'The Ultimate Fighter': Meet contestant Justine Kish
Being in a house with 15 other women brought Justine Kish back. And not necessarily in a good way.
"I did find myself getting a little bit crazy sometimes," the "Ultimate Fighter" contestant told FOX Sports. "Sometimes I eat really, really fast. I also get protective over my food and have to always know where it is."
Kish was born Svetlana Nasibulina and spent the first five years of her life in an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her biological family gave her up and to this day she has no idea who they are. Growing up in an orphanage with 10 to 15 other girls was difficult. They had very little food and took baths once a week in the sink.
"We were very deprived and we didn’t have anything," Kish said. "I was born in that kind of situation. I didn’t really know any different."
Despite the hardships, Kish was precocious. She helped out the other kids, cleaned up the orphanage and passed out medication. When families came in looking to adopt, she would show them around and tell them about the place. In that way, her motives were not always pure -- she wanted out.
"I knew things about everyone," Kish said. "I was nosy like that. I would tell the families not to adopt those kids and to adopt me instead."
Eventually, it happened. When she was 5 years old, Kish was adopted by an American family and moved to Pittsburgh. She was so excited to hear about the news that she learned five English words to impress her new family -- "momma," "poppa" and "I love you."
"This little kid came to America and was so excited to get a bath and have clean clothes," Kish's mother Laurel told FOX Sports. "It was a wonderful moment for us, but also heartbreaking in some respects."
Finally found a TUF20 poster of myself. Never felt so proud! #TUFbeauty #TUFstrength #UFC pic.twitter.com/uJdkD6j0o2
— Justine Kish (@JustineKish1) September 4, 2014
Kish, now 25, wasn't done with overcoming emotional obstacles. Just one year after being freed from the orphanage, her adopted father died in a car accident.
"I got the impression she knew a lot about death, although we hadn't talked about it," Laurel said. "She said, 'I'll never see him again. He was my special Daddy. Am I staying here? Who's going to take care of me?' I responded, 'You're my daughter. Of course I'm going to take care of you.' I think she'd seen death before in the orphanage, which caused her reaction. I think some fear of abandonment surfaced with his death, and who could blame her?"
Kish, a bundle of energy, threw herself into athletics. Laurel would shuttle her back and forth between practices for soccer, swimming, ice skating and more. Kish competed in just about everything she could.
"She was trying to keep me as active as possible," said Kish, who ended up moving to Cramerton, N.C., with her mother so they could be closer to her adopted brother.
When she was 12, Laurel took her to her first karate class and Kish was hooked. Almost right away Kish knew she wanted to get her black belt. She did and then transitioned to kickboxing and Muay Thai, which took her to Thailand on multiple occasions.
Kish credits her mother with channeling all of that vitality toward a common good.
"My mom was really able to really focus 100 percent into me and give me my best life possible," said Kish, who now trains at Black House MMA in Los Angeles with the likes of Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.
Though she is 20 years removed from St. Petersburg, Kish admits to still having some "orphan tendencies" -- like eating quickly and always having to know where her food is. As a release, Kish said she would clean up the "Ultimate Fighter" house regularly, almost the same way she would at the orphanage.
Kish (4-0) is one of the most accomplished strikers on the show and already owns a win over fellow castmate Randa Markos in January at RFA 12. Being in the UFC has been a goal and she is thrilled at the opportunity.
Fighting has taken her all over the world, but Kish still avoids Russia, though she has had opportunities to go back.
"I'm still kind of avoiding it, because it wasn't a good memory for me," Kish said. "I obviously blocked a lot of it out on purpose. There's no point in triggering everything."
Kish has no interesting in tracking down her biological family. She knows this is the life she was supposed to lead -- as Justine, not Svetlana. And now as a UFC fighter.
"I couldn’t imagine being as happy as I am now," Kish said. "I wouldn’t be like that if I was still in that situation."
