We’ve seen as many MMA sponsors come and go over the last few years as we have fighters themselves, and with a fewnotableexceptions, they haven’t had much, if any, impact on the sport. That’s all about to change with the launch of FundAFighter.com, which helps fighters raise money to cover the costs of their training camps, travel, nutrition, or other MMA-related projects.
Developed by Tristar Gym‘s Firas Zahabi, the new site supports fighters in the planning and execution of “crowdfunding” campaigns in which they solicit donations directly from their fans in exchange for unique incentives like event tickets, autographs, fight-worn gear, or whatever rewards they are willing to give their backers. Oh, and did we mention that CagePotato veteran Mike Russell is handling PR for FundAFighter?
If the concept sounds vaguely familiar, there’s a reason for that — and it’s not just because crowdfunding is how we got Karmaatemycat to the TUF 14 tryouts last year. From the press release:
We’ve seen as many MMA sponsors come and go over the last few years as we have fighters themselves, and with a fewnotableexceptions, they haven’t had much, if any, impact on the sport. That’s all about to change with the launch of FundAFighter.com, which helps fighters raise money to cover the costs of their training camps, travel, nutrition, or other MMA-related projects.
Developed by Tristar Gym‘s Firas Zahabi, the new site supports fighters in the planning and execution of “crowdfunding” campaigns in which they solicit donations directly from their fans in exchange for unique incentives like event tickets, autographs, fight-worn gear, or whatever rewards they are willing to give their backers. Oh, and did we mention that CagePotato veteran Mike Russell is handling PR for FundAFighter?
If the concept sounds vaguely familiar, there’s a reason for that — and it’s not just because crowdfunding is how we got Karmaatemycat to the TUF 14 tryouts last year. From the press release:
When late, great former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner waved away corporate sponsors to instead give his fans the opportunity to contribute financially to his training camps in exchange for tangible rewards like signature shirts and autographed gear, his novel idea was met with praise from both fans and the media. Evan’s groundbreaking concept was what would later become known as crowdsourcing, more specifically crowdfunding – two methodologies whose names weren’t even coined until a year after he began practicing them.
Inspired by Tanner’s simple idea, this exciting and groundbreaking initiative was developed by Tristar Gym owner and revered MMA trainer Firas Zahabi and noted Montreal based entrepreneurs Robbie Stein and Greg Hoffman. The goal of Fund a Fighter is simple: Provide fighters with an alternative means of raising money for their next MMA-related project, while giving fans an alternative way to interact and support their favorite fighters. Think of it like Kickstarter for MMA.
That sounds pretty badass, but how will the impact the sport going forward?
“Zahabi thinks the new venture will change the landscape of the sport for the better, removing a lot of the financial roadblocks fighters face when preparing for fights, like affording travel, hiring coaches, and making sure that their nutritional needs are being met.”
Nice. So what fighters can fans currently sponsor?
“The company also announced today that FAF’s first two approved fighters with active fundraising campaigns on the site are current UFC featherweight Joey Gambino and The Ultimate Fighter 13 veteran, welterweight standout Chuck “Cold Steel” O’Neil.”
It all sounds pretty awesome when you think about it. We love watching great fights, and want these athletes to have everything they need to show up on fight night healthy and ready to put on a Fight of the Night performance. What better way to help make this possible than by becoming a member and donating a few bucks? C’mon, we both know you’re going to, even if only for an autographed jock strap.
Registration at FAF is free and open to the public, however no new fundraising campaigns will be approved until August. For more information and updates, follow FundAFighter on Facebook and Twitter.
Happy Independence Day, Potato Nation! In honor of today’s festivities we figured it was time once again to switch things up around here. For starters, we’re not going to tell you that the fight you were looking forward to has been rescheduled/tweaked/cancelled due to injury, nor will we bog you down with the latest trash talk between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. Instead, let’s play a patriotic game. We’ll give you a list of quotes and then you decide who said it, either a founding father or a famous (and I’m using that word lightly) MMA fighter. The answer key is on the next page. Let’s begin!
