I've never had an interest in MMA. It's never been something that I've been into. I don't watch it. I don't follow it. I respect it. I respect some of the positive that it has done for amateur wrestling. I also recognize some of the negative that it has had on wrestling, but still acknowledge & praise with gratitude the positives that it has had on the sport. Many former collegiate & high school wrestlers that I know or have followed compete in it. I'm not a huge fan of the trash talk but I admire the amount of hard work, skill & dedication that it takes to compete. These guys are some of the toughest individuals on the planet. There's no denying that.
I haven't had a lot but I've had a handful of people that have tried to get me into MMA over the years. I've gone to a handful of dojos & worked out but never because I wanted to be a competitor. It was always as a means of doing something to get more cardio in. An itch to get back on the mat because I miss wrestling. I like exchanging takedowns & I'm eager to learn the art of jujitsu but I have no desire to get punched full force in the eye or take a knee to the face. It just doesn't appeal to me.
When I was in my early twenties I was attending Indian Hills Community College while working at South Hy-Vee in Ottumwa. I worked in the meat department & there was a guy named Al that worked in the Bakery. Al looked like a real life G.I. Joe character. Short military hair cut & a well maintained mustache. He took one look at me and got excited. I didn't even know the guy when he came up to me & asked me if I'd come workout with him after work. I'm always up for pumping iron, so I said, "Why not?"
Only we didn't go to a weight room. We went to an old building downtown with wrestling mats laid out on the upper floor. Al ran a MMA group & he wanted me to be a part of it. I told him that I wasn't keen on it as I had no desire to be stricken or to strike. His answer back to me was that we'd ease into the punching & kicking. He wanted to see how good I was on my feet.
Albert was incredibly strong but obviously didn't have an amateur wrestling background as I often used his own momentum & mistakes to take him down. On about the fourth go, he got me into a chokehold & I felt like he was going to dislocate my head from my body. I couldn't breathe & it hurt. I tapped his ribs for him to let go. He held on for a good 3-4 more seconds.
I tapped my hand on the mat. "Isn't this the signal for 'give up' 'I quit' 'You win' ?"
"Yeah, yeah." He said back to me. "Gotta let you know I could've finished you before I let up."
Albert put me in that move twice more as I began to think about what to do to avoid the choking neck wrench. I noticed that he needed me to be parallel with himself. If I could get perpendicular with him, it would ease the pressure & great space for me to breathe. When he went for the move again, I circled in the opposite direction of what I had the three time prior. This time I took my Jay Leno chin & dug it hard into his ribs. He didn't like that.
"That's illegal. You can't do that."
I heard the phrase, "That's illegal" about ten more times that night.
Now I liked Albert but he loved to tork on you & hold onto painful maneuvers for about 3-5 seconds past the tap out. I have no shame in saying he got the better of me that night, because he did. I made him tap once in a banana splitz & he made me tap about 25 times. Yet our session ended when I did another "illegal move."
I got in on a really good shot where I had Albert up in the air in a double leg takedown. He somehow or another wrapped me up to where he was choking on me as I had him in the air. I came down easy as I tapped out. He again held on to the move past the point when I tapped out.
"Al" I said to him. "You really gotta start letting go after I tap out. I didn't come here tonight to get injured."
"Ah." He said back to me. "It'll toughen you up."
Our next & final go for the night I got in on another great double leg takedown. As he went to put me in the hold he had me before, I drove him as hard as I could into the mat. Sort of like an Arn Anderson Spinebuster.
I knocked the wind out of him & as his breath slowly came back all I heard was, "That's illegal...that's illegal."
Instead of being mad though it actually made him happy. He said that he had been trying to get me pissed off all night & it took him an hour to do it, but it was obvious that I did have a killer instinct in me even if I didn't think so.
"I think I can make you into a real fighter."
I told him about 10 more times in that conversation as we walked out into the parking lot that I enjoyed the workouts but I had no desire to actually fight.
I went to about twelve more practices over the next couple of weeks & lifted weights with Albert as well. He was a high strung individual with a ton of energy but I enjoyed him. He was a character.
Then on a Saturday he walks over from the bakery into the meat department.
"I got you a fight tomorrow." He says to me.
"I don't want to fight." I say back to him. "I told you that."
"It's about a little over an hour from here. You can meet us in the parking lot here & ride with us."
"I'm not going." I responded. "I already told you that."
"Well I already got you signed up for the fight." He laughed. "You have to go."
"I'm not even going to be in Ottumwa tomorrow." I said back to him. "I live in Sigourney. It's thirty miles away. I only come here for work and school."
"You'll make enough money to cover you gas. I'll buy you your dinner."
"Al!" I was shouting at this time. "I'm not going!"
"Why?"
"I'm not even in shape for it."
Which in my opinion I wasn't. I was in pretty decent shape at the time. I was lifting weights 4-5 times per week. I was running about 10 miles a week. I was training with him & others about 3 times per week. BUT I also knew I wasn't in the type of shape that I had been in high school wrestling. In my opinion I couldn't see myself going the distance unless I was.
"oh nonsense." He said back to me. "You're the hardest working guy I got."
I knew I couldn't stand there & argue with Al all day long so I just threw my hands up & said, "I got work to do."
"Great." He said back to me. "See you tomorrow at 10."
My boss Brad Suter looked at me & said, "Are you gonna go then?"
"No." I said back to him. "I told Al from the very beginning I wasn't interested in fighting."
And I didn't go. Sunday came around & if memory serves me correctly I think I spent that day riding a four wheeler around a pond in between Webster & South English.
When I got to work on Monday the first thing the South HyVee meat counter let me know was that Al was looking for me & he was pissed.
As I put on my uniform & walked up to the meat counter ready to help the next customer Al walked up to me & pointed a finger in my face.
"We waited a half hour in the parking lot for you!!" He shouted loud enough to wear it drew a small audience. I stood their with a stupid look on my face as he reprimanded me.
"You embarrassed me & you embarrassed the team!"
I was glad that there was a glass case full of meat between the two of us. I think had there not have been, he might have attacked me.
"A forfeit!" He stamped his foot in place of a swear word. "A forfeit!!!"
He then took off his black HyVee hat with the red lettering and slapped it against his side.
"You know what??" he put his hat back on his head. "You can just stop coming to practices. If you ain't gonna be there for competitions then you don't need to come to practices either. Screw it. Lift weights by yourself."
And that was the last words Al ever spoke to me.
My official record in MMA as a result of a forfeit in a town I think was somewhere west of Albia was 0-1.
And that's my experience in MMA.
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