Life throws plenty of curveballs, and Ashley Yoder knows this more intimately than most.

Yoder was a swimmer, cheerleader and competitive dancer in high school, or as she says, “some of the furthest things from getting into fights.”

My, how things have changed.

Fighting has become her game, with her latest foray into the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) octagon coming Saturday evening when she faces Syuri Kondo of Japan in a strawweight bout that's one of seven scheduled preliminary fights at UFC Fight Night 154 at Greenville's Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

“She has won a lot of her fights by decision and is very much a point fighter,” Yoder said. “I like to engage people like that. It should be a great fight.”

Yoder brings a 6-4 mixed martial arts record into the fight while Kondo is 6-2 entering the first UFC event ever held in the state of South Carolina.

The 31-year-old Yoder arrives packing a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a powerful punch, an aggressive above-the-mat style and nickname to match – Spider Monkey.

“We don’t get to pick our fight name,” Yoder said. “But it’s definitely my fighting style. I use my feet as my hands. In my very first fight, I jumped on a girl’s head and somebody called me spider monkey.

“It’s pretty accurate and I understand why. I do come at some people like a monkey. When it stuck, it stuck, and I couldn’t run away from it.”

An Indianapolis native who now lives and trains in Temecula, California, Yoder is a graduate of the Indiana University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and African American Diaspora Studies.

Her career path has veered in other directions, however, and she traces her origins in the fight game to a tragedy that continues to drive her even after 13 years.

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Yoder lost her older brother, Michael, when he was killed in a car accident on her 18th birthday.

“We were very close,” Yoder said. “After that, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was just lost.”

Coping became a challenge.

She changed the date of her birthday and sought outlets for relieving pent-up frustrations.

“That’s 100 percent why I got into this (mixed martial arts),” Yoder said.

One of Yoder’s friends invited her to a gym, where she wound up “beating the crap out of a bag” – an exercise that proved both cathartic and inspiring.

“I got hooked,” Yoder said. “I needed an energy release and this was a good way to do it.”

One thing led to another, and eventually Yoder found herself in the ring.

“I had no intentions of fighting in a cage,” she said. “I didn’t even know what sparring was. I was ignorant to anything about cage fighting.

“When I saw it, I thought it was fake fighting and I didn’t know what I was doing. But now I love it and I don’t mind being bloody. I’ve had some of the bloodiest fights there have been.

“I fell into my first pro fight and started thinking, ‘I might as well get paid to get my face punched in.’ But I’ve always had a mental block that maybe I wasn’t up to par with these girls; a lot of them were talented and famous, then there was me. I almost didn’t take myself seriously. Was I worthy of being on the same stage? Now I realize I can hang with these chicks.”

And she also is intent on remaining committed to UFC combat for as long as the ride will last.

“If I stepped away from fighting it would bring a lot of emotions back into my life that I’d rather not have,” Yoder said.

Instead, she chooses to focus on the positives, even when recalling how Michael "toughened her up" all those years ago.

“My brother used to beat the crap out of me. My parents always said I was fair game if I was within arm’s distance – and he had very long arms," Yoder said, laughing. "If he could see me today he’d be very surprised, but he’d also be my biggest fan.”

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