The conclusion to North Dakota State Athletic Commissioner Chad Kurl’s “My One Fight.”

I flew into Davenport Iowa on Thursday, 26 hours before the weigh in. I was about 5 pounds overweight and stopped eating before I got on the flight. The first four pounds were easy to lose, the last one was a nightmare. I spent a hour on the bike in the hotel in plastics just struggling to get a sweat going. I weighed 185.6 in my room on a scale I had purchased at the local K-Mart right before leaving for the weigh ins.

Weigh-ins were held at a bar in Bettendorf. The first person I met there was my opponent Nick. Nick was a nice kid, emphasis on the kid. Actually he is 22 or 23, but he doesn’t look a day over 16. Physically, I looked bigger and felt I would be stronger than Nick. I weighed in at 184.4lbs, not sure what Nick came in at as I was immediately trying to rehydrate. If nothing else, this process gave me some insight as to what the fighters I regulate are going through before and during the weigh in process. I rehydrated with some of the fighters and ate a sandwich before I went back to the hotel.

For two weeks leading up to the fight, I would wake up every night thinking about the fight. I would envision it in my head. Throwing my jab, followed by a right. Double jab to a shoot. I played scenarios out in my head. I never lost and I never got hit in these scenarios. Once I got to Iowa my mindset changed a little. I was very nervous, almost unable to function. The thing that scared me the most was letting down the people who sacrificed their time and energy to get me there. My wife, who gave up 4 days a week so I could train. The guys at the gym who pushed me and didn’t let me quit. My friends and co-workers who all supported me coming down and fighting. I really started to feel pressure that if I lost I would let them down.

Friday night and Saturday I tried my best to relax. It didn’t really work.  At noon on Saturday I went to the venue to look at the cage: 20-22ft, six sided cage with a vinyl flooring. It was wet and slippery but I still moved around a little bit to get a feel for it. I had never trained in a cage, so it was going to be a new experience. Back at the hotel I grabbed a quick nap, watched a little television and talked to my wife and a few friends.  The show was scheduled to start at 8:00 pm, so at 6:00pm I made my way over to the venue.

The strangest thing happened on my way there. All of it started to make more sense. By the time the fighters meeting came around, I wasn’t nervous at all. Fighter meetings were something I have done dozens of times. The referee briefly reviewed the rules. Basically, UFC rules with no elbows and 4-5 ounce gloves. After the fighter meeting, I found a secluded corner, changed into my fight gear and started wrapping my hands. I had been practicing wrapping my own hands, because to be honest, in all of the small shows I have seen horrible hand-wrapping jobs. After I wrapped my hands, I helped a couple of other guys and wrapping theirs. I gloved up and got ready for the show to start.

The first fight of the night was over in 9 seconds. Three kicks and an overhand right and one guy was out. It was sobering to watch it transpire, especially since I knew I would be in the ring next.

My opponent was called out first, I still wasn’t nervous at all. I bounced a little from side to side and waited until he was in the ring. The first few bars of Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” came on and I started to walk toward the ring. I stopped just past the archway and looked at the ring, the smoke machine billowing out white clouds around me. I walked to the cage door, flip flops off, hoodie off, mouthguard in. A little last minute advice from my corner and then it was in the cage to the red corner for me.

I was actually surprised that I still wasn’t nervous. The referee came over and checked my gloves, asked if I had a mouthguard and a cup and then asked if I had any questions. I said I didn’t and we were ready to go.  “Red corner ready?” Nod. “Blue corner ready?” Nod. With an arm gesture, he said “fight!”

While I was warming up I had watched Nick work the pads. I was confident that my stand up was better than his. My plan was to throw the jab to find the range then follow up with the jab, cross. The funny thing about game plans is how quickly they can change. We closed in the center of the ring, and I apparently forgot how to box. I was told later that I was standing straight up, chin held high with my hands just a touch too low. Nick through a right that connected with my cheek and nose. My head rocked back and I immediately tasted copper. So much for the standing with him game plan.

I threw a weak double jab and shot for the take down. I didn’t get it, but we ended up clinching. I was stronger in the clinch, but wasn’t able to keep him pinned against the fence. Every opportunity I would throw right knees into his stomach and chest. One may have even gotten him in the face.

We clinched like that 2 or 3 times, on the last one as I stepped away, I must have put my foot down on its side because it completely turned over, I felt the pop as it went out of place. Later, my corner, and some front row fans, would tell me there was an audible crack. I went down like I had been shot, screaming like a little girl. When I hit the ground the foot went back into place. Fortunately for me, the referee, probably because he didn’t know what else to do, had stepped in between me and Nick. I got up and he asked me if I wanted to continue.  My brain was saying “No,” but for some strange reason my mouth translated that to “Yes.”

