Alice Ardelean

When and why did you start training for fighting? I started MMA about 14 years ago with a group of friends because at that time I was a gamer, and people online were bullying me for being a fat girl playing cs 1.6. Some of the threats became a bit serious to me when I decided I should start doing some combat sports just in case if some guy wants to come and starts to fight me.

What professional titles have you held? I won my first MMA professional belt fighting against Ana Maria Pal at RXF Romania, at flyweight. My second pro belt was fighting against Jessica Mouneimne at EFC South Africa, at strawweight. My third one was against Dilia Suyapa in my hometown Satu Mare, on UFT Romania, at strawweight.

Any accomplishments in amateur combat sports? I have never fought amateurs because when I started MMA in Romania, it was extremely rare to even get any type of fights. It was a case of “Do you wanna fight?” and I always said yes for anything.

Any belts/ ranks in striking disciplines? I was the AFSO K-1 Germany strawweight champion (20 May 2017) against Eva Schultz.

What has been your toughest fight to date and why? My hardest fight by today was against Sylwya Juskiewich on Ladies Fight Night Poland, back in 2015. At that time, I was kind of a journeyman. I could say. I was pretty poor and I was accepting the fights for the money really & with the mentality of what do I have to lose anyway. So I was on a losing record without a professional team behind me, just a few sessions of cardio before and some striking. Zero grappling or wrestling. Just a “farmer” (This is how I like to describe myself).

Who is your favorite fighter and why? I started MMA when I was watching Gina Carano and I was so impressed and obsessed with her. Like, how cool was that? Her striking, her body, her face...her skills. I was blown away and I said I wanna be like her and meet her one day. Then it was Nate Diaz, also; his skill and fighting style. I loved it and it always gave me the adrenaline, like I wanted to fight on the spot.

Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? I finished college in my hometown. I studied Physical Education and Sport + 1 year of Anatomy.

What was your job before you started fighting? Before I started fighting, I was in high school still, but shortly after I finished I was working at a hotel/gym reception part-time so I could also train. And during the years of me fighting I had different jobs to keep my fighting life still active, such as Security, Massage Therapist, Dog Grooming, Cleaner, Nanny, Ebay seller .... so on   I believe I tried everything.

Personal Life / Background: I'm the only athlete from my family. Nobody is into sport like that, but they always support me. I used to be pretty active when I was super young. I was spending my holidays in the village my grandma grew up in, and because we didn't have animals, I used to go to my neighbors to help them with stuff around the house such as feeding animals, going in the field and picking hay. Depending on the season, we were picking vegetables or fruits from trees....I was also being cheeky.. always climbing trees, swimming in the rivers....picking up stray dogs and bringing them home (this was the main reason why I was grounded a lot :) I really love animals.

I picked a sports high school because I was never into study like that, even though I always finished my school years with high grades because I used to copy all my exams and tests from the best in class, SORRY! I did basketball in high school and, on the side, I used to be a gamer. I had a small team and we were going to competitions, training and so on. I used to play Counterstrike 1.6 and I was spending days & nights playing until the back of my neck used to hurt me badly. 
I also had a group of friends, mostly guys, & we spent some time skating and inline skating. 

I'm still a tomboy today. 

When I started to do MMA, my family was supportive but, obviously, my grandma used to cry every time I had fights or threaten that she's gonna climb into the ring/cage if the opponent will punch me. Hence the reason why I never took my grandma to any of my competitions. :) 

I set up some goals through my entire career, since the day I started. My first goal was to be in local newspapers....next would be being on TV, next would be moving to another city and only train, next would be getting a manager in another country that offered me the possibility to only train, to the last one, which is getting a positive record and getting a chance to fight in the UFC. 

It was a hard journey as before I moved to England I never had a professional MMA team next to me. I did a lot of mistakes accepting some fights and going in without any gameplan or MMA training with the mentality of I have nothing to lose anyway and they offered me good money. Good money meant $300-$400/ fight, which was, at that time, and for me, an extremely big amount of money. I wasn’t earning anything until I moved to England.

I was a 100% journeyman and I was on a losing streak when I moved. I started from zero, getting my grappling and my wrestling better and improved. And I've been winning my fights since then. 
I had a few obstacles in my way such as a gym closing, having to pick teams, going to work every day and train.

I used to earn £500-£700/ month, from which I used to pay my rent and some other personal stuff. It was hard to train and work at the same time. It was the hours at work that made me so tired for the next day training. But I never gave up and always showed up for classes.

My family always supported me. I still live with my mom & dad, by choice, because I'm the type of person that doesn't like to come home to an empty house. 

My sister and her husband live really close to us also. All my family is in the UK. They all moved before me. I left Romania to train in Germany and from there, I made the decision to move here to be closer to them. 

My social life is pretty non-existent as most of the time I'm in the gym and then I'm too tired to even do anything. I started to do TikTok funny skits/reactions about 1 year ago and my tiktok grew to 3 million followers. I'm happy to make people laugh and bring joy into their life by sharing funny content. I've been receiving a lot of support from my tiktok fans, especially when they found out that "the girl with the big eyes is an MMA fighter."

I usually advertise my fights on my social media platforms and my past purses (they were not too big, but big enough to help the shelter) that I got from the last three fights I had went to my STRAY DOG SHELTER from my hometown. People also bought PPV and the promotions used to give me a percentage, which all went to the stray dogs. We have a lot of stray dogs in Romania and the shelters are FULL. Not too many people adopt, unfortunately. I’m happy to help as much as I can. I usually go there myself and buy the food and cleaning products for them to be 100% sure that the money is not lost in transition. 

I spend most of my time with my family or in the gym. I haven't got hobbies or a pretty