Jinh Yu Frey has more than one backup plan if her MMA career won’t be successful.
Frey was able to finish her MBA while doing some work at a cancer facility which caters outpatient clients. On top of all of this, the Invicta FC women’s flyweight fighter was able to squeeze in MMA in this very busy schedule.
In a recent interview at The MMA Hour, Frey stated that it’s good not to focus on just one thing.
“It’s good to not have all your eggs in the same basket,” she said to Ariel Helwani during the interview.
Frey admitted that things would definitely be hard for her if she focused on MMA alone. Last 2013 in the SCS 18 event, Frey went up against Darla Harris and won by knocking Harris out. This fight went viral online and as amazing as the fight looked in video, Frey broke her hand in the process and had put her out of the octagon for two years.
“That’s definitely a prime example. It was horrible, because I had all this momentum going. … Had that been my main source of income, that would have really hurt,” she said.
Good thing Frey was able get up from the injury and focused on other activities that interested her while she is waiting for the injury to heal. She has been working with patients who have cancer and doing some radiation administration for a couple of years now. Frey says there are times that the whole thing is tough, but she gets past the negativity by focusing on her work. Sometimes, she gets her drive from patients who know her by her MMA career as well.
“There are definitely days where it’s mentally draining. These are people I’m seeing on a regular basis. I get to know them, I get to know their personal lives, I get to know their families. Cancer being what it is, sometimes we lose these patients. That can be a bit of an emotional drain. Then just listening to people during the day and hear their struggles, it’s hard not to internalize some of that,” Frey said.
Frey admitted that being able to fight inside the octagon aside from doing MMA training somehow provide her some break from the stress.
“It’s something that I’ve come to really enjoy and I’ve found that it’s really cathartic to me. I just enjoy getting in there and challenging myself. The schoolwork and everything challenges me mentally and this is a little more of a physical challenge,” she revealed.
Frey, who has a record of 3-1, is still somehow a newbie in the sport. But Invicta sees a lot of potential in her and predicts a very promising career, especially if she manages to win over McCarthy this coming Saturday at the Invicta FC 14 event. Frey admitted that if she wins the bout, she will finally sit down and discuss her career with her husband to see if focusing on MMA would be the best step for now. Frey further said that she has something to fall back on in things won’t go her way, but for now, she wants to give her 100% in the octagon.
“Of course anything I do I want to be great at. I’m a pretty competitive person. I don’t really half ass anything. If I’m gonna do something, I want to be the best at it. It originally started out as a hobby. Now who can say? I’ll take it as far as it can go. I do have a degree and a career just in case something happens,” Frey added.