BORN STRONGER recently sponsored Robert Hawken for his first amateur MMA fight. He was kind enough to share his story with us.

 
I would like to share my story with you because I believe it can inspire and motivate others.

I started training in MMA (mixed martial arts), about 8 months ago at Team Bushido here in Ottawa. I had never trained in any discipline before, nor had I ever competed in any grappling tournaments. Nevertheless, I was a big fan of the sport. 

Until recently, MMA wasn't sanctioned in Ontario, so it was tough for me to find fights.  A couple of months ago, i began looking for an amateur fight in the USA where MMA is more popular.  I found an organization called Spartan Cage Combat based in Michigan that was willing to give me a shot.  The date was set, July 3rd, Independence Day weekend.  About a week before the fight, i was training at Bushido, and broke my hand during a drill.  I had to pull out of the fight, which was devastating. They put a half cast on my left hand, which sidelined me from training for a couple of weeks.  I got back in the gym fairly quickly though and a second fight soon came up. 

The date was August 13th, NASCAR weekend in Brooklyn, Michigan. BORN STRONGER sent me 3 matching t-shirts, that my team wore at the event.  My corner man and I, drove 10 hours to Jackson, Michigan, catching a Detroit Tigers baseball game along the way. Thursday, I weighed in at 181lbs, having lost about seven pounds from running on the treadmill with my sauna suit prior to the weigh-ins. I was fighting at middleweight (185lbs).

My opponent was making his MMA debut as well. However, after driving all the way from Brooklyn, NY he backed out of the fight. However the promoter, Tommy Troyer, said he had someone to replace him. My new opponent had 6 fights under his belt (I believe his record was 2-4). This kinda’ upset me, because i was supposed to fight a fighter with a 0-0 record. But it was that, or no fight. 

Naturally, I agreed to the fight. I was the co-main event. They billed it as a Canada vs, USA match. They chanted “USA” as the fight started. I was in their country and the underdog. I was the only Canadian on the fight card, but met 2 guys from Niagara Falls who were there for the NASCAR race. They wanted a picture with me afterwards. Most of the fighters were from the Michigan area. 

The fight lasted no more than a minute. He shot and took me down. I immediately started working on a triangle choke.  As I was trying to secure the choke, he picked me up and slammed me. My knee cut my nose open, but I still had the triangle. I eventually locked it and he tapped out. It felt so great to get my first win against an experienced opponent.

The day of the event, my cousin Shannon texted me saying our cousin Karen had leukemia. She is at the general hospital here in Ottawa and is in bad shape. The cancer is very aggressive. This came as a total shock to me. The whole experience was surreal. It was over so quickly. It felt like somewhat of a tease. But they are inviting me back for their next event on October 9th. So I have that to look forward to.

~Rob “the Truth” Hawken