Mom 'GI Jess' strikes balance with EFC, family and business 

The Cape Town-based Mouneimne owns Pride Fighting Academy with husband Michael, and their children are athletes in the making as well. 

"I've got two kids, 10 and 12, and it's really become like a family business for us. When one of us is in 'fight camp', everyone is in 'fight camp'. 

My husband has been relatively competitive in the last couple of years from the boxing perspective, my son's had a couple of boxing jiu-jitsu fights as well, and my daughter is very competitive, but in a gymnastics space. 

So we kind of take turns to support the other person in the family who's got their immediate goal ahead of them”, she told SABC Sport. 

She says the past couple of weeks have resembled organised chaos as her fight on 1 March in Johannesburg edges closer. 

"This one's been quite rough, based on scheduling, because we both run our gym full-time and we're trying to find gaps for training in between. The whole family wakes up at 04:45 in the morning and the whole family comes home at 8:30 p.m. We are all, kind of, on the grind together, and it's exhausting, but it's great to have a collective family goal," she revealed.

‘GI Jess’, the name she goes by in the ring, says her kids won’t be making the trip to catch her in the hexagon. 

"I feel with male fighters, often you see them walking out with their kids, or their kids are out on the crowd, and they want to see their kids straight afterwards. [But] I have personally found that it's almost like I need a cut off the maternal part of me when I'm fighting.

So I don't want to see my kids when I'm fighting. They watch at home on TV, and I'm happy to chat to them afterwards. But when I'm in there I kind of separate myself from that  'mother element'”, Mouneimne declared

Mouneimne insists her focus should be on taking down Aderlean. 

The UK-based Romanian is more experienced with a fighting record of 7-5, compared to her opponents’ two bouts so far. 

"We saw the title fight between Juliana Peña and the 'Lioness' in UFC and they are both obviously mothers. It was interesting because I found Juliana quite fixated on wanting to greet her daughter and see her daughter before the fight. And I remember turning to my husband and saying 'her focus isn't where it needs to be' and interestingly she then lost the fight. 

I'm not necessarily saying that is how it is for everyone, but I've certainly felt that I can draw more power from being a fighter when I separate myself from my maternalness in that moment".