Encouragement
I am eight days away from visiting MMA fighter Aaron Freedman in his hometown of Plainview, New York. I will be filming the six month progress on his rehabilitation from a fighting injury sustained during his first pro fight in April of 2013. I’ve barely been able to get a hold of him. At this point I can only assume that the government shutdown isn’t making his life very easy as a financial advisor. On top of it, he is processing his cousin Robby’s loss at Glory 10 in Los Angeles last weekend.
As a filmmaker and now friend of Aaron’s I am finding it hard not to be at these events, so taking very organized notes, emailing, and skype calls are what I have to rely on until my visit next week. Intuition tells me that Aaron is having a hard time with cousin Robby’s loss, not only because Robby won the last fight by KO or Knock Out, for you non-fighting fans, but because the loss happened so quickly within the first round leaving Robby without so much as a scratch on him. Aaron might describe it by saying that he wasn’t “all banged up.” I’ve adopted a few new sayings during this process and am holding out hope that one day I can pull off that great New York accent, it’s not looking promising. Instead I will bring theirs to you!
I am coming from a very objective view having not watched much fighting. Interestingly I paid GloryTV $20 to watch this fight live on the internet and found myself and my daughter up late, yelling at the computer screen, hoping that Robby would pull out all the stops and beat this guy. I felt like I got kicked myself when he fell to ground with the final punch. Ugh, not a fun feeling. I can only imagine how Aaron felt watching his cousin, who he grew up fighting with, fall to the ring floor. I now know the difference between a ring (this was a kickboxing match) and a cage (where Aaron usually fights in MMA and hopefully one day UFC). Aaron was in view, ringside when Robby got up after a stunned moment on the ground, I could feel the emotion between them as they made eye contact. The fight was over. I felt this overwhelming regard for him, putting himself out there like that, in front of so many. I see it as courage.
I was fortunate enough to interview Robby in New York three months ago while filming for Aaron’s documentary and really took a liking to him. He was warm, open and loyal to his cousin Aaron. He has dreamed of fighting all of his life, like Aaron and fighting and family are what is important to him, a little simpler than Aaron. I am thinking that the motivation to fight is going to be a very interesting concept to explore in this documentary and I now would like to include more of Robby’s story, too, to add more dimension for you. The story continues to develop, sometimes through an anxious feeling that I don’t have what I need being so far away and a nagging desire to support Aaron and do a respectable job telling his story. This desire has increased as I learn the depth of character that he possesses and develop a respect for the sport that I knew virtually nothing about before I started. I’m inspired by his extreme focus and respectful nature. He is a gentleman, old fashioned in some ways, intelligent and sensible. I used to think that fighting was awful and ugly and scary. I had this stereotype of an animal at home and in the ring. I guess in some ways they still have to be, but the ones I have had the privlege of meeting are more like teddy bears that love to “bust balls” after a training session. They have an incredible work ethic coupled with respect and encouragement for eachother along with skill and technical expertise to top it off. It is this that makes me want to watch it and invite my daughters to know it. Now, I want to meet the greats, find out what makes them tick, and share them with you.
