When Loved Ones…Fight

I have two little brothers, who I love more than anything – which, of course, as any older brother will tell you, means I can beat the absolute crap out of them. Dead arms, dead legs, and getting smacked with Hot Wheels tracks or whipped with wet towels. Par for the course. Now, that doesn’t mean anyone else can. In fact, my little brothers are off limits. If I saw someone choking them unconscious, there’d be a Louisville Slugger upside someone’s dome piece. But what if they were being choked unconscious inside of a cage, and there was nothing I could do about it? (Luckily for me, my little brothers are lovers, not fi ghters … like their big bro. Good job, mom!)

But for many people out there, that is the exact scenario they fear. And while I may not have to worry about it with my own brothers, I do have to worry about it with my friends, including my hetero lifemate and fellow FIGHT! Magazine journalist, Jason “Mayhem” Miller. As I write this, Jason is on his way to Japan to fi ght Jacare for the DREAM Middleweight Title. A fight that will be on HDNet, and I probably won’t watch. Not because I don’t get the HDNet channel, but because I turn into a little girl when Mayhem fi ghts. Ask anyone who knows me. It’s embarrassing (which means I’m so glad I just told everyone who reads this magazine). I would rather find out the results later. Luckily, the red-striped maniac wins more than he loses. I got lucky in the friend department.

So if I turn into a 12-year-old pre-pubescent girl over my friend … how do actual family members and significant others deal with it? I took some time out from my busy day of being awesome to interview a couple of people who have a little bit closer bond to those getting beat up in the cage. (Despite the rumors, Jason and I are not that close, you sickos.)

Having your big brother bleach stripes into his goatee would be traumatizing enough for most people. However, for Miriam Ghosn, sister of Tiki Ghosn, she also has to see her big brother step into the cage on a regular basis. She’s seen it all, from the WEC in Lemoore, to the big stage of the UFC.

“One of the things that he was destined to do in his life was to be a gladiator. This is not a surprise. In grade school, I was often greeted by each teacher as I got into the new grade as ‘Oh, Ghosn! I see …’ I’ve kind of been in his shadow that way, which is probably why I rebelled less and he was more of the angry type. People used to come up to me in class and were like, ‘Miriam, Tiki’s beating someone up in the schoolyard, under the fl agpole!’ I ran out there, and he was on top of the other kid punching him, like he does now in his fights. I’ve gotten used to it. He has a very naturally aggressive personality.”

“It never was too nerve-racking, until I saw him bleed once. Then, I got really upset. Other than that, he had been fi ghting, but he was never getting too physically injured. There was a bruise here, a cut there, maybe some ear swelling a little bit. But he never really bled, but when he did, in his WEC fi ght in Vegas with David Terrel, I totally freaked out. I wasn’t used to seeing him bleed. It’s gotten easier as time goes by.”

“Our mom will never go to a fight. The only part of Tiki’s fi ght she’s ever seen is where we’ve shown her the end of the fi ght where his hand is being raised because he won. If she catches a glimpse of it on TV, even if it’s not Tiki, she starts to cover her eyes. She can’t stand the sight of it. My mom used to get upset when my brother got tackled in high school football. Our dad can watch it no problem; he’s a total cool cat. He doesn’t really get loud; he’s not a real yelling and cheering guy. He just watches everything go down. He’s a tough guy.”

As the girlfriend of a UFC fi ghter, the free UFC tickets aren’t necessarily a fair compensation for seeing the man you love get the crap beat out of him. She asked not to be named, since I imagine the fame that comes from being in a FIGHT! Magazine article is way too much for her to handle. Or possibly because when this goes to print, they may not be dating anymore. EEK! Young fighter love … it’s a beautiful thing.

“It’s a turn-on watching the mental process of him getting ready for the fight. You realize how dedicated a person can be when they put their all into it. It’s not such a turn-on once the fi ght starts and you realize they could potentially get punched in the face. You see them walk out, and they’re starry-eyed and dazed because they are about to go into a war. Your stomach is in your fucking throat, and you don’t know what is going to happen. And every time they move left or right, you start to sweat. It’s scary. Every fight is the same for me. It never gets any easier, because you never know what the next fi ght will bring.”

“Obviously, with everything that goes into getting ready for their fight, my nervousness, my anticipation, it comes out in the form of anger toward the other person they are fi ghting. You’re watching the person you care about getting an ass beating, or hopefully, not getting an ass beating. Do I have any emotion or compassion toward the person they are fi ghting? Not really. I’m fucking just psyched that my man is winning the fi ght. During the fi ght, it’s all animal instincts and I want the other person to get annihilated. Afterward, I start to think about how their girlfriend or wife or family might be feeling. But that’s always after.”

“You don’t realize how much energy they put into the fi ght out there. They put EVERYTHING into those 2 minutes or 5 minutes or 15 minutes in there. They may come out looking fine, but their bodies have gone through hell and back. It would be selfi sh of me to not want to take care of them and baby them. Hell, guys want to be babied after they stub their toe. Imagine after getting punched in the face. Wouldn’t you want someone to sit there and rub you down?” (Loco note: YES, PLEASE.)

“As of right now, I would let my future kids get into MMA. I’m sure I’ll go back and forth on this until the day comes. Do I think it’s good for kids to get into MMA? I do. I think it teaches them proper skills in a controlled environment so that they hopefully aren’t fighting in the street. They can find out what they are and are not capable of doing. I think it’s a great discipline. Does anyone ever really want to see their children fight? Never — whether it is controlled or in the street. Watching videos on YouTube of kids getting punched in the face makes me sick. As long as my future kids understand that it’s a defense and not a tool to bully someone, I think I’ll be OK with it.”

Luckily for my family members, or any of the girls I date for 3 days, they will never have to experience this. For I … am a wuss. However, instead of being made fun of on the Internet all day, I think I should be praised for saving my loved ones from the stress of having to see this beautiful face get bashed in. YOU’RE WELCOME, MOM.

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