It’s a brutal dichotomy: unconditional love and relentless brutality. Yet for Mathilda “Mayhem” Wilson, this is the organizing principle of a life she splits between doting on her young son, Zion, and pursuing her bare-knuckle boxing career.

Mathilda is the first professional women’s bare knuckle boxer in Scandinavia. That said, in her native Sweden, bare-knuckle fighting is actually illegal: If she were to scrap domestically she could face half a year in prison. So instead, she travels the length and breadth of Europe, seeking out competition.

In a new documentary directed by Jake Hanrahan and Jonny Pickup—the filmmaking team behind Popular Front and Away Days—we follow Mathilda as she breaks new ground for female fighting and ruminates on how life led her to this point.

Watch it now in the player below or over at VICE’s YouTube channel.