Each man or woman on the planet has their own private Mount Everest. You know, the challenge of challenges, the jewel in the crown of personal definition.

I can’t say that I even have a personal Everest, but from everything I read,  shooting a Mixed Martial Arts fight was as close to that as it gets for sports photographers. Having not shot much sports (but being a huge sports fan), it appealed to my nature to dive into the deepest end of the photographic pool and see if I would sink or swim.

But just like everything I seem to do, I had to find a personal twist, an angle if you will.  My imagination kept straying from the brutality to the courage and commitment these fighters not only demonstrated for the paying crowds, but lived. This decision to climb into a cage and fight another human being is not made lightly.  The training, conditioning and dieting that goes into 3 three minute rounds cannot be glossed over. I know if I had to diet to take pictures, well – we’d be talking about something else right now.

And because I’m just wired differently from normal people, I saw these fights as intimate.

Yes, intimate.

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