Chris Wilson's Big Upcoming Battle

Hello all you wild-eyed crazy fight fans,

Many of you know that my second son, Chris, is a professional UFC fighter. He and his sweet Brazilian wife, Luciana, along with their two kids, Lucas and Gabriela, live in Rio de Janeiro. Chris is a welterweight (170 lb.) mixed martial artist. His specialty is Muay Thai, otherwise known as Thai Kick-boxing, but he is a good all-around fighter. Some of you have asked me about when his next fight will be so I thought I'd give you a heads up. He will be fighting on Wednesday, September 16th in Oklahoma City in UFC Fight Night 19. It will be televised on Spike TV. You can check your local cable/satellite listings for exact show-times.

I can't guarantee that Chris' fight will be televised, however. His welterweight matchup against Mike Pyle is listed as the sixth fight on the 11 bout fight card so it may not end up on TV, depending on what happens in the fights that come before his. When he used to fight for Sportfight and then later on Portland's IFL team, the Wolf Pack, we always tried to attend his events. But then when he was contracted by Bodog and now with the UFC most of his fights are in far away places. Sometimes we have to watch him on pay-per-view TV, which is a really weird sensation, seeing your kid on worldwide TV.

If you would like keep up with Chris' career you should check out his website at... www.chriswilsonmma.com. You can see the fight card for his upcoming Sept. 16th bout at... http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=EventDetail.fightCard&eid=2272. Another good source of information about his career can be found on his page at Sherdog's site at... http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Chris-Wilson-9281. They will give you all of his stats since the beginning of his career. It also has a link to the photos section that has a bunch of good photographs of many of his fights.

Some people have asked me what I think about Chris' choice of a career. I used to worry about him a lot, out of fear that he would get hurt in training or in one of his fights. I don't worry about that very much anymore. I'm proud of his drive and his dedication to his craft. He is a sportsman and a fine athlete. He fights clean and always shows honor and friendship toward his opponents. He does not talk a lot of smack about his opponents like some of the guys in mma. He is not a violent person outside the ring. He is not a sadist and does not enjoy hurting people per se. While working for Team Quest, among other things, he coached the children's classes. They loved him and admired him. More importantly, Chris is a good husband and a great dad to his kids. Fighters like Chris are no different than other serious athletes. He enjoys pushing himself to his limits and measuring his strength and abilities against other people.

The New Testament has many references to athletics and even to sports like boxing. The apostle Paul was very familiar with the athletic games of his day, and in his writing he often likens the Christian life to running a race or to competing in a fight. I believe that Paul would have jumped at the chance to see one of Chris' fights. I'm proud of him like I am of all three of my kids.

Looking forward to Chris' victory on 9/16,

Mike