“FALL FROM GRACE VOL 3.” by “Fallen Angel” Dominique Robinson
I remember being a child and working at an old folks home, well not working working but offering up my services for free to help them out. Before you say “What a kind thing to do” it was purely for selfish reasons…I wanted to steal their “data” so to speak. I always had a fascination with older people because of their life experiences and their ability to verbalize everything they have gone through, thus my purpose was to speak to as many of them as possible and gain wisdom, as I have always been a very firm believer that knowledge is power. This place was just an assortment of “data” as it had old folk from different places in the world, all kinds of ethnicities, I was beyond excited…until I spoke to the first person. The first, the second, the third, all the stories were marred with deep senses of regret…things or people they should have done, things or people they shouldn’t have done, places not seen or gone, things not accomplished…and as a young child I promised myself I would not die with regret like these old people and I thanked them inside with the lesson they had given me, now, 28yrs old, I look at the years of my life in retrospect and I’m already heading in their direction.
I know some of you may be like, hey he’s always personal but this is a different kind of personal, some of you may not even have realized it, and for some of you this may be your first time reading my blogs…either way I hope that through me, as I did through the old folk, in the end someone, somewhere, takes something from this and learns from me. I remember watching my gma as a kid growing up and her taking care of her kids, her kids kids, her kids kids kids, etc and the most odd thing was occurring both in home and out…she never got her “just do”, her proper respect…appreciated. I mean here is a Creole woman from the south back when times were HARD, who made it on her own and became successful through hard work, but never to the point she could have because of “life politics”, and in home all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and so forth that she did for, never had anything kind to say to or about her after taking what she was giving. I remember admiring my gma’s strength and tenacity and at the same time being mad at her inside for taking this from all these people and holding herself back. As I got older my spite dissipated as I realized this is what made her NOT the average human, as this species is all about “self”, and she was not. At 28, I look at my gma now and from admiration, to admiration and spite, comes pity…as this beautiful person still has not gotten the things she deserves out of life as she grows nearer to the end of hers, and I am not a step closer in my goals to give her…and my mother, who is both my mom and dad, those things before they pass…and also I realized that my life’s path has crept in the left behind footsteps of my grandmothers.
2002 was the year. I remember getting into a fight at a party, the subsequent phone call from a mysterious person saying Frank Shamrock was in San Jose, and me going for my free day tryout. I remember rolling around, using anything I had seen on tv like the Uchiha Clan uses their Sharingan, and submitting a fighter. I remember a little Caucasian guy asking me did I do Jitz before, or wrestle and me just shaking my head, slapping hands with him, and rolling. I remember at about 40min being choked with a RNC in front of my best friend Steph, being told to come back, and vowing that I would one day get this little white guy back for this, all the while guys were asking me “Do you know who that is?!” that man was Robert “Crazy Bob” Cook…head AKA instructor, Frank Shamrock’s #1 student of all time, undefeated fighter, the guy used to work as a lumberjack in Fresno and get off of work and drive to San Jose just to train with Frank. I admired his work ethic and old school mental toughness, though as a man I could never tell him this, and I began to chase him, this was my coach…and Frank Shamrock was nowhere to be found.
Never once…never once did I come close to catching “Crazy Bob” and getting him back, but I wasn’t going to give up, and then HE came…Frank Shamrock, whom I thought would be the secret weapon to catching his student. When I met Frank I was star struck, this was the guy I had seen on tv for God’s sake, and I wanted to be his #1 student…so I quit everything, my GOOD job, gave up my house in Sac, and began the chase of a new dream I had with simply the given word of my GF at the time Tri and by BFF Steph that they would financially support me no matter what, and my savings…my dream to be a fighter. Oh Dominique’s complex and it was that simple? No it’s not. I didn’t want to be a fighter just to be a fighter, I wanted to be the best fighter to have every lived…is that to much to ask? I wanted to be the next Frank Shamrock, to beat “Crazy Bob”, to use how society is backward and pays entertainers more than people who do things that matters to my advantage and take care of the FEW people I actually had in my life…cause yes I am from a southern family on both sides but family, as in many cases, is just a word. Last but not least I wanted to learn about me. Since I was young I used to read. I would hide in closets, the bathtub, under the sink, anywhere I could find with a flashlight and read, assimilate, and I would barely sleep…even now I ONLY sleep 2-4hrs a day and still have 5-10x the energy output of other athletes….chakra, chi, ki, spiritual pressure, or whatever you would like to call it. Life is full of adversity; most of the time people run from this rather than face it. In fighting adversity is in the form of another person and you are FORCED to face it, and through facing it you learn about yourself…win OR lose…it was my ultimate spiritual quest.
