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John Landrigan meets a Birkenhead woman who's a lean, mean and extremely keen fighting machine.

Hands, elbows, knees and toes, knees and toes. It sounds like a dainty children's rhyme until you add fists, feet and chokeholds.

Deney Hayward looks like any other sportswoman - until she's hunched over a foam bag pounding down on it with her fists and elbows. Then her sleek frame shows it is built for speed and capable of giving and taking a mighty blow.

On September 25, the bag will be replaced with the face of another fighter when she goes head to head, toe to toe at an Industry of Combat mixed martial arts event.

Mixed martial arts combines boxing, kick-boxing, jiu jitsu, judo and wrestling. The only restrictions are: no eye-gouging, fish-hooking someone's mouth or striking the groin. 

Fighters can wrap their legs around an opponent's head with enough pressure on their throat to restrict oxygen to the brain and knock them out.

The rules don't stop fighters tearing at each other's elbows or fashioning a deadly "guillotine" stranglehold. Nor do they stop someone sitting over a fighter so they can't defend themselves and smashing down on them until they submit.

Hayward, 25, is one of the few women brave enough to enter the ring. She took up the sport in 2009 after representing New Zealand at judo for 16 years. Those skills help her with takedowns and throws in the mish-mash that is mixed martial art combat.

"It is an advantage over other fighters. I'm used to competition. I know what I will be going through before a fight and have a dedication to training. I know how to hold and move my body," says the Birkenhead resident.

The event, at North Shore Stadium next month, is the first ICNZ tournament on the North Shore.

Fighters from  around New Zealand, including Auckland, and Australia  will compete.  Hayward, who has only had two amateur fights, has her first professional bout in the 60-65kg grade.

It will be first time she will fight without shin and elbow pads.

"I like to fight. I want to reach the top level in the world. I want to fight in the biggest competitions," she says.

Hayward trains at the Shuriken Mixed Martial Arts Dojo at Highbury Mall. Coach, and longtime proponent of the sport, Jason Vorster is confident of her ability, but says it is too early for predictions. "You have to be exceptionally fit. The sport has the most conditioned athletes in the world. You have to show you have heart when in the ring."

Vorster says mixed martial art schools are sprouting up across Auckland.

"This is a hugely popular sport overseas and is growing here. The financial opportunities over other sports can be huge."

Grappling with it

Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows a variety of fighting techniques and skills while standing and on the ground.

The Brazilian sport of Vale Tudo, which dates back to the 1920s, was brought to the United States by the Gracie family in 1993.

They founded the Ultimate Fighting Championship as a competition to find the most effective martial arts for unarmed combat. The sport increased in popularity around the world with pay-per-view ratings rivalling boxing and professional wrestling.

Info, tickets: www.icnzmma.co.nz