I was on a business trip in another city last week when I had an encounter with a woman I won't soon forget. I checked into my hotel and found the restaurant was closed that night. The girl behind the desk said that I could get some food at the honkytonk joint just down the street. I was exhausted and didn't really feel like going out, but I was starving so I decided to go and have a quick meal then return to the hotel. I could tell where the place was by all the pickup trucks parked outside. Upon entering, I found all the tables were occupied but that I was welcome to eat at the bar. All I wanted to do was eat and go, so I agreed and found an empty barstool.

I had just received my meal when a big Toby Keith looking redneck started giving me grief about taking up space by eating at the bar. I guess he figured the bar was meant for drinking. I tried to explain that I was just sitting where the waitress told me to, but that just seemed to get him even more riled up. He started getting into face and jabbing my chest with his finger. The guy stood about 6'4" and probably weighed close to 250 pounds, so I began to have this sinking feeling I was about to get my ass kicked.

All of a sudden I see his head slam down onto the bar and his cowboy hat goes flying. Not once, not twice, but three times in succession. I turn to look and am surprised to see a tiny brunette is holding him by the back of his neck. She then grabs his collar with her left hand and his belt with her right hand, and casually throws him into a wall six feet away. I can hardly believe what I'm seeing as he wasn't pushed into the wall, but rather he was flown into the wall by this petite figure of a woman. He hit the wall a good four feet off the ground before crumpling into a heap on the ground. While I was still taking in what I had just witnessed, the redneck's buddy decides that he wants to come to his friend's aid and charges the woman. He probably regrets the decision now as she instantly floored him with a forearm to his jaw. The buddy followed his friend's lead by also crumpling to the ground in a heap.

This raven-haired beauty then walks over to "Toby" and picks him up off the floor by his collar and holds his chest against the wall with his right arm pinned behind his back. "Now, here is what we're going to do", she informs him. "You're going to go over there and pick your boyfriend up off the floor, and then you two are going to get the hell out of here before you make me lose my temper." Toby tries to break free but she's too strong, pinning him effortlessly against the wall. Eventually he relents and she releases her grip. He walks over his friend and picks him up and throws his friend's arm over his shoulder and grabs his belt buckle with his other hand. The friend was still out of it, barely concious. The bartender tosses the redneck's cowboy hat to the woman and she placed it haphazardley on his head. She almost had to stand on tip-toes to reach his head.  She followed the pair all the way out of the bar with her hands on her hips, as the patrons broke out into cheers.

A few minutes later as I was finishing my meal, she came over and sat down next to me and apologized for the trouble and ordered the bartender that my tab was on the house, no charge. I told her that rather than apologizing to me, I should be thanking her as I thought I was about be turned into mincemeat by that bruiser. She laughed and told me her name was Danica  and told me that her hobbies were weight lifting and being an MMA fighter. I thanked her profusely once again, but she downplayed the incident, saying that those two proved to be no challenge whatsoever, and it showed as didn't appear to even have broken a sweat.

I told her she must be pretty strong to do this job and she laughed again. "Do you want to arm wrestle me"? she giggled as she placed her elbow on the bar. I was immediately intrigued as this woman stood all of five feet tall, yet she was capable of taking out two behemoths. "C'mon!" she laughed, although I needed little convincing. We joined hands and she said "Ready, set, go"! I immediately put all my strength into it but her arm didn't budge. I looked up and immediately knew that she wasn't even trying hard by the wry smile on her face. After a few more seconds of holding my arm motionless. she casually lowered her arm to the table. OK. I was convinced this tiny woman was strong. Very strong. We shared a few more laughs before she invited me to her MMA fight against a couple of guys the following evening, and I quickly accepted.

After finishing my business meeting the following day, I took a taxi to the sports arena. As I entered the arena, one fight was already underway. In the ring, a tiny blonde that looked to be a dead ringer for Lisa Kelly of the Ice Road Truckers TV series appeared to have the upper hand against two much larger males. Holy shit! When Danica had told me she was fighting "a couple of guys", I thought she meant that she was fighting them separately! It appeared that the two men had been receiving the worst of the beating as "Lisa" looked as if she had just stepped out of the dressing room while a large, muscular black man who she held in a headlock, had one eye swollen shut and blood coming out of his nose. She held the other large man who looked like Goldberg, the TV wrestler, by the back of his neck and was repeatedly slamming his face into the padded ring corner post as blood drooled out of his mouth. The black man who was built like Mike Tyson, seemed to hang limply from her arm, as one of his hands meekly tried to pry her arm loose.

After repeatedly having his head beat against the corner post, the Goldberg lookalike appeared to go limp. The little blonde held him up and looked at his face, then appeared to roll her eyes in disdain. She then released the black man from the headlock and he crumpled to the ground. Putting her left hand on "Goldberg's" chest, she reached down with her right arm into his crotch and them flung him over the ropes and out of the ring whereupon he crashed to the floor below. He remained motionless. The girl then reached down to grasp the black man's wrist and hoisted hime to his feet. Then, in an incredible display of strength, she placed her left hand on his chest before reaching down and grabbing his crotch with her right hand before hoisting him high over her head. My jaw dropped open as this guy must have weighed 260 pounds, yet she seemed to have lifted him effortlessly. She then smiled to the cheering crowd as she walked in a small circle. She then began repeatedly pressing this man up and down while the crowd went crazy. After about a minute of playing to the crowd she walked over to the edge of the ring and casully flung him onto the floor below.

As the referee raised her righht arm in triumph, I went in search of Danica's dressing room.