I knew there wasn’t much time in the round left, so all I thought was “get out of the round, get out of the round.” The first two steps toward the center of the ring were excruciating. I shot immediately, and from the point on I didn’t feel the ankle again until after the fight. I got the takedown and ended up in side control. I threw knees to the body and tried to throw some strikes. I was able to catch his right arm in a kimura, but couldn’t finish it. I let it go and got mount. Threw some strikes and the round ended.

I went to my corner. I didn’t feel winded, but my body was exhausted. A quick drink of water and some quick advice and the break was over. The round started with me relentlessly shooting. My first shot was stuffed and I was caught on my knees. I could tell Nick was tired because he wasn’t punching my head off. I could hear his corning calling for the guillotine. I controlled his right arm and went to pull guard. It was really more like a butt flop. Instead of engaging me on the ground, Nick backed up and let me stand. I shot again immediately, taking him down and ending up in side control. This time I transitioned right away to mount.

I started throwing leather and he gave up his back. I tried to sink in the choke, but for some reason couldn’t get my hooks in. I got the arm in deep, but wasn’t able to get my hand behind his head. I arched back anyway and heard him gurgle, but didn’t feel the tap. I heard my corner say, “If you don’t have it, don’t waste all of your energy!” This seemed like good advice. I let the choke go and started pounding the sides of his head.  He rolled over to his back again and I got a few more shots in then I saw his right arm was open for the key lock. I drove his wrist into the mat and fed my arm under his, locking my left hand on my right wrist. My elbow was on his face as I tried to paint the floor with his hand. I realized his hand was too close to his head to finish so I drove my elbow to the floor to create the 90 degree angle I needed to finish the lock. I pulled until his forearm was perpendicular to the floor, the referee decided this was enough and stopped the fight.

I got up and raised my arms in the air for a quick walk around the ring. The referee made it official and I hobbled out of the cage, aware again that my ankle hurt. I hobbled to the back, receiving congratulations along the way.  I have never been so tired in all my life. It took me a full 10 minutes to get my gloves and handwraps off so I could start calling and texting the people in my life. I went and checked on Nick. He was more tired than anything and then I went to find the best tasting beer I have ever had in my entire life. Many more beers followed.

The trip home was uneventful, save for the excruciating mess of swollen bruises that my ankle had become. A trip to the doctor the following day would reveal that I had broken one of the bones in the ankle. I followed up in a couple of weeks with the doctor to see what, if any additional damage has been done to the ligaments.

Planning to fight, training for the fight and actually getting in the cage was a fantastic experience. I have a great group of guys at Bismarck Combat Sports. They broke me so many times in the gym that I refused to be broken in the cage. I owe this victory to them. I have a fantastic family who understood that doing this was something I “had” to do and supported me the entire time. Sincerest thanks to all my friends who supported me in this, it meant the world to me. Thank you to the Chupacabra Challenge for letting a couple of internet geeks get together and kick the crap out of each other and thanks to all the friends I made after the event.

And finally thanks to From the Gut for printing my blogs, and to you for reading them. I am sorry I wasn’t able to deliver like I had hoped but I hope you got something out of them.

Regards,
Chad

NOTE: From The Gut would like to congratulate Chad on his win and thank him for sharing his journey with us.

Where to begin. First, apologies to anyone who was reading my blog for the first 10 weeks. I could try to come up with a myriad of excuses as to why I stopped, but at the end of the day, it was getting more and more difficult to write anything that even I thought was interesting. My weeks consisted of essentially the same thing: train 3-4 days at the gym, about 5 days at Crossfit and continue to struggle with my diet.

Highlights Leading Up to the Fight

We had a couple of guys at the gym that were getting ready for professional fights. When we have fights coming up, the whole gym rallies around that guy and really pushes to prepare him for the fight. I was able to get some sparring in with the pro fighters. How well I did was directly related to how late in the round I got to spar with them. I did a good job of keeping my weight down. The season of Lent helped. I am not Catholic, but my wife is and in an effort to be supportive I too gave up drinking for Lent.

At the end of March we had a MMA event at Dakota Magic Casino, a small tribal casino down in South Eastern North Dakota.  In conjunction with the event there was a grappling tournament the day of the show. I decided to use that as my opportunity to try to cut down to 185lbs. and get some grappling in with different people. The cut wasn’t too bad. In fact, I overshot it by a few pounds and weighed in at 183.

