LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – As fight weekend in Vegas kicks off, FOX5 is checking back in with a local fighter who trains just off the Strip. Last spring, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin Lymphoma told she had 50% chance of living.
The MMA community rallied around her raising money for her treatment. Now she is headed back into the cage for her first fight since defeating cancer.
Maria Jose Garcia Favela was knocked down and out of fighting entirely by what she at first thought was Covid.
“I couldn’t breathe. I was with the high fever.. I was coughing.. I spit blood… When they told me, ‘you have cancer,’ the first thing that I thought was I’m dead,” Favela revealed.
Favela was just starting chemotherapy for her lymphoma when FOX5 spoke to her via zoom from hospital room. Favela says by far cancer is the toughest opponent she’s ever faced, taking her hair and her strength.
“I was like a feather. I was so delicate,” Favela recounted. Favela dropped 25 pounds in a matter of months.
“It was a really long, long, and tough journey,” Favela shared.
After being declared caner free in December, Favela stepped back into the gym, Xtreme Couture off on Sunset, spending this year trying to reach the elite fighting level once again.
“I have to start to build myself again emotionally and physically again,” Favela contended.
While she is not the same physically, besting cancer she is at a new level mentally ready to take on whatever any opponent throws at her.
“I know that there are a lot of eyes on me especially because it is my comeback… I try to don’t think about it, just step into the cage and feel it and that’s it,” Favela explained.
Favela will make her return to the cage at Invicta FC 57. That is Friday, September 20th in Kansas City.
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