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.

A man stands alone with his thoughts as the door to the cage is closed.  A fighter listens to his trainer in the corner between rounds. These are intimate and telling moments in an event perceived as brutal by fans and critics alike. These are moments of focus and commitment that very few of us will ever achieve. What’s your passion? Are you willing to literally withstand a beating to achieve it? These guys fight to be proven worthy of being included in a select group from all the people in attendance – ‘victor’.

For those who cannot see past the ink on the fighter’s bodies, I suggest that you recall the old adage ‘talk is cheap’.  Whether or not you respect what these fighters do and endure, you must agree that if your company was filled with employees this committed it would be hard to find yourself with any competition left. I would also suggest that our military is filled with those who train to this level and fight away from the lenses of photographers and paying fans.  While it is doubtful that one of these MMA fighters will save the free world, it is a brother-in-arms, a like spirit who will.

And if you’re still reading, keep in mind that it’s naive to think that this democracy survived hundreds of years without calling upon the services of men like these. Men with a willingness to  sacrifice their bodies for a concept, a dream. Whether that concept be ‘winner’ or ‘free’, it’s the same human spirit that powers it.

And we’re all the better because of it.