Ultimate Lunch Hour Warrior

For about a year I trained at Fairtex Academy during my lunch hour (ok, it was more like a 1.5 hours). Fairtex is famous Muay Thai Academy with world famous fighters like, Jongsanan 'The Woodenman' Fairtex. Jongsana's record is 90-23-0. The guy started fighting when he was like 12 or something and he got his nickname because when his opponents kicked him it felt kicking a tree. By the way, fighters take on their academy's name as their name... Oh and can't forget the head trainer, Ganyao, a 6'3" thai who throws vicious knees.

About three months into it, I was getting intrigued by bunch of guys wrestling in shorts and rash guards. Actually it was the convenience of no longer needing to bring gloves, hand wraps, and different shoes. The submission wrestling class was taught by Jake Shields and Gil Melendez would fill in when ever Jake was competing. The class was fun... well it wasn't fun at first because I was the only novice there. Because it was during lunch time the class was small and usually full of guys training to be professional fighters. I got to "roll" with lots amazing fighters. There were lot of high level athletes and real fighters but it was a cool class with very little attitude. I stopped training after my year contracted ended... it was fun but took too much time out of my day. Even if you train for only 50 mins, factor in the shower and the 6 block walk it ended up being a 2 hour lunch.

Jake Shields will be going against Marcello Garcia in a submission grappling match at the LA SubX games in Los Angeles, California. Marcello Garcia is one of the top 3 submission grapplers in the world. Earlier this Jake also captured the first ever Rumble on the Rock Tournament.

Gil Melendez is undefeated and is seen as a rising star in the MMA world. He's fighting in both Japan and in the US. He's recently suffered a training injury but should be fighting again soon.

Both Jake and Gil are in the top 10 for their weight class and rising. I wish them well and I look back with fond memories for all the beatings I took under their tutorage.