Gallery: Doctor by day, fighter by night

The Surgeon has killer hands and Natalie Ausmeier is about to find out all about them in a wire cage in Germiston.

About a minute into round two, The Surgeon's straight jab connects with Ausmeier's face.

Her eyes glaze, her head drops and her legs buckle: The Surgeon has her opening for a finish.

Unlike Ausmeier, most people see the healing side of The Surgeon's hands.

About a month ago, they saved an elderly man's life when he stopped breathing at the Little Company of Mary Hospital, in Pretoria. In the trauma ward, The Surgeon is known as Dr Santa Marie Venter.

Venter has been interested in martial arts since she was four.

For the past couple of months she has crammed in martial arts training sessions whenever her busy medical schedule has allowed.

At the Crazy Monkey dojo, in Randburg, she spent hours sparring with two male fighters - Dwain Kotze and former Shaolin monk Shuai Meng Liu - to prepare for Fightstar XI, the mixed martial arts fight night, at which she would meet Ausmeier.

She had fought in three bouts previously, losing the last two but winning the first by a knockout.

Her defeats highlighted her inability to grapple on the ground but she has now improved her wrestling abilities to match her capability as a striker.

It is only over the past few years that South African women have got involved in the sport.

On Saturday night in a fighting cage in the StJohn's Hellenic Hall, in Primrose, on the East Rand, Ausmeier took Venter by surprise by coming out for the first round swinging.

In the crowd, Venter's mother, Anne Marie, watched anxiously. Said Anne Marie: "Since she was four, when she started karate, she has been making me nervous."

In round two The Surgeon's straight jab buckled Ausmeier and, using all the wrestling skills she had learned over the months, The Surgeon took the fight to the canvas. Her arms locked around Ausmeier's neck in a guillotine choke and that was enough for the judges to award her the fight.

The Surgeon removed her gloves and the wrapping around her fists. In three days, she would be Dr Venter again, a life-saver in the trauma ward.