1. “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”Was this A.) Diego Sanchez or B.) Ben Franklin
2. “I let go of the disappointments and setbacks in my life and hang on to the promises of God for my future.” Was this A.) Phil Baroni or B.) John Adams
3. “And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.” Was this A.) Evan Tanner or B.) Thomas Jefferson
4. “I have not yet begun to fight!”Was this A.) Jon Jones or B.) John Paul Jones
Happy Independence Day, Potato Nation! In honor of today’s festivities we figured it was time once again to switch things up around here. For starters, we’re not going to tell you that the fight you were looking forward to has been rescheduled/tweaked/cancelled due to injury, nor will we bog you down with the latest trash talk between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. Instead, let’s play a patriotic game. We’ll give you a list of quotes and then you decide who said it, either a founding father or a famous (and I’m using that word lightly) MMA fighter. The answer key is on the next page. Let’s begin!
1. “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”Was this A.) Diego Sanchez or B.) Ben Franklin
2. “I let go of the disappointments and setbacks in my life and hang on to the promises of God for my future.” Was this A.) Phil Baroni or B.) John Adams
3. “And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.” Was this A.) Evan Tanner or B.) Thomas Jefferson
4. “I have not yet begun to fight!”Was this A.) Jon Jones or B.) John Paul Jones
5. “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Was this A.) Chael Sonnen or B.) George Washington
6. “One of the ultimate things that a human can learn is kindness for their fellow humans and understanding. As long as I can get the message out, that’s the important part.” Was this A.) Evan Tanner or B.) Patrick Henry
7. “We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Was this: A) Renzo Gracie or B) Benjamin Franklin
8. “You’ve always got a politician who puts the blame on the other ones saying ‘They did this, they did that. You should vote for me because they did this.’ He never does that. He just sticks to his beliefs and he doesn’t really point fingers. He doesn’t get into the mudslinging part of campaigning and I like that.” Was this A.) Jacob Volkmann or B.) Thomas Paine
9. “War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perseverance, by time, and by practice.” Was this A.) Tim Kennedy or B.) Alexander Hamilton
10. “They just have to remember… and reflect upon the sacrifices that were made to make this country what it is.” Was this A.) Brian Stann or B.) George Washington
11. “The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness.”Was this A.) Georges St. Pierre or B.) Benjamin Franklin
Alright, fight fans, “It’s time!” to get some…culture. Just like in the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece and the Modern Summer Olympics from 1924 to 1948, which held not only athletic contests but also art competitions, artists …
Alright, fight fans, “It’s time!” to get some…culture.
Just like in the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece and the Modern Summer Olympics from 1924 to 1948, which held not only athletic contests but also art competitions, artists whose works feature athletes truly complete humanity’s appreciation and promotion of sports.
In MMA, we are fortunate to have someone like Brad Utterstrom, who has dedicated his art to portraying mainly portraits of our renowned fighters—recent past and present. Yours truly is privileged to correspond with the artist and receive from him the links to his 11 personal favorites along with his personal thoughts on each piece.
Utterstrom is an alumnus of Western Oregon University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Art in 2002. In his own words, “During my final year at WOU, I did my first MMA related painting…a red, yellow, and blue acrylic of Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture. Since then, almost all of my artwork has been MMA related.”*
Enjoy this slideshow of samplings of the painter’s works: 11 portraits treated in different mediums and styles of artistic expression, with a sprinkling of thoughts from the artist on his creations as shared to this writer.
I also included brief backgrounds on each subject.
Yes, Mr. James Ladner, there’s inspiring and edifying beauty in the combat sport of MMA.
The artist will truly appreciate it if you will write down your favorite piece on the comments thread below.
(Damn, graphic design has come a long way in 11 years.)
On this day in MMA history 11 years ago, Zuffa LLC, the Las Vegas-based owners of the UFC took its newly-purchased traveling spectacle on the road for the first time to Atlantic City for UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk. The card featured five of the promotion’s present and future titleholders and was one of the better events in recent UFC history (at the time).
The main event of the night featured a middleweight (which would be later named the light-heavyweight division) championship bout between then-champ Tito Ortiz and the late Evan Tanner. Unfortunately for fans who were expecting a drag-out war between the pair, the fighter formerly known as “The Huntington Beach Badboy” had other plans. After a brief feeling out process, Ortiz scooped Tanner up, slamming the Team Quest fighter on his back and knocking him unconscious, adding a couple of stiff punches on the ground for good measure. The knockout would stand as the only one of Ortiz’s career.
