"permanent"

I got some pretty odd questions from a new kickboxing student the other day. She saw from our bulletin board that I have a fight coming up on the 8th and decided to throw some crazy questions out there. My favorite was " do you do drugs before you fight?"

Huh?

No, seriously, what???

Drugs like steroids? (yeah, I'm obviously juicing. You can tell from my enormous muscles.) Drugs like heroin? I really just had no idea what she was asking me. So I tried to cover all bases. "I'm natural. I haven't even had any caffeine in about 4 years," I said. "Oh, really? Do fighters usually use caffeine before fights?" Sigh. This woman was just trying not to understand. She went on.

"Have you ever fought with an injury before?" "Of course," I said. I figure most have. She expressed her disturbance in a dramatic fashion. "Aren't you worried it will be permanent?" I was baffled. I didn't know what she meant at all. "Aren't you worried the damage will be permanent?" "No, " I said. I'm still baffled by this, what I can only think of as a weak mentality built for making excuses. Permanent? How can any injury be permanent? I'm mortal. That means I die. That means nothing having to do with my body is permanent. Do I have injuries? Sure. Illnesses, pain, all these things. Of course. Some of these things will probably be with me all my life. That's part of living. I can't imagine a life where you try futilely to preserve your body as though it were your first dollar. I can't imagine the fear you cultivate when you believe that injury is a terrible, terrible thing to be avoided at all costs because it will ruin your body permanently. I think if I had to make the choice I'd rather die now than live that way. How can you possibly have any enjoyment?

I'd also like to point out this woman is overweight and enjoys what I can only describe as grossly unhealthy foodstuffs. Of course, it would be socially frowned upon if I returned her judgmental attitude by asking if she was worried her diet would cause" permanent" damage.

So, we all make our choices. We all use our bodies for something that causes them to degrade. As for me, I'd rather go out doing something I have great regard for and great enjoyment of than to go out with a whimper, sitting on my sofa watching Desperate Housewives and eating Cheetos.

I still love the clinch

I'm fighting at Wild Bill's on November 8th. Everything's confirmed. I owe big ups to Jeff Boudreaux who helped me get in touch with David Oblas, the promoter for Wild Bill's. Jeff has been an enormous help in getting everything in order. Otherwise, I would have had yet another cancellation and probably wouldn't have found out until pretty close to the fact.

I'll be fighting International Rules. This is not my decision. I love the clinch. I love knees. What can I say?- it's hard to find opponents. Don't get me wrong, I still plan on making it a great fight, and you guys will enjoy watching it. Just don't take it personally when you yell out "knee! knee!" and I ignore you. Just yell out something else instead.

Kaitlin Young

I like watching these 3 Kaitlin Young fights. She ko'd all 3 of her opponents in this tournament.

I have to be honest, I wasn't really inclined to watch at first. I felt like it was probably going to be a bunch of grabbing and bad clinching and apefisted punching. But Kaitlin Young is a real Muay Thai technician. You'll notice that none of these 3 matches goes to the ground.

She throws some really nice knees in the first bout.

Awesome head kicks, and she beats a girl who has substantially more experience.

I like how Kaitlin doesn't try to look all tough and dude-like, and she's not all covered with tattoos. Neither does she slather herself with makeup and try to look cute. She just looks like a regular girl. The girl next door, perhaps. The girl next door who kicks you in the head.