Hi friends.

Wow, like, part 5 of this story. When I started writing it, I wasn't thinking it would be this long. Cool.

I am in England right now, playing with my rock band. We have a lot of great fans over here. Every night is a very joyous occasion. I feel so appreciated here. Music is a very important part of these people's lives. They show you a lot of love.

I miss Brandy and I miss my Chihuahua Pluto. That doesn't surprise me. I am, however, surprised how much I'm missing my training. Going to Xtreme Couture every day. Hitting pads. Rolling Jiu- Jitsu. Is that fucked or what?

Ok. Back to the story. I was walking through the curtains.....

When they announced me, they just screamed "Robin Fucking Black", shoved me through, and didn't start my entrance music (Which was "Keeping The Blade" By Coheed and Cambria, by the way) till I was halfway down the walk.

When I came through, a lot of people were cheering, and A LOT were boo-ing (maybe they were saying Boo- urns?).

I immediately thought "Oh, I'm the heel at this show, like in wrestling" and embraced it and took it all in.

In retrospect, I really can't believe people could boo fighters (they booed everyone not from the Ottawa/Gatineau area that night. I got extra boos for being that TV/music asshole.)

I can handle the boos, man, I'm in the entertainment business, and I've been playing a character who's very controversial and somewhat offensive for many years. I'm used to it.

But the other fighters, they are hard-working, passionate guys. If anyone in the audience had ANY idea how hard they worked, and what they were about to go through in that ring, they would be ashamed of themselves for boo-ing. They would truly be ashamed of themselves.
I can proudly say that I've handled myself with class through this process of becoming a professional fighter. I am humble. I try to know my place. When interviewed, I try to talk about my love of the sport more than talk about myself. I have tried to be honorable and respectful, even while trying some gamesmanship when talking about Chris in the media. In the gym, I work hard every day, learn from everyone, and try to encourage the new guys. I try hard to do right by the sport of mma.

A lot of fringe mma people still do not like me, and I accept that. Being boo-ed and slagged by keyboard warriors is going to be part of me doing this. I accept that as part of my adventure.
But, man, I feel bad for the guys who get booed. They haven't done anything to deserve it. And it sucks.

Anyhoo, I was enjoying the energy of the crowd. I think I slapped some hands on the way down.

We got to the ring, and I was so excited! Here it was! We were going to fight. Years of training and sacrifice, all leading up to this. I'm living out a dream.

Ok. Avoid the early shots. Get in close to him. Use your good wrestling skills to get him to the ground. Finish him on his back. You are really well trained and have a big heart. Be fearless and persistant.
OOPS! We forgot my mouthpiece in the changeroom! Marc- Andre ran back to get it.

Ok, mouthpiece is in. Yes sir, I'm wearing a cup. Some guy looked at my hands. I'm not sure what for.

Hey, I'm in the ring! It sure is hot in here.

Chris is in the other corner. I realize we haven't taken our eyes off of each other.

We are in the middle, and I think the ref is saying something. We touch gloves, then Chris gives me a quick hug. I can't help but feel like we are having a quick conversation without speaking. "You are the only other person on Earth who is having the same experience as me". "I respect you for doing this with me." "I'm gonna smash you."
The fight started.


Avoid the early shots. Get the fight to the ground, where you will have the advantage.


We touched gloves, and moved around a bit. I threw a kick. We were just moving around, feeling each other out.


Suddenly, I heard the crown ROAR, and felt something touch my knee. My knee was on the mat. I was being punched in the face by, like, ten guys or something while I was down. That's how it felt.

What actually happened was that I got drilled by the first combination chucked at me. So much for avoid the early shots.

Now, in the ensuing 20 to 30 seconds, I probably got punched in the cranium 10 to 15 times. Bear in mind this guy is a professional fighter. And a striking specialist. He hits hard. Really hard.

After that first blast (a loud sound inside the head, with a huge flash of light), I was knocked to my knees, being assaulted repeatedly by a hard-hitting trained fighter.

Here was my thought process at the time (yes, not only could I still think, time actually seemed to slow down)... I thought "No. Fucking. Way. Get up. You did NOT do all this to be finished off in the first 20 seconds. You have a big heart. Be fearless and persistant. Grab his leg". I somehow grabbed his leg.

Other stuff happened, but when I sorta came to, I was on top of him, and had him mounted (a dominant position in fighting).

The theory is, if you are really well conditioned, you can take more physical trauma to your body, and recover more quickly. I guess I was pretty well conditioned, because I took a LOT of shots from a great striker, and survived the first test.

The other theory is, if you train enough, your skills will become instinct, and even when stunned, you will do the right things. I guess that stuff was true, because here I was in a good position, with no real knowledge of how I got here.

But, truth be told, Chris did win the fight with those first blasts to my head. The rest of my fight was done through a haze, a very messy state of awareness. I was forcing myself to fight, but the head wasn't all there.

The first round had some more Chris hitting me, some more me taking him down and threatening him on the ground. I had a couple of opportunities to make him tap out, but my bean was so scrambled, my submissions were just no where near as clean as they normally are. His basic submission defense was plenty for my punch-diminished skills. Hmm. Neat. A big striker's ability to make a guy DUMBER is part of his defense. Pretty cool. Sucks I'm that dumber guy in this case.

The round ended with me on top of him. Ding. Drag. I was in a position to capitalize. And my head was just clearing.

Overall, a decent first round in my mma career. I took a lot of damage at the beginning, but finished really strong. I was in this fight.

More importantly, some very big questions were answered already.
When you watch fights on TV, you have your favorite fighters, your favorite fights. Roger Huerta and Clay Guida is one of my favorites.

My man Huerta never gave up. He was brave.

When you watch these brave guys, you truly hope you will be brave in the face of adversity. You hope you will not give up. You hope you will dig deep, and fight hard. You hope you will have the courage.
But you don't know. No one knows. What will YOU do when it's hard, when it hurts?

Well, I got drilled by a big hitter, and I fought on. I WANTED to fight. I got up, and I kept fighting.

That's what I learned from my first round. That I had the heart for this. I felt proud.


I'm just about to go on stage with my rock band in Derby, England. I hope to finish this story tomorrow. Sorry to take so long. I am really enjoying writing it, and having you read it. Thank you