UFC’s Miesha Tate carries injured girl down Mount Charleston trail — PHOTOS

“Today a little girl broke her arm up at the top of Mary Jane falls,” Tate wrote in the Facebook post Sunday. When Tate saw the girl’s “meekly built mother struggling to carry her,” she offered to take the girl the rest of the way down the mountain.

Tate said the girl’s mother offered the girl the option of who would carry her down the mountain, and to Tate’s surprise “she quickly replied ‘I want HER to carry me.’”

“Kai and I learned a lot about each other on the roughly 2 mile descent,” Tate wrote.”It’s fair to say she inspired me.”

Amber Ellis, Kai’s mother, thanked Tate on Facebook for helping her daughter and called her “truly a life saver.”

“It started out as a fun hike up Mary Jane Falls, with the family, ended with Kai breaking her arm at the top of the mountain,” Ellis wrote Sunday on Facebook. Ellis said she was “beyond thankful” to Tate for “carrying her all the way down the mountain,” adding that there was “no way I would have been able to do it myself.”

Ellis told the Review-Journal Monday that she was “eternally grateful” to Tate for carrying her daughter down the mountain. She said Kai had broken her arm after tripping on a rock; “she just happened to land on her arm just right.”

When Tate offered to help, Ellis said she didn’t recognize the mixed martial arts fighter; it was only after her daughter exchanged first names with her that Ellis learned who had volunteered to help her hurt daughter.

“She’s really down-to-earth,” Ellis said. “I can appreciate that.”

On Monday, Tate shared an Instagram video the family recorded and sent to her, in which Kai — broken arm bandaged up — thanked her rescuer personally.

“Thank you Miesha. Thank you for carrying me Miesha. Thank you for helping me,” Kai said from her car seat offering a wave of her nonbroken arm.

 

 

Tear jerker! Meet Kai the sweet little girl that kept me company down the mountain side, very upbeat despite her broken arm. And I just have to say this was one of the most rewarding days of my athletic career. And I also want to make a point that I have been told many times that I am "too buff" or "manly" that I should stop lifting weights, that it's "gross" and not attractive for a woman. I am so happy I never listened to the limitations others wanted to put on me and I hope that our youth knows that don't have to conform. That strength and beauty come from within! #BeStrong #BeCapable #BeWhatYouWant #NoRegrets #JustLove #PayItForward #GiveBack #Inspire

A video posted by Miesha Tate (@mieshatate) on Sep 5, 2016 at 10:16am PDT

 

Contact Christian Bertolaccini at cbertolaccini@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Follow @bertolaccinic on Twitter.