Last week Matt Hamill visited California School for the Deaf Fremont. Joey Baer video-taped the visit last week where Matt spoke to the crowd and inspired wrestlers with some inspirational speeches before the Deaf Prep National Wrestling Tournament. His mantra? Never give up!
The beginning part of the video shows Matt's earlier wrestling years in a championship wrestling match. A career record of 89 wins and 3 losses. Then the UFC/TUF fight follows next. And the rest of the tape shows him while visiting CSDF and doing his inspirational speeches.
Who knew that Matt would become the first Deaf UFC fighter and go pro? Matt and I had some discussion last year via AIM about his indecisiveness on whether he should continue with his Olympic wrestling dream or try and hopefully turn pro as a UFC fighter. I even set up a poll which may have helped him decide. We talked about 15 or 20 minutes privately on this subject. It was a trying time for him to try and decide what he wanted to do. This was done after TUF3 was shown. I simply suggested that he think hard on this matter and follow his heart and feelings, and which area would show him to be a role model. His passion is still wrestling and the video shows it. It's the one thing that he can reach out and inspire younger kids. It was his 27 years of wrestling that helped establish a strong foundation for Matt that will certainly help him turn pro in the UFC circuit.
Hattip: Of course, Joey Baer.
Check out all the latest blogs on Matt Hamill in Kokonut Pundits.
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