Three tours of duty as a United States Marine established Carmouche’s toughness long before she put four-ounce gloves on professionally, but going through times like these and still finding a way to perform on fight night took things to a new level. And what the Californian didn’t know at the time was that she was laying the groundwork to become not just a world-class fighter, but a role model for people going through the same struggles she was. That would only come in time, though.

“I know I had my own questions and my own doubts coming out because of the community that I grew up in,” Carmouche said. “I went to Christian schools – elementary, middle school, high school – and then I was also in the Japanese culture that doesn’t believe in PDA and I had never seen gay couples. I heard about them, seen them in movies and stuff, but I never experienced seeing them in person. So as I started to realize things about myself, I had questions, but didn’t even have the typical questions because I had never experienced anything and had no awareness. And as I started to, I wondered why it mattered, why does that make anybody different. They’re still human, still a person, so why does it matter? Who cares, they’re not hurting anybody, so it shouldn’t matter.”

It shouldn’t, but that wasn’t the case for so many years. Yet by the time Carmouche followed up runs in Strikeforce and Invicta FC with an invite to fight Ronda Rousey in the first women’s bout in UFC history in 2013, the world was ready for “Girlrilla.” All of her. And the LGBTQ community responded in kind, embracing Carmouche’s historic accomplishment.

That was a shocker to Carmouche, who didn’t just have to deal with fighting Rousey, but with a barrage of media attention.