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We see a number of new guys appearing at Sandbox MMA all the time…

Lots of hopes, dreams, and hours spent watching UFC and other MMA events provides the impetus for fellas to come our way…And some come, some go, but all of them leave with the appreciation of how hard it is to train in this sport and put in the requisite time to become successful…

Well, one of our younger guys is a Heritage Hills High School football player named Ethan Coghill…I’ve got nothing but good things to say about this fella…

 He shows up regularly for MMA class, he puts in the mat time, keeps his mouth shut (for the most part…haha) and asks a million questions about what he should be doing differently or a particular move that he saw on an event…I’m sure that if the didn’t have school to deal with, he’d be in the gym at noon doing our strength & conditioning classes too…

But more importantly than that, he realizes that this sport will take years of work…So many people that probably have the potential to become very good athletes in MMA simply aren’t willing to believe that they will be logging years of time training to get there…

He realizes that this sport is going to take years of development and I’m betting he’s going to be around, sweating and bleeding with the rest of us rock-headed gym rats…

And I really think that the future of MMA will be guys like Ethan, that start training early with the realization that they are going to have to be in it for the long haul if they really want to succeed…

Now he can quit bugging me to update my blog…hahaha….

And here he is, getting business done…

Saw a trailer the other day for “Don’t Shoot the Pharmacist”, a movie directed by Dave Broitman, who is also a pharmacist and a fan of MMA…Starring Ben Bailey (Cash Cab), Godfrey (Phat Girlz, Soul Plane, 7-up Spokesman), Steve Byrne (Comedy Central) and Ardie Fuqua (VH1, MTV)…

I’ve always said that since there are movies and tv shows about EVERY other area of medicine, why not one about pharmacy??…

It looks hilarious, check it out for yourself below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urzoKcP2Aik

I had a chance to do the announcing for Iron Warrior Fight League (http://www.ironwarriorfights.com/) on 1-17-09 in Muncie, Indiana…I really appreciate that Matt, Missy, & Kassie from IWFL gave me the opportunity to get on the mic and holler a bit…We’ve been up there a few times for their events and they’ve always been incredibly good to us…

 They also put me up at Lee’s Inn & Suites in Muncie (www.leesinn.com) which was a very comfortable spot that we’ve stayed in before when we’ve went to fights there…Bad Boy Bail Bonds of Muncie (765-282-BOND) sponsored the ring girls and some of the fighters as well…Heart Fight Gear is also one of their sponsors and I picked up a few shirts from them that I really like…I can’t find a website for them, but they opened a store in the mall in Muncie, so if you happen to be by there, check them out…

I’m hopeful that I get another go at announcing for them since I enjoyed it being the ham that I am…And hopefully when I can, possibly fight on one of their cards as well…

 I borrowed a few of the pics from their website and I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t mind…hahaha…Coach Dan took care of the ref duties and as always, did a very professional job of it…Lots of quick finishes that night and plenty of exciting fights for the fans…

The next day, I was a bit gut-shot, but Dan headed back over to Indy to train at Integrated Fighting with Jake O’Brien for his fight last weekend at UFC 94, which he won…Congrats to Jake on that!…

Bad Boy Bail Bonds of Muncie sponsored the ring girls…

I’ve always liked pics of the announcement of the outcome of the fight…Something about seeing the differing emotions of the fighters at that moment when their hand gets raised or when they are not victorious…

Picking the winner of the 50/50 drawing…

The cage blocked this pic of Dan & I unfortunately…

Then at training the night before, we all listen like good little fellas…

So, now that I’ve cut my work hours down, I can get back to training MUCH more often…I really have to hand it to the athletes that can work a full-time job and also train at the pro level…I had a helluva time getting in the gym often, but in my own defense, I had a lot of 12 hour days with an hour drive each way…

And I don’t care who you are, after 14 hours invested in the day, you’re gonna want a sandwich…

Or a pillow and a hot toddy…

Regardless of all that gibberish, 2009 should prove to be an interesting year in MMA for a lot of reasons and I’m going to do everything I can to be a part of the sport…Thankfully, my job has been gracious enough to let me cut those hours down so I can do just that (Thanks to Mr. Rick King on that since I know he reads this)…

Here are some small bits of that ‘everything’ in action…Starting out with some intense circuit rounds that are ALWAYS a joyous event and leave us singing and dancing with glee…Or not so much…

Richard Harris and I work some drills w/Coach Dan looking on….

