As a child, Alyse Anderson couldn’t stay away from the classes at her father’s gym. John Anderson said she routinely would sneak into the classes to watch. When she was about 8 years old, she started doing low-level karate, but that wasn’t enough for her.

“That wasn’t like contact stuff,” she said. “That was more like forms and stuff, and I wanted to get into something where I could punch people, so I started MMA.”

Six years after starting karate, she reunited with Torres, by then at East Lansing Underground, and started training in MMA. Torres said his only thought when Alyse Anderson approached him was that she “had a lot to work on.” She spent the next three years or so training off and on with Torres, but she got really serious after turning 18 in January.

“My parents never let me (fight) because it’s not very safe,” she said. “So, they only said I could train, but never fight. But right when I turned 18, I told them that I wanted to fight and they were very supportive.”

In the three months leading up to her first fight, Alyse Anderson poured her entire focus into training. She was in the gym every day of the week, usually for four hours at a time, she said. In fact, Torres accused her of overtraining on at least one occasion.

“I trained so hard for it,” she said with a smile. “Matt even had to kick me out of the gym a few times. (MMA is) glorified on television, but it’s a full-time job.”

John Anderson said there’s no taking the easy route with MMA.
“If you’re gonna do this, you’ve got to commit,” he said.

When Alyse Anderson finally arrived at Best Western Plus in Lansing, the site of Total Warrior Combat’s “Back in Black” fight night, she felt she was ready to go. She faced Summer Asbury, a comparatively older fighter, who also was making her MMA debut.

The fight ended in 46 seconds after Alyse Anderson beat Asbury into submission.

Trevor Corwin, who refereed the fight for Total Warrior Combat, called Alyse Anderson’s debut exceptional, especially as the youngest fighter on the card that night.

“She came out to finish (it),” Corwin said.

Alyse Anderson said she originally had promised her parents she would only fight once, but after experiencing one fight, she couldn’t just walk away.

“I was like, ‘I have to do that again,’” she said. “After that I was like, ‘Oh, mom, I picked up another fight.’ It was crazy, the adrenaline … It was so awesome.”

Alyse Anderson credits her father for where she is now.

“I would never be where I am today without him because he brought me into the sport,” she said.

Balancing training with school and soccer — she’ll head to Spring Arbor University in the fall on a soccer scholarship — comes down to excluding everything else, Alyse Anderson said.

“I have no social life, except for the guys at the gym,” she said. “Every day it’s school, soccer, training and I don’t get home until like 10 o’clock. It’s kind of hard. But I just don’t have a social life. Weekends (are) all training.”

For now, she said she’s focused on her next fight, which will take place May 18. She said she doesn’t care about what people think or how much work it is, she just enjoys it.

“People think it’s crazy and weird and stuff, getting punched in the face, but it’s really fun,” she said.