By Elton "Hobbie" Hobson
There’s an old cliché in fight sports about the toughest opponent to overcome being yourself.
Usually, it just refers to overcoming mental weakness, laziness, or a killer hangover. In Nick Ring’s case, it’s unfortunately all too literal. Of all the opponents he has faced over his 8 years as a professional, the toughest may turn out to be his own ACL.
It has certainly cost him as of late. The sole Canadian prospect on this season of Spike TV‘s “The Ultimate Fighter”, Ring was an early favourite right from the start. The first pick of Coach Tito Ortiz, he knocked off two wins in the house and may have been poised to take it all before finding out his ACL - which had already undergone surgery twice before - would once again have to go under the knife.
“It sucked. It sucked finding out, of course. And it sucked having to drop out,” Ring explains from his home in Calgary. “It’s just very, very frustrating to keep having to put my career on hold.”
Indeed, there is equal parts frustration and weariness in his voice, and it’s hard to blame him. Having major knee surgery for a third time is a daunting prospect for anyone - let alone a professional fighter. Yet that’s exactly what Ring did, going under the knife on April 9th for what will hopefully be the third and final time.
“What they did is, they took a cadaver [tendon] and they implanted that into my knee. And hopefully, that will prevent the knee from being reinjured in the future.”
As Ring explains, while the surgery was hard, it’s the getting better that is even harder.
“The tendon is actually at its weakest between six weeks and three months [after the surgery],” Ring says “and the real problem is that right around that same time period, you start to feel normal again. You feel like you can start to move around again. But the consequences of that are bad.”
As Ring can surely attest to. A kickboxing standout since the age of 15 with 30 professional fights, Ring made the transition to MMA in 2002 and has rattled off a perfect 10-0 in promotions like DEEP, Icon Sports, and Bellator. It would likely have been more if not for the recurring ACL problems, which once sidelined him for over three years.
For some, such setbacks could mean the end of a career. Not so for Ring.
“Oh yeah, I’ll be back. No doubt about it.” He says without hesitation. “I’ve come too far and given up too much to turn back now. I’ll be back. I’m not even close to finished in the sport.”
Still, the timeline for recovery is daunting. It will be September before he can even think about going to the gym again, meaning he will likely have to sit out the rest of 2010. For a hot prospect seemingly on the verge of making it big, it is yet another frustration.
And in an interesting way, it is a perfect analogy for his time spent on The Ultimate Fighter. Injured early in the tournament, Ring was forced to remain cloistered in the house - cut off from television, internet, and any form out communication with the outside world - without having the tournament and the six-figure contract to motivate him or look forward to.
When I ask Ring about his time “in the house”, he is surprisingly straightforward.
“I wouldn’t do it again. Or only if I didn’t have any choice.”
“I’m a very busy guy. Kind of a workaholic. I always like having a bunch of projects and things that I need to do, you know? Being stuck in that house, I wasn’t even able to read. And being injured, I wasn’t able to train with the other guys. For me, being that bored, it’s like pulling teeth.”
“So because [lifting] weights was pretty much the only thing I could do, that’s basically all I did. I figured, ‘I got as much free protein as I want, and what amounts to a free gym membership. Let’s see how big I can get this {expletive}’.”
Echoing a sentiment taken up by many former TUF cast members, Ring points to the extreme isolation as another of the show’s downsides.
“You don’t have any contact at all with the outside world. You just have to trust that your life back home is going on course.”
It’s an interesting choice of words, for Ring’s career hasn’t exactly stayed the course he intended it to. Still, like that old cliché goes, the greatest battle is always with yourself - and the battle you wage when the going gets tough, and quitting looks easier then sticking it out.
For eight years, three surgeries, and countless hours of rehab and physiotherapy, Nick Ring has stuck it out. After all that, a successful MMA career just might seem an easy feat by comparison.
“I haven’t fulfilled my dreams yet, or accomplished my goals, or done what I wanted to do yet. So whatever it takes, doesn’t matter how hard it is, I’m coming back and doing what I love.”
For Nick Ring, it really is that simple.
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