PEOPLE: Ready to Rumble

When Chuck Rodgers first saw Mixed Martial Arts on TV, he said to himself, "You know what, I could do that." Three years later he found himself looking across an octagonal cage at a 398.5-pound opponent in his first fight at Ford Arena. Only seconds into the bout, he took a wrong step, tearing his ACL and meniscus, dislocating his fibula and fracturing his femoral head. Despite his injuries, he still won the fight in 42 seconds. "The first thing I though was, ‘This is going to hurt later.' The thought of stopping the fight never came to my mind, though." It was two years before Chuck fought again. "Getting back into the cage felt great. Not even for a second did I think back to what happened in my previous fight." This time he knocked his opponent out in 11 seconds. "I knew I had the fight won before it even began. The day before the fight, my opponent brought his wife and his three kids to the weigh-in — I saw this as his first mistake." As soon as the bell rung, his opponent tried a kick which Chuck countered for the winning move. Currently, Chuck is preparing for his first professional fight by training with Scott Ray, Lamar's head martial arts instructor and Chuck's coach. "I'm ready to fight again," Chuck says. "Every time I get into the cage it feels like the greatest day of my life — and I can't wait to experience that feeling again."