When I was in college I was into a lot of sports and figured I would dabble in martial arts for a couple years as an add on to the many other athletic things I was doing at that time in my life. I joined a Wing Chun Kung Fu school and took some kickboxing lessons. I guess I had a knack for it because I started to rise up in the ranks pretty quickly and the next thing I know I was considered a natural at both of them. After about a year it was suggested by one of my teachers that I enter some MMA competitions.

Keeping in mind that this was in the 90's and MMA was kind of in its infancy and you need to understand that there were no clear rules or even very much participation. There certainly wasn't very much money in it even at the highest levels, let alone the ones that I participated in. It was very amateurish and wasn't very well organized. To this day I have no idea if it was even legal.

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The fact they didn't allow any photography suggests to me that it was of questionable legality but then again, almost all MMA was of questionable legality back then so it wouldn't surprise me if what we were doing wasn't legal. There weren't many people in attendance and it was only a few dollars to get in. I guess they made money on selling beer because they sure as hell weren't making it back at the door.

It worked like this: You get $50 no matter what. You get $100 more if you win. Of course you get notoriety and a chance to move up to other divisions as well. Hell, all UFC fighters had to come from somewhere.

In my first fight the weight classes were very wide. I weighed about 175 lbs and my opponent was a lot larger than me. I would imagine he was around 200+ lbs. We didn't get on a scale, they just took your word for it.

After about 14 months of training, I felt rather invincible but to be honest with you my victory in my first-ever fight was a fluke. I raised my knee up at the exact moment that my opponent was doing a peek-a-boo offense like Mike Tyson does. My knee was moving forward but I was actually defending against what I thought was a kick. My knee just happened to go through dude's face and he was KO'd in the first round.

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_{this obviously isn't me, but the situation was similar}

I was on cloud 9 after that victory and I kind of fibbed a little bit and pretended as though "I meant to do that" even though I knew damn well that I didn't. I was a better fighter than the other guy anyway so I think I would have eventually won, but not in such glorious KO fashion.

We had on light gloves and cups, but that was all the protective gear that we had. It was in a way very similar to today's MMA protection but most people were pretty unclear about the rules and at least in my division, there wasn't a lot of wrestling and Jiu Jitsu going on either. Most of the fights were striking matches and honestly, I wish I could go back and time and change my style since these days I feel like grappling and getting an opponent on their back is a lot more effective than stand up striking.

Regardless of the lack of well roundedness as a fighter by today's standards, my victory got me a lot of hype in the fighting circuit since the guy I destroyed had a winning amateur record. I was immediately asked to do another fight "whenever I was ready." I was ready the next month.

Unfortunately for me the 2nd fight I wasn't prepared for. I think I didn't have the fear in me and seeing as how my second opponent was actually a little bit smaller than me, I don't think I took him as seriously as I should have. He was a LOT faster than I was and his cardio was incredible - much better than my own. It was a real struggle for me to make it to the end of the 2nd round (there were 2, 7-minute rounds) and at the end of it I lost on points in a system that I do not understand but agreed with the judges that I had been bested.

I got my $50 but they were still impressed with me and asked me back for a 3rd fight. I trained a lot harder for this one because I was now 1-1 and well, that didn't feel nice after such a wonderful first fight and an impressive win.

A couple of months later I got a real shock even though I trained like a mofo. The person I was up against in the 3rd fight caught me with an overhand right to the temple early on and I honestly don't remember much of the fight after that. I've been knocked out a couple of times in my life and I have a pretty good chin. I don't remember almost any of the 2nd round that I did not make it to the end of. To this day it seems a bit crazy to me that I remained upright in the 2nd round as long as I did especially when you consider the fact that I don't remember the end of the first round.

In a more professional environment the doctor would have stopped the fight because while I was upright and breathing, my brain had already switched off almost all features and was in survival mode.

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I suppose you could say that I am pretty proud of myself for not giving up but after 4 minutes or so my corner had seen enough and threw in the towel. I do not remember any of the next hour or so after that and am only telling this story now because it was told to me by my team.

After being non responsive in the locker room for 20 minutes or so after the fight I was taken to the hospital and that is where my next memories begin. I was badly concussed but luckily didn't have any real brain damage. Both of my eyes were almost completely shut and my body was badly bruised on my legs, head, and torso. The hospital did a bunch of tests on me and in the end the bill was around $1500. $1450 of that had to come out of my own pocket because the organization that has the fights didn't have insurance and we all signed waivers releasing them of any liability. The doctor would later tell me that I should never fight again because I could die if I do.

That was my last trip to the ring.

I am glad that I did it and I am proud to have been part of that community for a while. I still do martial arts today but have no notion of ever competing in it again. The fact that I am near 40 years old and routinely wake up with mystery sleeping injuries doesn't help matters any. I will say this though, fighting is a really tough sport to excel in because anyone that wants to be potentially involved has to work their way up through the circuits unless they already have fame like CM Punk or Brock Lesnar. It's a long and expensive road to make that happen and 95% of people end up leaving like I did, battered and having lost money in the process.

I wouldn't recommend it to most people but I was 19 or 20 years old and well, I think most people believe they are unbreakable at that point in their lives. I'm very different now and approach wet stairs with trepidation.

If you've ever been involved in MMA I would love to hear your stories as well. Mine was a short one but one that I will remember forever... well, all except for that last round anyway.