(Damn, graphic design has come a long way in 11 years.)
On this day in MMA history 11 years ago, Zuffa LLC, the Las Vegas-based owners of the UFC took its newly-purchased traveling spectacle on the road for the first time to Atlantic City for UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk. The card featured five of the promotion’s present and future titleholders and was one of the better events in recent UFC history (at the time).
The main event of the night featured a middleweight (which would be later named the light-heavyweight division) championship bout between then-champ Tito Ortiz and the late Evan Tanner. Unfortunately for fans who were expecting a drag-out war between the pair, the fighter formerly known as “The Huntington Beach Badboy” had other plans. After a brief feeling out process, Ortiz scooped Tanner up, slamming the Team Quest fighter on his back and knocking him unconscious, adding a couple of stiff punches on the ground for good measure. The knockout would stand as the only one of Ortiz’s career.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/NeilJunz)
This video also featured the only known footage of Frank Shamrock being humble and complimenting Tito.
The co-main event saw Jens Pulver in a five-round fight for the first time in his career. Pulver, who had needed just 15 seconds to dispose of John Lewis in his first UFC bout at UFC 28 three months prior, went the distance with highly-ranked Japanese fighter Caol Uno and came out on top with a majority decision and the UFC bantamweight (145-pound) strap after 25 minutes.
(Video courtesy of VK/Andrey Slavin)
Also on the card, Sean Sherk defeated future Mr. Arianny Celeste, Tiki Ghosn, Phil Baroni decisioned Curtis Stout, Pedro Rizzo knocked out Josh Barnett and Elvis Sinosic tapped Jeremy Horn.
———-
UFC 130 February, 23, 2001 Trump Taj Mahal Atlantic City, New Jersey
(*Hello darkness, my old friend*…just to be clear, we’re referring to the darkness that accompanies being choked unconscious, not Jay Silva.)
To say that Kendall Grove has seen some ups and downs in his MMA career since winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter would be an understatement. After defeating Ed Herman by ultra close unanimous decision to earn the coveted glass plaque, Grove would tack up two more submission wins over Chris Price and Alan Belcher. It seemed as if the lanky middleweight had the world in the palm of his hand, destined to follow Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the new breed of MMA stars to make their name off the show.
And then it all fell apart.
Grove would drop his next two via form of KO to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, and though he would follow up the pair of losses with victories over Evan Tanner (R.I.P.) and Jason Day, we would never see Grove rise above the rank of gatekeeper in his UFC run. He would go 2-4 in his next six, and would be ousted from the UFC after dropping a UD to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 in Boetsch’s middleweight debut.
After scoring a quick submission win and evening the score with Joe Riggs, Grove out grappled Japanese sensation Ikuhisa Minowa at a Pro Elite event last month that we here at CP gave an official score of “meh.” Would last night’s SCC 4 card house “Da Spyda’s” first three fight win streak since 2007?
(*Hello darkness, my old friend*…just to be clear, we’re referring to the darkness that accompanies being choked unconscious, not Jay Silva.)
To say that Kendall Grove has seen some ups and downs in his MMA career since winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter would be an understatement. After defeating Ed Herman by ultra close unanimous decision to earn the coveted glass plaque, Grove would tack up two more submission wins over Chris Price and Alan Belcher. It seemed as if the lanky middleweight had the world in the palm of his hand, destined to follow Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the new breed of MMA stars to make their name off the show.
And then it all fell apart.
Grove would drop his next two via form of KO to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, and though he would follow up the pair of losses with victories over Evan Tanner (R.I.P.) and Jason Day, we would never see Grove rise above the rank of gatekeeper in his UFC run. He would go 2-4 in his next six, and would be ousted from the UFC after dropping a UD to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 in Boetsch’s middleweight debut.
After scoring a quick submission win and evening the score with Joe Riggs, Grove out grappled Japanese sensation Ikuhisa Minowa at a Pro Elite event last month that we here at CP gave an official score of “meh.” Would last night’s SCC 4 card house “Da Spyda’s” first three fight win streak since 2007?