I began to study and buy MMA at an alarming rate. I memorized records, bought tapes, DVD’s, ordered from Brazil, Europe, and even had my friend in Japan sending me tapes and DVD’s. The thing about me is I’m no bandwagoner like 90% of you people, the GSP’s I’ve been watching since UCC, the Nog’s and Fedor’s and Hendersons and Babulu’s I’ve been watching since Rings. Aldo since Mecca, A.Silva and Pele since they kickboxed before MMA, Barnett since superbrawl, and I really could go on…everyone who ever was great I knew would be great one day, and everyone that will or should be great I know about them now…go ahead, ask him something, I…own….EVERYTHING. Frank Shamrock was a great coach and took an affinity to me, and I to him, he was like the Father I never had, even to the point of having me at his house dozens of times and going into storage and bringing out old journals he had written the outcome of his fights in before they had happened…that was this man’s analytical ability and I admired it, it was to the point of being cognitive or having forsight. Frank Shamrock taught me the mental game and how to promote yourself and I thank him for that…but that is all. Robert Cole aka “Liquid” was the man everyone owed their skills to. You see a COACH is a teacher that teaches the fighters in a group environment, and a TRAINER is a teacher who teaches the fighter one on one on a consistent basis…I’ve only had ONE trainer in my life, but if anyone could almost be a trainer in a coaching environment it was this man. “Liquid” had the gift for gab, could break moves down, loved MMA, and knew EVERYTHING about WWF wrestling from the beginning to now. Frank Shamrock would be off doing his thing, and Bob would be putting time into the pro team, so “Liquid” was the man to turn to. Under him our skills grew, with Frank being there a lot, to kinda, to missing most days, yet we still loved when he was there, he did have charisma. After awhile “Liquid” and Frank told me I should try out for the pro team, I mean, after all I would wear my little tightey “Vitamin and Mineral” shorts to training everyday with the pro fighters laughing at me just waiting to try out so I said ok.
I almost s**t my pants the day of tryouts. AKA’s tryouts were notorious for near death experiences, I mean, I’ve seen better fights there then in the UFC…Mike Kyle vs Paul Buentello, Eugene Jackson vs Mike Swick, Me vs Clint Coronel, Josh Thomson, and Jon Fitch…Josh Thomson vs ANYONE, and a INSANE boxer named Ricardo Cortez damn near killing the MMA fighters. I had also heard stories of Frank Shamrock holding Josh Thomson down on the ground with his foot on his neck and beating his a** as he tried to crawl out the ring for push kicking Frank in the face during sparring, and by this time had already been in a real altercation with Josh after he cut me with an elbow on purpose during grappling while getting ready for Hermes Franca, and triangling me half to death as I punched at him and proceeded to powerbomb him 3x…I knew this was going to be hell. For tryouts I had to spar EVERYONE 1rnd each…even a tall lightheavyweight kickboxer named Scott, and yes even Mike K and Paul B. After barely making it out alive my last round was with “Crazy Bob” Cook. I remember around this time dave Camarillo had just became the jitz coach their after Bobby Southworth vanished and he was yelling to me the WORST striking instruction I have gotten till this day, Javier Mendez was telling me Bob was going to knock me out, and I took a shot…the only shot to ever hurt me till this day in training to the stomach from Bob, kicking him in the head after, and finishing up and making the team.
