MMA...Not just for the boys.

It's a sport where blood and brutality are not only expected, but encouraged.

Mixed martial arts - or MMA - combines boxing, wrestling and martial arts into a vicious duel that leaves participants in pain, and fans thirsty for more. And while these gladiators and the sport only grow bigger, one locally trained fighter is out to prove she - yes, she - is among the best.

Even when New Jersey-born Tara Larosa was young, she didn't have the typical heroes most girls have growing up. "I've always loved action movies," Larosa says. "Chuck Norris was kinda like my idol when I was a kid."

But when Larosa asked her parents if she could take martial arts lessons, they tried to talk her out of it. When she eventually learned how, she excelled. A few years later, she became intrigued by another sport where her skills would be tested like no other: mixed martial arts.

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