Nope. Unfortunately, Grove would suffer the SECOND technical submission loss of his career when he was choked out by fellow UFC veteran Jay Silva via second round arm-triangle. Yeah, that Jay Silva. Grove has faced Ricardo Almeida and Demian Maia and managed to make it out alive, so props are due to Jay. With the win, Silva improves to 8-5, and Grove falls to 14-10.
In the night’s co-main event, other fellow UFC veterans John Gunderson and Justin Buchholz engaged in a back and forth affair that saw Gunderson lock up a kimura in the third round to claim the promotion’s inaugural lightweight title. TUF 11 veteran Jamie Yager was also in action, and improved to 6-2 with a unanimous decision victory over Danny Davis Jr.
Full results from SCC 4 are below.
-Jay Silva def. Kendall Grove via Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) at 1:52 of Round 2.
-John Gunderson def. Justin Buchholz via submission (Kimura)at 2:34 of Round 3.
-Jamie Yager def. Danny Davis Jr. via unanimous decision.
-Paulo Goncalves Silva def. Dominique Robinson via unanimous decision.
-Brandon Bender def. Marlin Weikel via submission (Triangle Choke) at 2:30 of Round 3.
-Walter Harris def. Anthony Hamilton via KO at 1:15 of Round 1.
-Jimmy Jones def. Joao Victor via submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:49 of Round 3.
All murder-suicides are shocking. Not all of them are entirely surprising.
On December 17th, 2008, UFC/WEC veteran Justin Levens and his wife Sara McLean-Levens were found dead inside their condominium in Laguna Niguel, California, both from gunshot wounds. Initial evidence suggested that Justin was the shooter. “It was a chest wound that penetrated her heart and killed her, and his was to the head,” said O. C. Sheriff Coroner’s Office spokesman Jim Amormino.
Amormino confirmed that painkillers and anti-depressants were discovered in the Levens’s home, along with the handgun Justin allegedly used to end their lives. Police had visited Justin and Sara at least twice in the previous month, once to investigate a possible drug overdose.
At the time of his death, Justin Levens was 28 years old and hadn’t won an MMA match in over two years. He’d gone 0-5 in 2007 — an agonizing year in which his close friend and IFL teammate Jeremy Williams committed suicide, also by shooting himself — and was dealt a six-month suspension by the California State Athletic Commission in July 2008 when a pre-fight drug test came back off-the-charts for the painkiller Oxymorphone. For the last five months of his life, Levens was unable to earn a living as a fighter, and fell deeper into a spiral of depression and prescription drug use.
Justin didn’t leave a suicide note. There were no signs of a struggle. He and Sara had already been dead for four days when their bodies were discovered.
All murder-suicides are shocking. Not all of them are entirely surprising.
On December 17th, 2008, UFC/WEC veteran Justin Levens and his wife Sara McLean-Levens were found dead inside their condominium in Laguna Niguel, California, both from gunshot wounds. Initial evidence suggested that Justin was the shooter. “It was a chest wound that penetrated her heart and killed her, and his was to the head,” said O. C. Sheriff Coroner’s Office spokesman Jim Amormino.
Amormino confirmed that painkillers and anti-depressants were discovered in the Levens’s home, along with the handgun Justin allegedly used to end their lives. Police had visited Justin and Sara at least twice in the previous month, once to investigate a possible drug overdose.
At the time of his death, Justin Levens was 28 years old and hadn’t won an MMA match in over two years. He’d gone 0-5 in 2007 — an agonizing year in which his close friend and IFL teammate Jeremy Williams committed suicide, also by shooting himself — and was dealt a six-month suspension by the California State Athletic Commission in July 2008 when a pre-fight drug test came back off-the-charts for the painkiller Oxymorphone. For the last five months of his life, Levens was unable to earn a living as a fighter, and fell deeper into a spiral of depression and prescription drug use.
Justin didn’t leave a suicide note. There were no signs of a struggle. He and Sara had already been dead for four days when their bodies were discovered.
*****
In a January 2006 Sherdog profile, writer Mike Sloan paints Justin Levens’s early childhood as a Dickensian nightmare:
“Imagine a dreary neighborhood where crack is sold on virtually every street corner, hookers are trying to sell themselves for some quick cash, dead dogs litter the curbs and vermin infest almost every house. Homeless people shacked up in rundown buildings with boards in place of windows and abandoned cars without tires are just an everyday circumstance. Try to imagine that but only worse and you might understand just exactly where light heavyweight contender Justin Levens used to call home.”
