A young man sits in a nearly empty arena, staring at the cage before him. There are only a handful of fighters in the large room and most are milling around the rows of soon to be filled folding chairs. The young fighter reflects on all the thought and preparation that brought him to this day and this place. What started as a simple spark of interest, slowly grew into a burning desire to know how he would match up against another man in physical combat.
All the doubts and fears and anxiety could fill a room this size. He has only himself and his thoughts at this moment.
A handful of our Jiu-Jitsu team mates have ventured down this path, but have we really thought about what it takes to do what these men do? I've been lucky enough to have been in that unique position as a teacher and coach to have cornered most of them. The range of emotions that these fighters go through is amazing. The heart and intestinal fortitude displayed by them all is inspirational.
Every time one of my students walks on the mat or enters the cage, a part of me goes with them. I sometimes feel like a concerned father wanting to support them and see them all succeed, but at the same time, not wanting to see their spirit crushed if they were to lose.
I know they are all men who have made the decision to fight on their own. For this reason, I do my best to provide all the encouragement and motivation needed to walk up those steps and enter the ring. I do my best to calm the nerves and get them focused on the fight ahead of them. When they're bloody and exhausted and having second thoughts about why they're there, I clean them off and pump them up so they can come out fighting for the next round.
On Saturday evening, David Kluthe demonstrated what it takes to be a cage fighter. He dug deep and never gave up his will to survive, and ultimately was victorious. I was proud to have been there to see him win and to have done my part to support him. As David was receiving his medal, he thanked me, and also thanked me several times afterward. The truth is that David did all the hard work and he is the one deserving of all the credit. Great job, David!
11/29/08
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8 comments:
congratulations, David. I wish i could have seen it. Conan, you are so poetic. you almost brought me to tears. I have to try and pull myself together. how about some details of the fight? Thanks.
I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to say on my long drive home.
Dave was calm going into the fight and showed some really good stand-up in the first round. The fight went to the ground for a very short period late in the first round, with Dave getting top position and landing a couple of good blows. His opponent suffered a fairly large cut over his left eye, causing some speculation as to whether he would be able to continue the fight.
The cut stopped bleeding, so the fight continued. Both fighters came out looking strong and exchanged some good kicks and punches. You could hear the deep thuds when a hard punch was landed.
Dave dropped his guard momentarily and his opponent landed a huge punch to Dave's head, sending him backwards to the floor. The other fighter tried to capitalize on this and quickly got top position and an easy mount.
Dave covered and did his best to escape, but was unable to better his position before the end of the second round.
Dave had definitely been rocked, but hadn't been knocked out. We did a quick assessment during the break and Dave assured me he was fine and ready to jump back into the fight.
Just as the third round was ready to begin, Dave's opponent threw in the towel. The other fighter had broke his foot on Dave's knee during the second round.
It was a well deserved win and both men fought their heart out.
wonderful news and congrats to Dave! excellent commentary Conan-you should write for an MMA website.
Thanks for the kudos guys.
where does DAve train his stand-up? I've only seen him train in your class.
Dave has a healthy background in TKD along with the reflexes of a puma, all of which makes him one bad man.
Congrats to David! I think we can all testify to David tenaciousness as a fighter and I must image that he would be extremely hard to finish in a fight. The fact that he persevered after getting knocked down shows a lot of heart.
Awesome article Conan! Thank you all you guys for the support, I greatly appreciate it!
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