Due to some flooding in the area, the turnout for the event was not as good as anticipated. Most divisions did not have many competitors, with the exception of the 185lb no-gi beginners. So while every other division was double elimination, mine was single. My match was against a BJJ white belt from Fargo BJJ. I had trained with the guys at Fargo BJJ a couple of times.  We met on the mat and butted heads for 3 ½ minutes before I decided to try to push the action. I shot a double leg to the side I am not used to shooting on, it was an OK shot, but I didn’t turn the corner and finish. He quickly wrapped up my neck and fell to guard. That quickly, I was tapping out to a guillotine. The guillotine choke is my kryptonite. It seems that every time I shoot I end up getting caught.

After the grappling tournament, I took a week off from my diet and let my weight get up as high as 199lbs. I also started training consistently four days a week. The volume of training was starting to wear on my body. My neck was out of place and my shoulder started giving me problems. The whole joint didn’t want to stay in place. It made it difficult to punch and even harder to keep a good guard.

Practices were now concluding with me being in the middle to work rounds.  Three minutes is a lifetime when there is a fresh guy coming at you every 60 seconds. Working the rounds worked. It got me in better shape. The hard thing about not having much experience is that the guy with the experience can put you into his environment at will. When I sparred with another 185lb guy, he would use his Judo to put me down at will. We have a 140lb sophomore in high school who was able to use his wrestling to keep me from taking him down so he could pound on my face with his superior hand speed.

One week out from the fight I had a black eye, a nose that was covered in a huge bruise and the start of cauliflower ear on both ears. My shoulder didn’t seem to want to stay in place and my neck was constantly out of place, but I really felt ready for the fight.

Well, doesn’t time sure fly…Let me start off by wishing everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. That was my original excuse for putting off writing my weekly blog.

Training for weeks seven and eight was non-existent, with the exception of making it to crossfit. Healthwise I feel pretty good, save some standard aches and pains that come with being 37. Any Mixed Martial Arts training/practice has taken a back seat to getting the new gym open. I am happy to report that as of last Monday Bismarck Combat Sports is open to the public.

Bismarck Combat Sports is a 1,750 square foot shop with 1,200 square feet of mats and a heavy bag cage that will soon have 6 bags. I was able to cobble the gym together with a combination of cheap used wrestling mats and free used carpet and padding as well as a couple of church pews that were being thrown away. Two guys from the gym built the bag cage from steel we were able to purchase at an auction so we were able to keep the price down. All and all I am in about $4,000 including some new gear that was purchased.  Need about 20 paying members to break even. I expect about ½ of that.

Our grand opening is this Saturday and will feature a 4 hours seminar with UFC/Pride/Shooto veteran Chris “The Westside Strangler” Brennan. I have seen footage of his seminars before and it should be great. Expect an update next week.

MMA this week is going OK. It is hard to get my head into something that is so far away. Spent more time working on my feet than on the ground. I still haven’t shaken the whole “cower when someone is punching” sort of feeling, but it is getting better. My right leg kick is coming in with some authority; my left however looks like it could have been thrown by a small girl. The majority of the people I train with were either high school or college wrestlers. Right now my ground work basically consists of me getting squashed. When we add punches, it is me getting squashed and punched, which really isn’t that much fun.

My crossfit workouts are going to be suffering in the near term, as real life commitments (read: work) are going to keep me in the office more than I would like. Which reminds me, it has been interesting to open this gym because to make the money to subsidize the gym I have had to work more and more at my other job. It is like you have to sacrifice one aspect of the dream to make that dream happen.

An update from the seminar next week.

I am moving better this week. I spent one whole day just stretching at Crossfit and that seemed to help a bit. I didn’t realize that stretching was supposed to make you sore, but sure enough the next day I had a bunch of random pain. I am able to go a little harder at the gym, but am still worried about doing takedowns. I work stand up, hit the pads, etc., and then watch as they go through some takedowns. Back on the mats for some work on sweeps etc. Getting crushed down in my guard doesn’t feel great, but it is definitely tolerable.

My diet is worthless, filled with fast food, candy, and soda. I have given up on even weighing myself at this point. I am finding myself purposely avoiding sleep. All of which seems to be taking its toll. The end of this week is Halloween. I take every Halloween off and my son and I go “trick-or-treating” to my work, my wife’s school, and a few other stops during the day. Lucas is far and away the best thing I have ever done in my whole life. It is amazing to me how much love and happiness that little person can bring to your life.