That home was a Southeast Philadelphia housing project where Levens lived with his mother, stepfather, and three siblings; according to a People.com obituary, Levens never knew his biological father. Their minority status — “we were the only white family in the whole neighborhood,” Levens said — made Justin an outcast and a constant target for physical violence. The experience turned him into a fighter, for better or worse.
“We finally moved out here to California [to get away from it all] but then I used to fight all the time out here, too,” Levens told Sloan in 2006. “I don’t know why I was always fighting; maybe I was an angry kid or something…People were always picking on me or saying rude things to me…I got into martial arts to deter myself from street fights. My parents were getting pissed at me all the time. They threatened to throw me out of the house. All kinds of crap. I had to grow up pretty fast and figure out what I was going to do with my life. I pretty much stopped getting into fights when I took up martial arts and got off the streets. I mean, I still got into a few fights, but that was pretty much it after that.”
After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, Levens found his spiritual home at Ruas Vale Tudo in Orange Country, headed by Brazilian MMA pioneer Marco Ruas. There, Levens was able to hone his natural aggression and gameness into ferocious weapons. He kicked off his professional MMA career with seven consecutive first-round stoppage victories from 2004-2005, leaving a trail of bodies in the Total Combat, Gladiator Challenge, and WEC promotions. Though he would lose his next fight in the WEC — a light-heavyweight title challenge against a beefed-up Scott Smith — the UFC had already taken notice.
(Justin Levens vs. Tony Lopez @ WEC 15, 5/19/05)
In April 2006, Levens was signed to fight middleweight Evan Tanner at UFC 59 as a short-notice injury replacement for Jeremy Horn. (Grim footnote: To our knowledge, this is the only UFC fight ever held between two competitors who later died.) Though Levens hoped to keep the fight standing, he wound up falling prey to Tanner’s infamous triangle choke, which came a little over three minutes into the first round of their fight. No shame in that, really; Tanner was a huge step up in competition, and Levens didn’t have the opportunity to put in a full training camp. But unbeknownst to him, Levens’s Octagon debut — fighting a former champion on the main card of a UFC pay-per-view event — was actually the pinnacle of his MMA career, and so much of his later mental anguish seemed to stem from that fact. His decline as a prospect came as quickly and dramatically as his ascension. It was all downhill from here.
The UFC re-booked Levens just two months later for a match against newcomer Jorge Santiago, in the first preliminary bout of UFC Fight Night 5. Early into the bout, Santiago landed a pair of knees from clinch that knocked Justin cold, giving him his second UFC defeat, and his third-straight loss overall. Levens was released by the promotion. He returned to California, and picked up the last two victories of his career that fall — a TKO against Justin Hawes under the WEC banner, and a technical submission against Brian Warren at a Beatdown in Bakersfield event. Twelve fights into his career, Levens had still never made it out of the first round.
(Jorge Santiago vs Justin Levens @ UFN 5, 6/28/06)
In 2007, the IFL debuted four new teams for its second season, including the Southern California Condors, led by Levens’s mentor Marco Ruas. Levens returned to light-heavyweight to compete for the Condors, while his friend Jeremy Williams was the team’s middleweight representative. The IFL gig could have been a springboard to even greater success for both fighters — perhaps a ticket back to the UFC for Jeremy. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way.
Levens struggled at his old weight class. In his first IFL appearance in January, he was out-wrestled by Reese Andy, losing a forgettable unanimous decision. Less than two months later, he was smashed by league standout Vladimir Matyushenko, losing by first-round TKO. Meanwhile, his partner Jeremy Williams was flourishing, submitting Bristol Marunde and Kaz Hamanaka at the same events, both by first-round triangle choke. Williams, who had taken a four-year hiatus from MMA competition to focus on coaching, was suddenly on a win streak again, and finally gaining some recognition in the sport — which made his sudden suicide all the more inexplicable.
(Levens and Williams demonstrate some submissions on ‘The Best Damn Sports Show Period,’ promoting the IFL’s second season.)
