The Toughest Guy I've Ever Met

I’ve been pretty blessed throughout this Operation Jack journey. I’ve met a lot of great, interesting people. I’ve met a lot of people who inspire me and really, I frequently think about how amazing it’s been to go down this path.

Well, the toughest person I’ve ever met in my life is a guy named Jared Hamman. Jared is a professional UFC fighter and is somebody I really admire. He’s extremely tough, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but he has amazing character. He found me on Twitter and we started talking and we’ve chatted periodically for the past 18 months or so. He’s a very strong Christian and living a life that would be pleasing to God is hugely important to him. He’s one of a small group of people who really inspire me. Just like everybody else in this world, I’m an imperfect person and sometimes, when I know I’m thinking about going down the wrong path, I think of people like Jared, or some other friends of mine with great character, and I think, “What would these friends of me think of me right now?” He’s one of those kinds of people, someone I’m grateful to have crossed paths with.

I met him in January out in California. He was making an appearance at a church about 30 minutes from where I lived, so I went out to the service. The pastor was interviewing him, talking about when he played college football, his days fighting in the 205-pound class and then in the 185-pound class. It was interesting hearing him talk about his life as a fighter and the pastor asked a simple question: What’s your goal?

“To know Him and make Him known.” Simple as that. That’s character I can get behind. That’s a guy I can root for. We had planned to catch up there and I went and waited for the autograph line to disperse and then I talked to him. He jumped at me and gave me a big bear hug, which startled me a little bit. 185 pounds of a UFC fighter is like 220 pounds of anybody else and really, who wants a UFC fighter jumping towards them and giving them a bear hug? Yikes!

The first words out of his mouth were, “Where’s Jack?” (Click here if you don’t know who the Jack in Operation Jack is). He was bummed he wasn’t there because he really wanted to see him. Good guy, caring guy. He admires what I’ve done, just like I admire what he does, plus his wife used to work with autistic children and they do charity work to help fight autism. Like my family, he and his wife also recently moved to the Denver area from Southern California (he beat me by three months, though).

Anyways, he had a fight on Saturday night. Every time I checked with him, he said his training was going great. He was having a great cycle up at altitude and he was really excited to fight in UFC 150 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, just a few miles from his home. I was sooooo excited for him. I had to go to Atlanta for my mom’s 60th birthday party, but I made sure I was able to sneak away for a little bit when his fight came on. My mom wasn’t thrilled, but it ended up being OK.

Now, he has a reputation for being tough, but what he did is about the toughest thing I’ve ever heard of. Makes me feel like a sissy for ever complaining about pain in a marathon. He tore his hamstring fairly early in the first round of the fight but kept on going into the second round. He ended up losing the fight, but he TORE HIS HAMSTRING and continued to fight on it for the better part of a full round.

He delivered good shots, got up off the mat after takedowns, took kicks to his TORN HAMSTRING and kept on fighting. Now, I think Jack is pretty tough for what he goes through on a daily basis. And I think my wife Tiffany is extremely tough for everything she does fighting for him. But from a straight-up physical standpoint, I don’t know that I’ve ever witnessed anything as tough as that. On Twitter yesterday, he said he knew it was torn but stepping down was not an option.

I’ve heard that people are getting on my corner for letting me go 2nd rnd. Ridiculous, It was my call. knew it was torn but you never Quit

I don’t think anybody reading this can really understand being willing to do that, but he’s a tough guy and that’s what he does for a living. He’s been to the hospital and he’s having surgery this week. So I’m just praying that the surgery goes well and he recovers quickly. I’m also hoping he stays in the UFC. Young fans need more role models like him — people who live to please the Lord, who spend lots of time volunteering, who talk the talk and walk the walk. I’m hoping he stays on the big stage, where the spotlight is brighter and more people see him.

He inspires me. He has incredible character. And he’s the toughest guy I’ve ever met.