One More Time for The Fighter Chick

One More Time for The Fighter Chick

By Jodi Nash

My daughter, Carsyn Nash (aka “Fighter Chick”), recently flew home to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding.

She didn’t exactly glide down the grassy aisle like the others. She strode boldly in her rose colored gown and navy blue chucks, hair and make-up all girly-girl pretty in the late afternoon autumn light.

And then there’s her unique “body art.” In the gritty Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) combat-sport world she lives in, those tattoos are badges of honor and a stark expression of her personal journey.

A Warrenton native and a graduate of Fauquier High and Virginia Commonwealth University, Carsyn became enamored with MMA and moved to Albuquerque in early 2019 to train at Jackson-Winks Fight Academy. After two years, she relocated to Denver to train with Evolution Fight Team. She posted a 6-1 amateur record and was a month out from her professional debut when it happened—the first of two serious injuries.

Carsyn Nash in full fury training.

She was sparring with a high-profile UFC professional champion in June, 2021, honored she’d earned this opportunity to test herself.

“I understand grappling innately, but struggle with striking,” she told me. “You have to learn the alphabet before you learn grammar. Boxing is like a dance. If you go straight in, you get lit up, so you don’t try to hit. You bait your opponent, set a trap, feint.”

She’d improved significantly, and in the first round, her strong chin kept her on her feet. But then, in a regular takedown which she resisted “way too late,” Carsyn heard an audible pop. She finished the second round, but when she went to put on her shoe, she realized her left knee was unstable and the kneecap was misaligned.

A subsequent MRI revealed a hairline tibia fracture tibia, total rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and torn meniscus. She had to wait two long months for the tibia to heal before surgery. After six months of physical therapy and “back blasting” (upper body strength-training and hand speed boxing drills), she was 90 percent ready to fight.

Carsyn Nash is the Fighter Chick.

She began rolling again, until February, 2022, and a second traumatic injury. She already had suffered a partially injured collarbone that had healed. But in another takedown, she heard it go, felt movement in her chest and throat, the loosening of the joint, and pressure on her trachea. It hurt to take deep breaths, to lean over to tie her shoes, and it was uncomfortable to swallow. Multiple consults and much research made her realize how unusual (and serious) this sterno-clavicular joint injury was.

Still, she told her knee surgeon “I can’t retire as an amateur. Just give me one professional fight!”

After finding a specialist, a surgical team operated on April 26. . And then came the lecture.

“Carsyn, I won’t do this surgery again,” her surgeon told her. “It was a sphinctersqueezer. When I was drilling holes in your collar bone, your brachial vein and pulmonary artery were exposed. Rehab the way I tell you…We want as much scar tissue as possible.”

Her right shoulder was totally immobilized for six months. With her arm taped to her chest, Carsyn still did lower body strength training, with a load of fast footwork and left-hand jabbing. (Her right hand is her power shot).

Shocked by how much more invasive the second surgery was, sobered by the loss of almost two full years at a pivotal point in her career, Carsyn remains focused. Cleared in October to resume strength training for her right shoulder, she has an uphill road back to achieve cardio-fitness, along with sparring, grappling, and strength training.

Carsyn turned 30 on Nov. 2. She can resume cage fighting in January. Time is short and she knows it. Still, she amazes me.

“No matter what order those injuries happened,” she said, “I’m lucky because it forced me to sit out grappling for two years and concentrate on boxing.”

When I asked how she feels on the other side of all this trauma, she answered with no hesitation.

“I feel hungry. I want to feel the anxiety of the fight life again. Plus, a sound butt-whipping does your soul good if you can take it.”

There speaks the bridesmaid, my daughter, Fighter Chick.

I recently read a line from a poem that resonated with me.

“I would rather have a body full of scars and a head full of memories, than a life of regrets and perfect skin.”

One more time Carsyn, one more time.