They Like The Way It Hurts

“In America we say you play football, you play baseball, you play basketball. You don’t play boxing. Boxing is serious stuff.” – Larry Merchant

I believe the same can be said about MMA/Muay Thai fights. You never hear a fighter say they are getting ready to play against someone; they are getting ready to fight someone. Before they step in the ring or the cage they accept the fact that they will be kicked and punched, and pushed to their physical limits with only a referee in $12 slacks to stand in between them and the other person across from them. In my opinion, all fighters are a little crazy, but in a good way. Not the pee in a bottle and save it kind of way, but the “you don’t want to make them mad” kind of way. These people accept the fact that every day they train and every time they fight, they might get a little hurt. I decided to find out from my fighter friends, “what was the worst injury that you have had while training or fighting?”

Master Mike Jackson (he makes me call him that) told me his worse injury was an eye poke. Does not sound like much, but an eye poke coming at you with adrenaline and a little bit of hate behind it can easily cause blindness. My coaches from, Windy Sport’s Jermaine Anugwom and Arturo Delgado Jr., both agreed the worse injury they have had in a fight is a groin shot. I know from personal experience that it sucks, really bad. It is hard to imagine just one part of your body getting hit, and then feeling the pain from head to toe. I once took a line-drive to the plums back in 08′, every time I see a baseball now I immediately cover my crotch. (Just in case.)  My friend and training partner Dat Nguyen has gotten lucky, saying the only injury he has had from a fight was a twisted ankle. So, tomorrow when he is not looking, I am going to kick him in the balls. Others have not been as lucky, my training partner Randy McCullough lost a tooth in a fight and to top it off the tooth fairy did not give him anything for it! UFC fighter Daniel Pineda told me he once fractured a rib right before a title fight. He went ahead and fought and ended up submitting the guy in the third round. (This is that little bit of crazy I am talking about.)  Muay Thai fighter/member of the MikeTheTruth.com gang, Bebe Laced, told me she once tore a ligament in her elbow while training. When I asked her if she needed surgery she said, “nah”. This made me feel like a wimp, considering I was out of school and work for a week with an inner-ear infection last month. Then I talked to my old friend Kristy Kester, who has had many injuries such as, a toren groin, separated shoulder, and a broken finger that required surgery. Kristy is a little crazy right? Not like slash your tires and burn your clothes in the bathtub crazy, but she could kick your ass. I can personally say I’ve been submitted by her and she has powerful kicks.  In all seriousness, these are some warriors who absolutely love what they do. Why else go through all the pain? They love fighting people; they got a fighting problem (2 Chainz voice).

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkilloTX

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.