Adriana Dragoi, 23, is a registered nurse at National Park Medical Center in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Like most nurses, she spends her day in scrubs caring for her community. Unlike most nurses, however, Dragoi then dons her leather gloves and hits the cage.
Dragoi is an MMA fighter — and she’s about to go pro.
“Turning pro feels intimidating at first,” Dragoi told The Sentinel-Record. “I am really excited to turn pro and I am really excited to make some noise. I am really excited to get some highlights, get some attention and show people what I am about.”
As an amateur, Dragoi is undefeated. With a 5-0 record, all fights having gone the distance to unanimous decision, the health care hero has proven she has endurance for far more than all of those fatiguing 12-hour shifts at the hospital.
“I am a baby nurse, though. I have been a nurse for about four years. I am actually getting my master’s now, too, to be an APRN, nurse practitioner,” she said. “It was always instilled in me growing up to go after what is stable and reliable. I was kind of motivated and pushed to be a nurse. I have always wanted to do something medical, too, and I have always wanted to try fighting.”
As a competitor for the local Off the Chain MMA promotion, Dragoi holds two amateur titles. But now the nurse is looking for a bigger challenge.
“I do have two belts one in the 125 division and the 135 division,” she said. “I have not won by knockout yet, but I like to go all rounds. I am kind of known for my endurance. They have been by unanimous decision.
“My coach, he saw after my fifth win and really after my fourth win, I really was not having many girls to want to fight me. That is what made us go pro, was to be able to get that pool of girls to be able to compete with. That was one of the driving factors to turn pro.”
Dragoi will be making her professional fighting debut with Real Deal Championship, and she hopes to be in the cage by September.