And on to the mat work…

Then, we come back in the afternoons for some more fun…

 Coach and Carl Jones (in the green shirt above) are able to use the GIANT 100+ lb kettlebell, but I defer to the daintier dumbbell…

Although I will use it for kettlebell swings…

Pull-ups on the TortureRackOfDeath finish the day’s beatings…

There were WAY too many brain cells in there anyway, so Coach squeeeeezed a few out for me…Thanks…

Just so that no one feels left out, Rick Harris gets a little happiness from Coach as well…

And that’s all the more I’ll entertain you good folks with for now, but I’m sure I’ll be getting some more pics of our daily ritualistic beating(s) to post on here again soon…I keep telling myself I need to put more content on this site more often and I certainly aim to do that…Even though I’ve said it over and over again…hahaha…

Until then, take care and Happy Muscles…

I have a few training pics I need to upload on here, but for now I’ll throw these fight pics on…Since I posted last, Dan has won 3 fights and I’ve been able to be there for all 3 wins…

Here’s some pics from some of them…

 And yes, I AM going to fight MMA again soon!!!!…I get a lot of emails every week asking that very question and the answer is that once I do all my requisite boxing, kickboxing, and submission wrestling matches, I WILL be ready to sneak back into the cage…I’ve been kind of cramped for training time lately with an average of 55 hours of work every week in the farmacia, but I’m going to cut that down after the first of the year so I can train full-time again…Excuses, excuses, huh?…haha…

Here we are after Dan’s 9-13 fight against CJ “The Punisher” McVey….

(Note on the far right–Coach Pat’s awesome mustache…)

Dan with CJ right after their fight…

 The video I took (blurry since it was from my cell phone) of that fight is on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKd4p7qykwI

 Dan’s last two fights have been for Intimidation Cage Fighting (www.intimidationcagefighting.com) and they have MUCH better videos and photos than I’m able to catch with my cell phone camera…hahahaha…

Here’s some pics from the 10-25 fight against Bo “The Hitman” Hewitt…

The video from that fight is also on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3y5fLQSSCg

The last fight he had for Intimidation was at Turfway Park in Florence, KY and it was a nice venue…It’s a horse racetrack and they put the cage in a central spot with 2 video screens on either side…The fellas running that promotion have a good thing going and I wish them the best of luck…Dan fought Steve “Lambchop”Banks, who is another big guy and was a very strong, very game opponent for Dan…

I didn’t even try to get pics of the fight, but I see that there is a short highlight reel video on YouTube as well as some pics that the photographer for the promotion snapped that night…The bottom of the page on the following link has the pics of his fight…  

 www.intimidationcagefighting.com/ICF-Photos/ICF_Event_Photos/Pages/Redemption_11-22-08.html#grid

And the video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjPtyY3O1w

 Well, off to work for this pharmacist…I’m going to try and post some more recent training pics soon and also update this website MUCH more often than I have…I’m also throwing around the idea of competing in powerlifting again sometime, this time doing the deadlift only portion instead of the full powerlifting meet…

You fine folks will be the first to know and I’ll make sure to get pics and video…Until then, the monkey gets it…

It seems so strange that my last update to this website was about Evan Tanner and now here I am thinking about him passing away so tragically and suddenly…

 So many things could be said about him and they have been elsewhere…His fighting career, his character, his warrior philosophy, his free spirit, how kind he was to his fans and a plethora of other personal attributes that he carried through his journey in life have been stated in other places much more eloquently than I ever could…

