I have been Coaching and training a very long time. Even after all this time gym stories still encourage me and give me motivation to keep coaching. Sit back I have a good story to tell.
Meet Butch he is a 54-year-old guy that when I met him was out of shape and going on 65. He came to my classes at WNY, and I instantly liked him. He was old and out of shape but honestly trying to keep up with the young guys and girls. He was initially kind of cocky didn’t really take what I was saying to heart. Maybe stubborn is a better word than cocky since he was always respectful. Since he had so much piss and vinegar, I teased him a lot about his belly about being 100 all kinds of stuff. It broke through his pig headedness, and I really liked him. I saw not everyone was giving him the attention that he deserved being an older athlete. I tried to always make sure I got some time with whatever group he was in.
He started coming to Integrity when I was only running it on Sundays and got a lot better quickly. Good enough that he was thinking of fighting mma. I love Butch to death, but a 54-year-old can’t learn all the skills needed stay healthy and compete with younger athletes. At least one with 0 combat experience. He was insistent so I gave him a hard round. He gassed very early I gave him a bit of a beating and he decided to not fight mma. I never forgot his desire to fight or his toughness. I think the rigors of training takedowns striking and jiu jitsu all put together were too much for Butch, but I kept it in the back of my mind that he was a fighter and just needed a fight with striking only.
I started Integrity full time got the Muay Thai program going and we started to look for a fight for Butches son Josh. I was talking with Rich Mitchell, and I heard John Gearhart was looking for a fight. Gearhart was a local journeyman fighter. Good right hand but never comes in shape and never had a long term gym. I matched him and Butch up immediately than asked if Butch wanted to fight. I knew Butch was going to yes and we had Butch’s first fight scheduled. Now all we had to do was get him ready to fight.
There were a lot of people that doubted Butch. I never told Butch about some of the doubt. I knew I could transform him into a winning fighter. He had the heart to do it and we had the perfect game plan. John (RIP) was never known for his skill but never was scared to take a fight and still had a right hand that has dropped good fighters. Being an older out of shape fighter wasn’t going to cut it but I knew Butch was going to be able to whip himself into shape. We started training immediately. He set up 5:30 am training sessions with a family friend and trained with me in the evenings. We broke what John was going to try and do to us and what we were going to do to him. I worked Butch so hard that throwing up in the middle of practice became more normal than not. We sparred hard, traded blows, did pad work, did timing. We worked on sequences that would happen during the fight and drilled them over and over.
Time flew by. Butch transformed his body from 54-year-old dad body into a fighting machine. It was about fight time, so we did our fight run through. We tapped his hand super quick just like first fight of the night gets played the wrong music for him and put him in there to fight hard. He worked through a leg injury and looked good in our prefight fight. We cut the last little bit of weight and it was fight time. Him and Ray duked it out and Butch proved he was ready. All that was left was the fight itself.
On fight day Butch was calm and collected. We did all the prefight warm ups and then it was time to fight. The fight started And Butch looked great. Everything was going to plan until Butch waved Gearhart on and got cracked by the right hand we spent months learning to avoid. He put a glove down on the mat but stayed up. Someone less mentally strong would have fell to a knee and took a standing 8 count but Butch righted the ship and went back on the offensive. He backed Gearhart into the corner and unleashed the knees we worked all camp. One small mistake where he took some damage other than that a perfect fight. I was proud for him but I knew he was going to win.
The best most inspirational part isn’t that the fight went the way I saw it, or even that Butch won. The inspirational part was watching the mental transformation in Butch. Watching his confidence and self-worth grow. Watching him inspire his son and other members of the gym to really want to fight. He is still always trying to help people and root them on. He helps everyone and I am proud of him. He gave my wife water during her shorts test and was the first to encourage her. I am so inspired that the gym is a worth all the work every time I watch him help someone.
Thank you Butch for making a coach happy. There isn’t a lot of rewards in coaching, but your fight was one of them. Thank you for being Integrity’s first fighter and first win. Everyone is fighting different battles and has different reasons to fight. Thank you for believing in yourself and becoming better. You have inspired the gym and made us all better getting you ready and being inspired by you.