Back to Fighting in 2016

[LifeofaFighter]

Hey everyone,

 

My names Mike Caulo, pumped to be apart of the Rebellion... So I am 28 years old, a Health and Fitness business owner and Amateur Martial Artist looking to get back to fighting in 2016.  I took 2015 off after struggling through 2013-2014 with 8 herniated discs that are fight related.

 

I originally started seriously competing in Martial Arts when I was 12 years old in TKD but after a few years of competition and realizing the future as a martial artists as a sustainable career wasn't realistic I turned to athletics and school.  As an athlete i have never been anything special but when I have a passion I will busy my A$$.  I have always been chubby and overweight as a kid and teen, however when I turned 16 years old I was cut from my varsity baseball team and decided enough was enough.  That year I went from 230lbs at around 25% body fat and 5'11'' to 155lbs 18% body fat.  I ate relatively clean with a caloric intake of 2500 calories, ran everyday and lifted.  I realized very quickly however I wasn't doing the right combination of habits to reach my goals or being strong, lean and athletic. 

 

Fast forward a couple years I am 19 years old about 180 lbs 16% and was going to Stony Brook Unviersity for Athletic Training.  I discovered a local bjj club off campus and immediately fell in love with martial arts again.  After a year or so of dedicated training I decided that I wanted to be a pro fighter and with the support of my coaches and teammates I packed up everything, left college in my junior year and moved to Las Vegas.  I spent about a year out there and trained with some of the best in the world at Xtreme Coutures, Drysdale JJ, Mark Beecher Muay Thai and Gil Martinez Boxing Club.  While out in Vegas I also started blogging about my life of a fighter and BOOM I indirectly started my company The Life of a Fighter Ltd, which is now a health and fitness website.  Anyways I really started getting the ball rolling in the fight world, I got picked up by Prilosec OTC as a sponsor, moved back to NY and started taking fights.

 

I know you maybe asking why did I leave Vegas, but for me as great as the training was the lifestyle outside the gym just wasn't cutting it for me.  Most people living in Vegas don't really take care of themselves... plus I am an italian home body that missed my family and friends.  Honestly I also saw that even though Vegas was great we had just as good if not better training in NY.  So with more connections back home, more support and a little more of a financial stable situation I came back and worked the amateur circuit.  From 2010 to 2014 I had 4 sanctioned MMA fights 2-2 and 2 sanctioned muay thai fights 2-0 with some boxing and kickboxing smokers mixed in, a few grappling superfits and about a dozen or so grappling tournaments.  So I was competing, growing and staying busy. 

 

Throughout it all I was taking a lot of abuse from the constant training and competing.  Eventually found out I had 8 herntiations and with a focus in 2015 of rehab and treatment have gotten that down to 2 herniations.

 

That brings us to current day, I am a full time student finishing my bachelors degree from Stony Brook in Bio, Soc and Bus since i cam not fighting currently, plus running my business and working with a hand full of clients because I just love working with dedicated people.

 

I am always looking to join great health communities for motivation, sharing knowledge and nerding out.

 

If there is any fellow martial artists out there, hit me up and if you can recommend a good forum thread, I'd appreciate it.

[HedgeMage]

Welcome, LifeofaFighter!

 

I'm a fellow martial artist -- Karate, knife, tomahawk, some sword, some other miscellany -- though I've never been into the sport side of it much.  I'm a not-very-strong 5'7" female with a habit of doing Dangerous Things, so I can't really afford to train sport techniques to muscle memory...too many of them work only on people who follow the rules, or people of roughly equal size/strength. That's not my life.

 

If you check out my current challenge thread, you'll find some pics from my current trip, including me running kata on cooled lava flows on a volcano called Mauna Loa.

 

Good luck on your challenge!