I think mentally I am in a better place at the end of this week, looking forward to getting back to the gym, and working out a little harder. Trying to put together some winter training trips right now and we have the seminar coming up the first week in December.

This blog will eventually be about training…I am like 65% sure.

This week isn’t shaping up to be any better than the last. I can’t seem to get any better. This back injury has seriously limited my range of motion. MMA has definitely suffered. I am only shadow boxing and lightly hitting the pads at this point. At Crossfit I can’t do the workout of the day, I can’t run, I can’t even get on the floor to play with my son. You know it isn’t good when you try to get up and your 4 year old says, “Daddy, why do you say ugggghhhhhh.”

I feel weak, physically and mentally. I am not sleeping much, taking way too many pain killers and washing it down with too much alcohol. I tend to get a little crazy around this time of the year anyway.

Two years ago my wife and I were planning the birth of our second child, a daughter–Sophia Mary. One day, about 28 weeks into the pregnancy, everything changed. For some reason, unknown to us or the doctors, she just stopped moving. A few days later we buried her. To this day I still can’t write about it without tearing up. We are about 3 weeks away from the anniversary of her passing. It was almost a year later that the first UGGP idea came up. At that time I really felt like I needed to fight. I needed pain that I could understand instead of the constant ache I was feeling. For whatever reason the fight that year didn’t work out, but the idea of this fight has always been in the back of my mind. So here I am, injured, looking ahead at what ends up being the most difficult month of the year for me, knowing that I want to fight, but seemingly unable to make myself do the things I need to do to get there.

Week Two

One thing you have to understand about this blog is that there is about a 10 day lag from the time the week wraps up to the time the post is published. It is really strange for me.

Week two starts with my weight up a pound from where I ended last week. Probably not bad considering the case of beer I drank and all of the crappy food that was consumed. I am starting the week at 214-29lbs away from my fight weight of 185lbs. This week is going to present a few challenges. First, my toe is still a mess, which sucks, and makes me feel like a huge p****. Two, we have fights this weekend at a local casino, which I have to work. Usually the week leading up to a fight requires about 15-20 hours of my time not including working the actual event.

I am definitely feeling my age as of late. Getting out of bed is a chore in and of itself. My knees don’t seem to want to work. The right one “creaks” every time I take a step down the stairs.

I am getting back into a routine with Crossfit, which is good. I have been asked, “why Crossfit,” which is a really good question. It certainly isn’t the cheapest gym in town and they publish their workouts of the day on the Internet, so conceivably I could just do the workouts at a less expensive gym…therein lies the rub. If I don’t make it to Crossfit, I don’t complete the workouts. I was paying $40 a month to not go to the YMCA. I figure it is a pretty good deal to pay more than that and actually attend. What I like about Crossfit is it “makes” me do cardio, which I absolutely hate.

MMA practice on Monday was pretty light. There were 13 people there, about 6 of them were brand new. Which is a great sign, since I looked at a new space today-1,750 square feet of shop space in the industrial park. I think I am going to sign a lease on it later this week. We worked fundamentals: jab, cross, hook, elbows, knees, etc. for about 45 minutes then worked on the ground. I taped my toes together and wore wrestling shoes, which made it much more tolerable to workout. We didn’t do any live, or even ½ speed sparring, just basics drills. Wednesday, family commitments kept me from the gym.

Friday, before I left town for the fights, I signed a lease for our own space in  the industrial park. 1,750 square feet. We are looking for mats and should be set to move in the last half of November.
The downside to reservation casino shows is you are in the middle of nowhere, so there really isn’t much to do other than drink and gamble. The 13 fight card was pared down to 11 fights with a couple of fighters just opting not to show up. For the most part the fights were good, but they were violent.  This were the most injuries I can recall for any of our shows. It is amazing to watch the skill level of some of the competitors. Jeff Monson fought Jimmy Ambriz at heavyweight. Monson dominated. I don’t think a single punch was thrown. It was just Monson taking a quick shot then working his way to a north/south choke. The fights were both entertaining and motivating to watch.
Outside of that…I drank way to much beer.

I am seriously thinking that I am going to use Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt” as my entrance theme… It seems appropriate.

