It's shaping up to be a pretty busy July for Burnaby mixed martial arts fighter Sarah McLeod.

McLeod will fight Surrey's Cheryl Chan on Friday's MMA #2 card at Richmond's River Rock Casino. Two weeks later, she'll be on stage competing in the B.C. bikini modelling championships. A top-three finish there and she'll get to compete at next month's Canadian bikini modelling championships, an event that offers a chance at a professional bikini modelling card.

"I'm trying to balance the MMA and the bikini competitions," said McLeod, 22, who got a draw in her MMA debut in January in MMA #1, also at the River Rock. That bout, against Wendy Roy, was voted best fight of the night.

"I'm planning on qualifying for nationals and then hopefully I'll get my pro card. I'll be a professional bikini model and a pro MMA fighter."

And McLeod doesn't seem overly concerned by the prospect of a lousy night in the MMA cage messing up her chances on the bikini stage.

"I'm doing MMA one week and then I have a week to heal," she said. "As long as I don't get too badly bruised ... I'm well trained and as long as I keep my hands up, what can a 125-pound woman do to me?

"I feel I can defend myself well enough."

McLeod's last opponent shares that view. Vancouver's Olesha Karringten lost to McLeod on May 15. Karringten had never fought before and was recruited for the bout during her interview for a job as one of the card girls. She's an exotic dancer.

"I'm not worried about that," Karringten said when asked if she's concerned about getting a black eye or a broken nose.

"I'm a really tough chick. I feel sorry for the next girl I fight."

Karringten said she's had her share of street fights.

Same thing for Chan, who works with children with special needs and will be making her pro debut.

Chan has fast hands and a quick quip, admitting that she's been in plenty of battles and is looking forward to being in an organized scrap that won't get her in trouble.

"She's tough," Chan said of McLeod. "I'm excited. I've trained really hard for this and I want to get in there and test my skills."

McLeod awaits the challenge.

"She just seems like she's going to throw down," McLeod said of Chan, 31. "She reminds me of me when I went into my first fight. She's really tough. She'll want to stand with me and bang."

McLeod got into MMA after meeting her current trainer, Marcus Hicks, in a gym. McLeod had started working out because she felt she needed more muscle in her legs if she was going to advance up the bikini competition ranks.

She liked watching MMA and UFC events, so when Hicks asked if she wanted to be on the River Rock card she said yes.

"He told me I hit like a guy and asked, do you want to fight in 12 days?" she said. "I took my first fight and fell in love with it."

So what, you might wonder, is there to love about fighting in a cage?

"In the cage, it's about the actual challenge to see my strength against someone else's," she says.

And bikini modelling? "I really like the goal. It keeps me going to the gym all the time and it keeps my body proportionate."

And her rather unique one-two combo of choice?

"There's a stereotypical view that beautiful women can't fight and I want to show women that we can fight," she said. "More women should be at the gym and be involved in this."

tbell@theprovince.com