“Who the hell is coming in here today?” I remember asking Jon Fitch as he helped me with some wrestling moves. AKA was different then what I had heard about; some days it was a who’s who of sparring overseen by “Crazy Bob” and others it was just Fitch and me grappling around with Bob yelling to Fitch why he couldn’t keep me down because I was smaller than him…I even remember one time Fitch having me in a straight armbar for like almost a minute literally and I got out and he asked Dave Camarillo what he did wrong lol. AKA was a SUPER gym at this time, not yet the MEGA gym that it is today. Mike Swick was “Kid Lion” not “Quick”, TUF did not exist, and, though enraptured by the whole fighting thing, I was not, and never have been naïve or dumb, and I noticed something that I have now seen over and over again…being at a MEGA GYM does not mean you receive MEGA training. The fighters who were bringing in the dough were getting trained and the rest of us were what I’ve come to call “bodies”, basically just in the coaching classes part and that was all, used for the $$$ makers to have sparring and rolling. I noticed that the built were being built more, and everyone else was left behind. If you read this and ask some of these people the REAL will tell you the same, the others make $$$ now and will try to stay cool and tell you different, but anyone who knows me knows I don’t BS. A guy got hired later named Lynn Schultz and he was a Godsend. He would do mitts with the pro’s, but on those days of just Fitch and myself, he would put some time into us as well, and he took a liking to Fitch and I don’t care what anyone says, HE was the beginning of Fitch’s improvement as a fighter…as AKA got you tough, but outside the “stars” didn’t train you.
Things began to get uneasy at AKA after awhile, Javier Mendez, who owned the place, and Frank Shamrock, it’s main appeal, were not seeing eye to eye. I remember Frank was sounding more and more like he was cutting promos in regular conversation and talking about how he made all those fighters there, while the fighters would tell me how he left them for Hollywood and “Crazy Bob” and Jav taught them all. Javier was and IS a cool guy. I remember Jav laughing all the time while I would spar talking about how I could take the best shot of anyone he had every seen and had power but NO technique, yet I would never stop. He knew about my $$$ situation and let me go there for free….thanx Jav. After awhile I decided it was time to fight and began to press Bob for a fight after I was not getting subbed anymore by Josh, Swick, or Eric Wray (R.I.P) and even getting the better of fighters like “Cleat”, Pat Minihan, Dave Velesquez and Kelly Dullanty at times…and holding my own against Frank in “play” mode. Till this day I still haven’t forgotten what Bob said to me…he looked me in my eyes and asked “Why would you want to fight, I mean, you have NO finishing ability, so tell me…how would you finish the fight or what would you do in it?”. One of the few times in my life I couldn’t say anything in response as memories of Clint taping a sparring session between Fitch and I played through my head where I dropped him to a knee before getting put in a crucifix and pound on, only to get out and keep banging played through my head…Pat Minihan telling me I almost knocked him out and thanks for not, Cleat telling me the same and asking “why you always banging bro?”…”Liquid” always saying “Don’t line up with Angel to much power” and a myriad of other things…so I decided to start to fight on my own.
I would lie to my GF about going somewhere, grab my cousin or boy, some water bottles, gloves, and shi**y mouthpiece, and drive to TJ and fight. I remember a lot of S.Cali fighters would go fight in Mexico in these little events and just make some money…I would make 200-300 to be exact, the rest would come from bets in the crowd that I would win if they thought I would lose by my cousin or boy. 6 fights, all KO’s under 3min, “Take that Bob!” I would think with each win as I went back to AKA and would tell people about my James Bond sneak aways. Then it happened…Frank Shamrock and Javier Mendez fell out and Frank left asking “who’s coming with me?”. I heard a million different stories from fighters and Jav himself about things Frank has done and I remember Jav even saying “Why do you think he always loses those around him?”. I thought about my choice and told Jav “I came for him so I have to go with him…I’m loyal” and Jav said “Okay, but when you see that I’m right your always welcome back”. So I left with Frank to start his new gym…”Loyal” just like my Gma…and it was just the beginning of it treating me just like it treated her
To be cont in next issue…
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