LAS VEGAS — Randa Markos has seen war. She’s witnessed murder. She has been the victim of abuse.
Markos has experienced the worst of life and made it out the other end intact. She might have only started training in MMA when she was 23 years old, but she’s been a fighter as far back as she could remember.
“It sucked having a childhood like that, but it made me who I am,” Markos told MMA Fighting. “It’s not fair, but I wouldn’t really take anything back.”
Long before Markos was one of the breakout stars of The Ultimate Fighter 20, she was a child born in Baghdad. With the Gulf War looming, her father, a military man, made the decision to take his family and flee the country. In Iraq at the time, you didn’t exactly get the choice to serve.
“My dad knew he was doing to die if he continued in the military,” Markos said.
Markos, her mother, sister and brother ended up going to Turkey, where they were held in a prison camp. Their father wisely separated from them — he was the target.
“They were all looking for my dad, so they could kill him for escaping,” said Markos, who was 3 years old at the time.
While at the camp, Markos and her family witnessed the execution of seven Middle Eastern prisoners. She said her mother felt fortunate that she was not one of those killed.
Eventually, the Markoses were saved by an aunt in Canada, who arranged for visas. They ended up settling in Windsor, Ontario. Their father met them not long after.
Markos’ distressing story was not over at that point. She might have survived combat in the Middle East, but it didn’t quite prepare her for a war brewing in her own home. Though the family was in Canada, Markos said her father still carried with him bad traditions from Iraq. He became an alcoholic and treated her mother poorly, abusing her and the three kids.
“It’s made me really strong,” Markos said. “I’ve had to face a lot of things. The way my dad would treat my mom, the things he would say to her, the way he was abusive. Making him understand what he was doing wrong was like talking to the wall. It took my mom a long time to understand it wasn’t right. His dad treated his mom like that so he’s going to treat his wife like that.”
Markos said she has sent her father to jail five separate times. He is out now and living alone. The two still have a relationship and she checks on him regularly.
“He’s still my dad, I still care about him,” Markos said. “No matter what he’s done to us, yeah it’s not right. It’s not really his fault. That’s all he’s known.”
Markos’ father only knows about her fighting career through what he has read in newspapers and online. The two do not talk about it. In general, Markos has had a hard time gaining acceptance from her traditional Middle Eastern family. When she was in high school, she lied to her family and said she was going to volleyball practice when really she was going to wrestling.
Now, Markos said, as she continues to succeed, her mother and siblings are more accepting.
“It’s not the life that they expected for me, but they’re happy,” she said.
Markos made it to the semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter this season despite being seeded No. 14 out of 16 competitors. She defeated No. 3 Tecia Torres by unanimous decision in the first round and then took out No. 6 Felice Herrig by first-round submission in the quarterfinals. Markos fell to No. 7 Rose Namajunas in the semis, but there’s no other way to look at her participation in the show than as a rousing success for her career.
In a season that already had established stars and will crown the UFC’s first women’s strawweight champion Friday night at The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale in Las Vegas, Markos etched her name as one of the division’s top contenders with her superior grappling and stoic personality. She will meet Jessica Penne, a fellow semifinalist, at the finale.
There were so many reasons why Markos could have never made it here — from war to abuse to family principles. She never let any of those things knock her off path.
“Who cares what people think?” Markos said. “Whatever happens, you fulfilled your dream. You’re doing what you want to do, don’t let anybody stop you. The one thing I hate is when people don’t think I can accomplish something. It just drives me to do better. That’s just the way I’ve always been.”