Taking The Plunge

For those of you that know me from this website, you know me as the dopest MMA journalist around. I write stupid stuff that sometimes gets laughs; I follow the sport of MMA very closely and before I was writing articles I was training in the gym.

For the past two years I have been training at Windy Sport and Fitness in Bryan/College Station under Jermaine Anugwom and Bobby Powers. When I first joined the gym it was just to get in shape. I was 5’6″ and weighed about 220 pounds; I was in the worst shape of my life.

Like I said, I love the sport of MMA. So why not learn something while I’m getting fit? I never intended on going past sparring in the ring, I always just wanted to cover the sport not actually be involved in it; but what better way to get familiar with the sport than get involved? Bobby asked me one day at the gym if I was interested in fighting. I told him no. Honestly, that wasn’t what I was there for, I loved it but I just wanted to lose weight.

After about six months, I started going back and forth with the idea of fighting, but I always had an excuse. Truth is, I didn’t feel I was ready. So I found other ways to get involved, I became a writer after months of begging Mike Jackson and a restraining order. (Which has been lifted.)

Then I was offered a chance to fight in my home town, minutes away from where I grew up, in front of all my family and friends. So I said, “Fuck it. Lets do it.” I’m now experiencing myself with what I ask these fighters about, and I am excited to call myself a fighter. The training has been tough along with the dieting, and the closer the fight gets the more my mind starts to play with me. Am I ready? Can I do this? Can I take the pressure?

I turn 30 in September, and I am not getting any younger. I don’t know if I’ll fight again after this fight, so I will give it my all. The thing I will cherish the most is just being able to say I did it. I got in a cage with another man and we fought like animals for the entertainment of others. For that one moment I will be a gladiator, and it’s a badass story for my nephews.

On August 31, 2013 at The Brazos Center in my hometown of Bryan, TX, I will finally take the plunge. Like Jens Pulver once said, “It’s like a duck in the water, take the fucking plunge…..you go out there and do what you got to do…..and the outcome is already predetermined.”

After this fight I will have a great understanding of the sport I love from the inside out. Yeah I will be nervous, but it’s time to “take the fucking plunge”.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkilloTX

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