stacked against her and yet still decided to go out and pursue greatness. Falling short of that is never a failure. Not having tried is what makes it a loss. Of course, Chelsey wasn’t going to let it end there.
Chelsey competed in the Lion Championship the following year. It wasn’t about shutting up the naysayers, all that mattered was proving to herself that she could do this. She was built for tough times. She’d been through tougher times already. Returning after her six month break, she came into competition with a vengeance. Being the previous winner meant that she only had to face the winner of the bracket, a woman who turned out to be part of Vietnam’s national muay thai team. Chelsey grounded and pounded her for three rounds straight and took the belt which she’d felt had been stolen from her a year ago. When the belt was finally handed to her, she was filled with gratitude for all her coaches and teammates but she also felt a deep sense of pride knowing that her life up until then had instilled the heart and grit she’d needed to endure so much.
In 2024, Chelsey defended the belt once but then had to deal with another issue besides weight cutting that she’d come to understand was part and parcel of being a female MMA fighter: a lack of opponents. That same year she’d made it a point to start competing in more grappling events, which she did with her pro ADCC and UFC Fight Pass debuts. However, in terms of MMA, Lion Championship couldn't find her any opponents so she decided to focus more on jiu jitsu tournaments around Southeast Asia. As of 2025 she’s racked up a steady record of wins in countries like Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Despite such success, as a woman who loves competing and training in martial arts, Chelsey started perceiving the systems that had been set up for females in MMA as more obstructive than supportive. Once more, she wanted change. She wanted to do something good for herself and others. She wanted to turn this negative into a positive.
Smother Nature is Chelsey’s brainchild. Named after her favourite jiu jitsu move, which is a smothering technique known as the “muffle” (essentially, covering your opponent’s mouth and nose with your hand so they can’t breathe), Chelsey tied that into the divine feminine that is Mother Nature. With Smother Nature, Chelsey wants to challenge the manner in which preexisting modalities in martial arts justify inequality, exclusion, and the stifling of its female participants. Over her time as an athlete in Vietnam’s martial arts community, she’s noticed a number of ways in which this has happened not only to herself, but to fellow competitors as well. However, Chelsey’s clear that this is not a problem regulated to Vietnam, but an issue concerning combat sports globally. For starters, there are structural frameworks in place that subtly exclude women from getting the same shots that their male counterparts do. This is most notably true with the lack of weight classes in female MMA organisations. Take the UFC, the world’s largest MMA organisation, which has eight divisions for its male fighters and only four for their female fighters. Chelsey’s experienced just how debilitating the effects of weight cutting are but whenever she’s questioned it the general reaction has been for promoters or matchmakers to shrug. This has meant that though she’s received offers for fights at ONE Championship and even the chance to get in as an alternate for injured UFC fighters, these bouts were taking place at 56kg and below. Putting her health first, she refused them all.
There are numerous other ways in which Chelsey wants to combat the narrative surrounding female martial artists. Above all, however, with Smother Nature, Chelsey wants to commit to giving back to the martial arts community in Vietnam. While she recognises the growth of the country’s MMA scene, she still believes it needs a bigger push, particularly for women. This means creating platforms and organisations in which the focus is placed on women first. She looks to someone like Michelle Nguyen from Trigger Boxing as a pioneer in this field, with her women-only boxing classes bringing in large groups every practice, showing that if given the right opportunity and space, women are just as interested in partaking in these activities. Besides Michelle, Chelsey cites her own mother whose career as a firefighter has served as a huge inspiration. Her mom was the only woman in her graduating class and endured her share of ridicule, sexism, and hostility throughout her career, though not once did Chelsey ever witness this dull her spirit. This is why Chelsey believes an organisation like Smother Nature is so vital: most young girls have a hard time believing they can break ground in male-dominated spaces because there are only a handful of female role models to look up to. Reaching a similar height often feels impossible when in actuality, there are so many women doing the same things already but unfortunately, they get relegated to the sidelines.
Smother Nature aims to change this by putting women on the map through events and exhibitions that ensure females are the stars of the show. Doing this can raise funds for local female athletes to gain access to gym memberships, clothing, equipment, as well as tickets to tournaments. Chelsey’s already sponsored a Vietnamese girl called Nghi, who’s a local girl Chelsey met through her mother, Phuong. Having paid for two full years of tuition, Nghi trains at Arkain in District 7 three to four times a week, where coaches Pato and Hiep are fully supportive of her desire to learn. Nghi’s already took part in her first competition and continues to train at Arkain with the type of dedication and drive that Chelsey recognises in herself. With Smother Nature only just getting into gear at the start of 2026, this is but a taste of what’s possible.
For many, life often feels like an uphill battle. This has been no different for Chelsey. She’s weathered a lot to get to the position she’s in now, and not once has she taken her pain for granted. It’s hard for me to forget how she spoke about her childhood, how it was good with some rough times but that she’s aware everyone has their own struggles and she knows hers could’ve been worse. It takes a lot to say that. It takes a lot to be grateful for the adversity because in hindsight, you know it’s made you who you are. But I suppose that’s what some people are made of. They just keep going. They don’t shrivel under pressure, curse fate, or let their own anger smother them. Whatever obstacles lay in their path, it doesn’t matter. They just keep on fighting.
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