LeVon's Victory

 

This is LeVon Maynard after winning his fight at UWC Confrontation. He was a pleasure to watch in the cage, and a pleasure to chat with afterwards. As the night was wrapping up and I was realizing I didn't have enough material for my article yet, I raced backstage to see if there were any other local fighters I had missed. In one of those "too good to be true" moments, all of the fighters had just lined up in the hall to get paid- a captive audience! I went down the line, asking if there were any fighters from Virginia who I hadn't spoken to yet. LeVon spoke up, "You haven't talked to me yet."

Grateful for a friendly face, I whipped out my microphone and went down the list of canned questions I had prepared earlier. He gave me a gem for each one. At one point we were interrupted when it was his turn to get paid. After he came out of the office, he picked right up where he left off. I used some of his responses in my article and the editor chose to lead the story with this photo of LeVon:
 

I still think it's my best action shot of the night. The raised arm about to strike (again), the other fighter's hands raised helplessly, the face of the onlooker, and the ref rushing in to stop the fight... this is why I love MMA. The same event elicits such different emotions depending on the perspective.

A few days ago, LeVon emailed me to thank me for interviewing him. What a class act. Given that he was my best interview of the night, I think I owe LeVon a big thank you as well for being such a dynamic personality, both in and out of the cage. So thanks, LeVon!

oh... and good luck on Oct 27th! I don't think I need to tell you to kick some butt. ;-)