When Elora Dana enters a cage to struggle, she’s pushed by traumas in her life and religion that she can have a greater future by means of the game.
Earlier than coming into the PFL cage in Wichita to compete in her second struggle abroad, taking over Liz Carmouche on this Friday within the semifinals of the 2025 flyweight match, the undefeated expertise, who’s a former Jungle Struggle flyweight and top-of-the-line prospects out of Brazil, opened up about her many struggles throughout an interview with MMA Combating.
Dana turned an orphan at age 11, when her mom misplaced a battle in opposition to most cancers. She has eight siblings in Tefé, a small city situated 300 miles away from Manaus, Brazil however was deserted by her household.
“My older brother left me on my own on the place we lived with our mother and went to stay with our uncle someplace else,” Dana mentioned. “He by no means actually preferred me. I needed to do every part at house, like do the laundry, clear the home, make breakfast and lunch. I needed to do every part. And I nonetheless needed to care for my youthful brother. And he’d go away me starve once I didn’t do one thing as a result of I used to be drained.”
Dana mentioned she was left by herself when she was 12, and “more often than not I had nothing to eat.” There was no electrical energy the place she lived, just one mattress and a small cupboard, and that reminiscence nonetheless haunts her to today.
“I nonetheless keep in mind going again house at night time and being afraid of the darkish,” Dana mentioned. “I’d speak to God, ‘Please, shield me from every part. Take me from this case. Assist me. Change my life. I don’t know the way the longer term might be, however be in management. Information me. Defend me. Give me a chance to make my desires come true and alter my life so i don’t should rely upon different folks.’”
When she was 9 years outdated — and consistently entering into avenue fights — her cousin’s husband launched her to grappling lessons in a neighborhood health club. Dana was fearless, exhibiting promising expertise that led to the coach educating her without spending a dime. Dana felt she was meant to struggle, and it will come to save lots of her sooner or later.
Years have handed, and Dana now lives in Manaus dreaming of replicating her MMA success in america. The $500,000 award for profitable the PFL flyweight match can be a life-changing prize, and Dana has religion it’ll be hers earlier than the 12 months is over. The Brazilian beat Diana Avsaragova in her PFL debut in April to advance within the brackets.
“Once I’m in a struggle, it’s like I watch a film inside my head of every part I went by means of,” Dana mentioned. “God, I don’t wish to return to that place. I wish to be champion. I wish to win. I wish to earn my cash. Sadly, that is the one factor I’ve got down to do. I’m in that cage, however I’m praying the entire time, asking for steering and knowledge. I’m nothing, God is every part in my life.”
“It was fairly exhausting. Regardless of all of the difficulties I’ve had in my childhood, I at all times had a objective in my life,” she continued. “I needed an excellent life, a home, and one thing to eat. [Being in the PFL] has been superior, it’s extraordinary. Being here’s a dream for me. I at all times consider my time would come, that God would bless me someday. It was a tough highway, however thank God we’ve made it. I’m in one of many world’s greatest promotions, and it’s surreal to me. I by no means anticipated it to occur, however right here I’m because of my exhausting work and braveness.”