This week was my first official week of  training for the fight, and quite honestly, I am not off to the best of starts.  One of the guys at the gym has a fight coming up and he was working five minute rounds, with a new opponent every round.  Midway through my round with him I threw a midline kick with my right leg, which he caught and worked for the takedown. I kept hopping way with my left leg and tried to sprawl. In the process I landed toe down on the mat and folded it in half. I knew right away that it wasn’t good. I rather suspect it is broken. It is currently an interesting shade of gray/purple, but it is straight so no point in going in.

Later we were free grappling and not surprisingly I couldn’t use my left foot to do much. Casey (1-0 pro) caught me in a quick armbar, which I defended for all of about 4 seconds before I started to tap. Unfortunately Casey didn’t feel it, and didn’t let go of the armbar until my elbow popped. So in recap: One practice into my quest to fight, I have a broken toe, a popped elbow and I am actually in much worse physical shape than I let on. This is a recipe for success.

My “injuries” kept me out of the MMA gym for the remainder of the week.  I did make Crossfit about 4 times.  Crossfit workouts are ridiculous.   Thursday’s workout was named “Nate”, but it could have just as easily been named “shit I can’t do”.  Muscle ups, handstand pushups?  Who are they trying to kid.  Fat kids like me cannot do these exercises.

I have the best of intentions with my diet.  Four days a week I do pretty well…then the weekend rolls around.  We have been eating out a ton and I have been having more than my fair share of beer.  I still ended the week down about 3 pounds at 214lbs.  But I recognize that I am going to have to get serious about the diet part to make 185.

I finalized the arrangements for a seminar with UFC/Pride veteran Chris Brennan for December.   He will come up and do a 4 hour seminar, which should be awesome for our group, particularly me.

The idea of doing this blog seemed like such a good one when I came up with it, and when the guys at “From the Gut” agreed to publish it, I thought this is cool, but now the idea of doing this blog makes me at least as nervous as the fight preparation.

I have high hopes for next week’s training, until then…

In September of 2007, an amateur event was held in Cincinnati Ohio. Four of the fights that night involved fighters who were also members of the MMA Underground forums. These fights were scheduled as a result of a post from forum member Supercan who stated he wanted to fight just once in his life. The challenge was answered by Dreamer420. Additional members of the forum then arranged for their own fights which wound up being held in conjunction with the ICE event in September of 2007.

Fast forward one year. A discussion comes up on MMA Underground about whether or not to have another event dubbed the Underground Grand Prix v.2 (UGGP v2). Various members began “signing up.” This is where the beer comes in. Six or seven beers into the night, I decided it was a good idea to do the same.

The UGGP v2 is scheduled for April, 2009 in Davenport, IA in conjunction with an amateur event called the Chupacabra Challenge. The amateur part is actually pretty important for me. In my “free time,” I am the head of my state’s MMA commission. As such, I am unable compete professionally, as this would require me to give up my position in the commission. However, amateur fights are a bit of a gray area.

It was the responsibility of each participant to find their own opponent. After exchanging posts and email Nickman9000 agreed to meet me in the cage at 185lbs. I don’t really know anything about him other than he is about 13 years younger than I am.

This blog will chronicle my journey as I prepare for, and ultimately competing in, one MMA contest. It is the story of a 37 year old man with no formal training, but has the desire to climb into the cage once in his life.

I am married. My wife is generally supportive of my involvement with MMA. I am fairly confident she will support this as well…just as soon as I tell her. I also am the father of a 3 year old boy (soon to be 4). 2 years ago last November my daughter was stillborn at 7 months. I still think about her almost daily.

I was somewhat dishonest when I made my initial post looking for the fight. I said I was 200lbs. In reality, I started at 217 and haven’t been close to being in shape for about 10 years. Here in Bismarck there is no formal MMA or Jiu Jitsu training. So about a year ago, a friend and I started our own MMA club to give people in town the opportunity to train. We meet 3 times a week. Historically, I have made it about once a week. Bismarck Mandan Mixed Marital Arts Club has about 15 members, 4 of whom have had professional fights.

The club is doing pretty well right now. Well enough, in fact, that we are looking for our own space (we currently sublet from a Judo school in town). Opening this gym will be my little vanity project. I doubt it will ever make money, but the hope is I don’t lose too much doing it.

To help get back into shape, I joined the local Crossfit Affiliate. I am hoping this goes a long way into getting me into some kind of shape and ready to fight.

My training currently looks like this:

• Run a couple of miles every morning
• Crossfit 5 times a week
• Work on doing something about my diet
• MMA practice 3 times a week
• When time and finances allow, travel a bit to check out some different camps to learn some new things

Any comments and/or advice is appreciated.

Chad