Who is Ashlee Gambino? All about the former MMA fighter's heroic battle against heartbreak

Ashlee Gambino is a combat sports athlete but has fought her toughest battles outside of the confines of the cage and the dimensions of a ring.

In late November 2022, Gambino lost her three-year-old daughter Katana from acute leukemia cancer. She and her husband, Travis Long, had to go through the process of dealing with burying a child, which is unfathomable pain to many, but more heartache was to come.

Not long after this, Gambino was diagnosed with an uncommon heart and lung disease known as severe idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Doctors gave her five years to live at most and she was 20 weeks pregnant with a baby girl when this news was discovered. This condition forced a termination of the pregnancy and Gambino almost lost her life during that procedure.

Check out some highlights of Ashlee Gambino in-competition below:

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Ashlee Gambino and some people her story inspired

'MobWife' had an amateur MMA and a professional boxing bout. It was around the time after those bouts, when she hoped to return to competing, that the aforementioned devastating circumstances began to pop up for Gambino.

The 32-year-old is now hindered to a point where becoming an Uber driver has become an express goal with the fundraiser. To pay for a car and then make money driving customers thereafter is all Ashlee Gambino can physically handle in the wake of her health waning from her condition.

Her husband set up a GoFundMe page in the tragic wake of losing two daughters and discovering the American native's condition, which caught the attention of many.

Former UFC and Bellator title challenger Cat Zingano shared the link to the fundraiser and has since grown a relationship with Gambino. Also, internet personality Liver King, aka Brian Johnson, has also been using his platform to support the martial artist, and it has spotlighted the situation in a big way.

Johnson had also reached out to Dana White and told him about Gambino's situation as well as how she always wanted to attend a UFC event. This led to a dream that will be actualized into reality on March 9th as Ashlee Gambino will be attending UFC 299 in Miami.

Gambino has been applying the fervent efforts she put into her fighting career to focus on her health and overall quality of life.

It's a complex mix of medications and lifestyle changes that encompass all of day-to-day living now. But Gambino is working so valiantly to live a great life for herself as well as still being a wife, mother of two other children, and a teacher on top of all of that.