Watching a cauliflower-eared, heavily
tattooed John Michael Sheil train with a searing intensity at
Toronto BJJ on Bloor Street, it's hard to picture him as the scrawny kid with coke-bottle glasses who was relentlessly picked on in his native Ireland while growing up.
But Sheil, who is currently preparing for a
Mixed Martial Arts fight on a Six Nations Indian Reserve near Brantford Ontario Saturday night, vividly remembers being on the wrong side of a plethora of ugly confrontations.
"Up until I was about 16 I had big brown glasses, huge Plexiglas glasses. It's actually how I got my nose broken so many times, taking off my glasses and getting suckered," he recalls, while the heavy sweat from one of his intense daily workouts furiously drips.
"I didn't start winning until recently."
The 22-year-old has only been involved in MMA for about a year-and-a-half, but he's already dedicated his life to the sport, which combines the heavy striking of boxing and muay-Thai with the sneaky submissions of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and ground control of wrestling.
The uneducated viewer may see a brutal form of human 'cockfighting', but those who participate in the sport, or follow it with near-religious fervour, understand that technique and conditioning are paramount to success. Fights more often resemble physical chess matches with subtle intricacies, than bar-room brawls with blind haymakers.
"For me it's not training for a fight, it's getting to learn all these new amazing skills," Sheil adds. "It's just programming your body to do something, but there's no malice in these fights and anyone who claims that there is, is fighting for the wrong reasons. The sport has done great things for me."
"I mean when you're spending six hours a day in the gym you're not out doing drugs, you're not out beating up people. I don't go out drinking and causing fights on the street."
He may not be picking fights, but he's not adverse to breaking them up. When he's not in the gym honing his technique, Sheil works as a bouncer at the Tattoo Rock Bar on Queen West. Weighing in at about 180 pounds he's not your typical beefy doorman, but the more perceptive types would quickly spot his cauliflower ears and steer clear. Unfortunately, alcohol has a peculiar way of clouding vision, and judgment.
"I've had big guys just shrug me off because I'm a small bouncer, and I can surprise them," he relays with a mischievous grin.
"But it's not what I'm about..I'm all about morals and priorities and right is right."
According to the laws of Ontario, however, MMA events are not only morally questionable, but illegal.
Section 83 of the Canadian Criminal Code allows only amateur and pro boxing matches to take place in province. An exception was made for professional kickboxing events, but Mixed Martial Arts falls outside the boundaries of what's considered legal.
Ontario Athletic Commissioner Ken Hayashi has been criticized by MMA fighters, promoters, and fans, for his refusal to budge on the issue. Hayashi counters that his hands are tied by the Criminal Code. In the meantime, the
Commissioner has publicly criticized the cards that take place in the legal grey-zone of Indian Reserves, calling them dangerous and irresponsible. He's also warned that promoters of such events could be legally liable if someone is seriously hurt.
The precarious status of the sport leaves Sheil concerned about the future.
"It really bothers me how people talk about the sport sometimes, but I try to teach people...MMA in Ontario, the situation just bothers me," he admits.
"It just makes logical sense that they should control it and actually sanction it properly."
In the meantime, fighters like Sheil will continue to sacrifice blood and sweat to chase their dreams, no matter how painful, or rocky, the road may be. In the process, they're hoping to find the legitimacy that several other parts of the world, most notably the U.S. and Japan, have bestowed upon MMA fighters and the sport in general.
"I came over here (to Canada) like a blank piece of paper, as white as one as well," he jokes, referring to his pasty Irish complexion. "Let us show you what we've learned. Maybe you'll see something in it, maybe you won't. But don't stop the sport."
Whether or not MMA thrives, or even survives, in Ontario, one thing is certain ---Sheil's days of being bullied are long over, and he's mentally and physically ready to take on whoever he's pitted against on Saturday, which happens to be his 23rd birthday. For such a young man, he's wise beyond his years, in large part due to some harsh life lessons --- lessons that served to harden him for the inevitable physical pain and psychological stress that are inextricably linked to the sport he's chosen to embrace.
"I got a beating one day from two guys and I came home and I was crying and my dad, he put me in the car and drove me to the find the two guys and made me fight them again," he remembers.
"He didn't tolerate excuses...But you learn and you grow and you get stronger and tougher...Fighting's always been in my blood."
michael.talbot@citynews.rogers.com