I was lucky enough to have spent time with him in Muncie, IN that weekend in May…I remember when we were all sitting at breakfast with him after the fights there, we were chattering away about a whole variety of things…One of the many stories he told that night really sticks in my head…

He had said that at some time in his fight career, I think around when he was wearing the UFC middleweight belt, he was in the VIP section of a very exclusive, very posh club…After a while, he went out a back door or a side door to get some air and noticed a homeless guy standing outside there…So, he promptly pulled this guy into the VIP section of the club, sat him down, ordered him a drink and proceeded to talk with him…Hahahaha…Needless to say, the management of the club was NOT having any of that at all…

 But the little I knew personally of Evan was encapsulated in that story…He was the kind of guy that would take someone who had been out on the streets and give them a chance to come inside, warm up, have a seat, and talk a while…

Even if it meant he would get thrown out in the process…

 I only wish I could have gotten to know him better and spent more time hearing all the millions of stories I’m sure he had…

I found these pics in my phone today from going out to eat after training that Sunday and the introspective look on his face in the second one almost tells a story in and of itself…

RIP Evan, and as Kyria said, “this sport has lost something today that no one can ever replace…”

I had the opportunity to travel to Muncie, IN back in May and help Evan Tanner sell some of his Team Tanner shirts (available at www.evantanner.net ) at a fight under the Iron Warrior Fight League promotion(www.ironwarriorfights.com )…

Great people all around working for that promotion and they did an excellent job of putting on solid fights…

 Evan recently posted on his blog at: www.spike.com/profile/Evan_Tanner about the event and it was very nice for him to have thanked Dan and I for helping to sell his shirts that evening….

Evan has a fervently strong fan following in MMA and after spending a little time around him, it’s easy to see why…He is a very genuine person who has been through a myriad of life experiences…All in all, a true “fighter’s fighter” and a totally cool guy…Here’s a few of the pics from that blog…

Evan & Dan signing autographs while I try to look important, too…

If you know Dan, this look is NO surprise…

Dan & I rocking the Team Tanner shirts…

There are a bunch more pics on Evan’s blog…The next day after the fights we headed to Indianapolis to train at Integrated where Jake O’Brien and Chris Lytle train…I didn’t get a chance to train that day due to a small injury, but the fellas went after it pretty good…We made it up to Muncie again this last weekend and Matt, Kassie & Missy once again did a bang-up job with the fights and their promotion…

So, as usual, it’s been months since my last update on this site!!…I need to get on here more often, but to do that, I need to get some new pics…

I realized I did have a few pics from Dan’s AFL win (by armbar in less than a minute in the 1st round) in Atlanta a while ago that I wanted to put up…

Several of the pics are from www.georgiamma.com as well…

And the KITSURA shirts you see us wearing in the pics are going to be available soon as part of a full clothing line…

Check out www.kitsura.com for those…

Sitting in the hotel….

Pre-fight pyro…

Jake O’Brien enjoying some food…

Action in the cage…

The winner…

Dan tells us a story…

Locker room post-fight…

Jake O’Brien, Dan, Jake’s coach (Pat from Integrated Fighting in Indianapolis) & I…

So, since it’s been a while, I thought I’d put some more current training pics up…I’m still going at it full-time under Dan’s auspices and I’ll be back in the cage before too long…I’ll be doing some boxing, submission wrestling, and kickboxing matches prior to that for some more experience, though…

 Check out his website at: www.danthesandman.com

Every now and then, I catch a glimpse of pro-wrestling while flipping through the channels…A handful of my friends are still working in the business, so I get curious as to what they’re up to and I occasionally take that stroll down ‘memory lane’…

 But then I come back to my endless pursuit of knowledge and skill in MMA and realize that even when we look back to our past with a smirk, the present is the only worthwhile time of our lives to focus on…

I’ll always miss some of the people and the good times I had in the ”rasslin” world, but fighting is a MUCH better venue for my mentality and body…

That being said, indulge me on this reminiscent stroll with a few pics from those days…