If there was a day when Melanie McMahon felt afraid for the future, it wasn't the Monday in 2020 when she and her family effectively lost their job in a matter of hours.
It wasn't the pandemic descending suddenly. It wasn't the prospect of imminent lockdowns.
The first round in the ring with COVID-19 was, in some ways, easier. There was a finality about it, a sense of being - for better or worse - on tracks. No one knew what was happening, and no one could predict what would happen next, and in that sense, everyone was in the same boat.
The real fear came in round two.
The McMahon family, who ran their Maitland-based gym and martial arts business, led by Melanie and her husband Craig, had only just picked themselves up off the mat when the second lockdown struck. And when it did hit, it hit hard.
Their regular members had not returned as much in the interim as they had hoped. Many had invested in equipment for their own homes to get through the first shut-in, and many more were hesitant to commit again when the future seemed so uncertain.
Bills, held off from the first bout, were coming due.
"The payments went up," Mrs McMahon said. "Then there was the extension of all the contracts, all of our equipment loans. The second lockdown was the one that nearly closed us for good."
Mrs McMahon, who describes her business outfit as a "Mum-and-Dad" establishment - literally, since she and Mr McMahon lead the business with family involved in the day-to-day running - is still wrapping her head around the impact of the COVID era.
It has been nearly five years since the height of the pandemic, but its impact is still being felt in real-time as those local businesses that survived the bout now face trying to get back to their fighting weight.
The McMahons faced bank loan repayments, a redraw on their mortgage, higher rents, and a mountain of repayments to save their business. It has been a long and hard road, but on Saturday, August 31, they will relaunch as a newer, smaller, re-invigorated mixed martial arts gym resurrected from the long shadow of lockdowns.
The lesson of the pandemic, Mrs McMahon said, was finding the family's business niche - shedding parts of the business that didn't come through the pandemic and honing in on a smaller, more focussed outfit.
Martial Arts had always been a part of the business - Mr McMahon is a long-time student and instructor - but adults were showing a greater interest in mixed martial arts disciplines.
Group fitness classes were out, and MMA was in.
"It was a massive risk to do it because we were taking a whole section of our business out, which used to be quite successful, but it just didn't come back properly after the COVID," Mrs McMahon said.
Mrs McMahon's son has since returned as one of the gym's coaches, and on Saturday, renowned Queensland Muay Thai fighter John Wayne Parr will run an opening seminar when the gym launches its revamped image as the Maitland MMA Studio on Mustang Drive at Rutherford.
"We've gone from almost closing the doors to having Joahn Wayen Parr and the Mayor coming down to open things up," Mrs McMahon said. "It's been a wild couple of years, for sure."
