UFC star Miesha Tate saves girl with broken arm while hiking

LAS VEGAS — UFC star Miesha Tate says she’s inspired by the tough little girl who broke her arm while hiking near Las Vegas after the mixed martial arts fighter carried the child back down the mountain.

Tate posted on Facebook that she encountered the 6-year-old on the popular Mary Jane Falls trail of Mount Charleston, 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Amber Ellis of Lake Havasu City in Arizona said that her daughter, Kai, broke her arm at the top of the mountain during a family hike over the Labor Day weekend.

“She was playing with her sister and tripped over a rock and landed on her arm,” Ellis told The Associated Press. They splinted the arm and Ellis scooped her up and began the hike back. A little ways down, Tate came across them and asked Ellis if she needed help, saying she could use the workout. Ellis left it up to Kai to decide who would carry her the rest of the way.

“She wanted Meisha which blew my mind, I was like, ‘You don’t want mom?’” she said at an appointment Tuesday to get her daughter’s arm set. “Kai was being a champ, not crying, going with the flow.”

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Tate said she assisted the family after spotting the “meekly built” Ellis struggling to carry the girl down the mountain. The pair made it down without any issues, which Tate attributed to team work.

Ellis thanked Tate in a Facebook post, calling her “a true life saver” because the mom said she couldn’t have done it alone.

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

Mt. Charleston Fire District Captain Chris Culver said Tuesday that authorities weren’t notified of the injury because no 911 calls or formal reports of the incident were made, but that it’s not unusual for people with non-life threatening injuries to take themselves to the hospital instead of seeking help.

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Hartounian contributed from Phoenix.

Sally Ho And Alina Hartounian, The Associated Press