Granville MMA fighter to be featured on CNN

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By Derek Liebig

A Granville woman who has spent two-and-a-half years training in mixed martial arts will have her story chronicled on CNN.

Malinda Prieur will be profiled on an upcoming episode of “This is Life with Lisa Ling,” a nationally broadcast investigative series focused on “ordinary people with extraordinary lives.”

The story will follow female mixed martial arts fighters and their experiences in what used to be man’s world.

Prieur, who is in the midst of training for a March 28 bout in Queens, is one of two fighters who was chosen by producers to be profiled for the story.

“I am really honored for this opportunity and also for our community to be a part of this as well as they will be filming our hometown,” Prieur said.

Nate Cohen, a producer for “This is Life with Lisa Ling,” said Prieur was chosen because they felt her status as a mother, business woman and fighter made her intriguing.

For two days earlier this week, crews filmed and interviewed Prieur at home and at the gym. She was interviewed by Ling for nearly two hours on Monday evening and on Tuesday they filmed her training.

Crews are also expected to film her fight on March 28.

The full special is expected to be broadcast later this year.

Prieur, who fights under her maiden name of Diffee and has been nicknamed “The Diva,” took up mixed martial arts more than five years ago.

A self-described tomboy, Prieur has always been athletic. During high school she played basketball and ran track and field. But she was always drawn to male-dominated sports such as wrestling. Those sports, however, didn’t afford a lot of opportunities to women.

More than five years ago, Prieur, who was going through what she described as a “hard time in her life,” took up kickboxing. Besides providing basic self-defense techniques, kickboxing proved therapeutic, helping relieve the stress she was feeling.

“When you’re working the bags, giving it all you got, it makes you stronger physically and mentally,” Prieur said in September.

After a few years, Prieur’s coaches, Jay Ingleston and Tony Keogh, suggested she get in the cage.

She hasn’t looked back.

She fought in her first sanctioned fight at Cage Wars 27 in Glens Falls in September and fought again last month at Cage Wars 29. Her bout later this month will be her third sanctioned fight.

Despite being one of the fastest growing sports in the country, mixed martial arts remains a male-dominated sport. Prieur said she has struggled at times to find training partners and competitors to fight.

But fighters like Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate have helped raise the profile of female fighters. And now Prieur, who appeared last month on Babes of MMA, an online site dedicated to promoting female MMA fighters, is helping to raise further awareness of women’s involvement in the sport.

“It feels amazing and truly is an honor,” she said. “Anything I can do to be a strong, positive image for women in the sport of MMA is something I’m very proud of.”