On May 5th of that year, Jeremy Williams pulled over to the side of Pacific Island Drive in Laguna Niguel and shot himself. He left behind two young daughters and a six-months-pregnant wife. According to an OCWeekly profile, Williams had moved into his parents’ house two weeks before he died due to marital problems. His suicide knocked the wind out of everybody who knew him. Said his close friend Chris Dinicola: “When you hear that classic line — ‘Oh, that’s the last person I would expect would do that’ — well, [Williams] was the last person I would expect to ever do that.” The coroner’s report on Jeremy confirmed that he had no drugs or steroids in his system at the time of his death.
Levens was “never the same” after Williams’s death. And yet, he competed at the next IFL event just two weeks later, filling in as Jeremy’s middleweight replacement. From the OCWeekly article:
Alternate Justin Levens, who fought in Williams’ place, couldn’t complete a prefight interview. “Jeremy was a great guy,” Levens said. Then he froze. His eyes welled up, and he lowered his head. Under his breath, he said, “I can’t fucking do this.” Levens was beaten badly in the first round by Brian Foster. Afterward, a television interviewer tried to speak to Levens again. He broke into tears and dodged the camera.
It would be Justin’s last appearance for the IFL. That fall, he suffered his fourth and fifth consecutive losses, dropping a decision to Nathan James and getting submitted via triangle-choke in a controversial Palace Fighting Championship bout against Kenny Ento.
(Justin Levens vs. Kenny Ento @ PFC 4, 10/18/07)
Grieving for his friend, and failing in his career, Levens turned to prescription painkillers to dull his emotions. His friends recognized that he was struggling, and did their best to offer help. One of those friends was Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio, Justin’s longtime friend and sponsor. Atencio offered him a payday on the undercard of his July 19th Affliction: Banned event, the clothing brand’s first foray into MMA promotion.
What should have been a chance at redemption for Levens turned into a total fiasco. Due to a delayed start-time for the event, Justin’s scheduled bout against Ray Lazama was canceled. Then, his pre-fight drug test came back positive for Oxymorphone. The California State Athletic Commission’s allowable threshold for the painkiller is 120 ng/mL; Levens registered a level of 10,141 ng/mL. In response, the CSAC hit him with a $1,000 fine and a six-month suspension. Levens didn’t bother to appeal the ruling. He would be dead less than five months later.
While Levens had a relatively public relationship with adult film actress Brittney Skye in 2007, his subsequent marriage to Sarah McLean was a low-profile affair by comparison. Then again, Levens was an increasingly private person in 2008, far away from the spotlight. Unless you knew him personally, you stopped hearing about him. And not even his close friends fully understood what he was going through in the last days of his life.
Here’s what we know: On the afternoon of Wednesday, December 18th, Sarah McLean’s mother visited the Levens’s condo in Laguna Niguel. She hadn’t been able to contact her daughter for five days, and became concerned. When she arrived, she found the bodies of Justin and her 25-year-old daughter lying together in bed, shot to death.
(Associated Press report on Levens’s death.)
*****
The eulogies and tributes that circulated following Justin’s death shared two general similarities: They all focused on what an amazing person Justin was, and they all acknowledged how irrevocably lost he was. Here’s Tom Atencio talking to People:
“Justin was a self-made man who literally fought his way to the top. He was a gentle soul who struggled with life. Anyone who grew up under his circumstances would struggle, and unfortunately it got the best of him. He just had some personal demons that he couldn’t overcome. Fighting was Justin’s life but it wasn’t going well for him,. I know he was considering leaving the sport. But Justin was a fighter, I don’t know what else he would’ve done…Justin had a rough life; he was a good kid and was trying to get on the right path. This is a total tragedy and all you can do is wonder. No one saw this coming in the manner in which it happened.”
That last line seems rather loaded; perhaps Atencio felt Justin’s death was inevitable, even if he wouldn’t have guessed that his friend would end his life by firing a gun through his wife’s chest and his own head. Justin’s former agent Ken Pavia echoed the sentiment:
“I saw him become disenchanted with his career and the sport,” he said. “I think every fighter has the earnest belief they’ll reach the pinnacle of the sport, but few do. For everyone that makes it, there’s hundreds and hundreds who don’t. So I as an agent worry about guys who have a series of losses. Justin’s a guy that held promise, but it just didn’t work out for him.”
Days after the tragedy, Justin’s ex-girlfriend Brittney Skye posted a set of personal photos of her and Justin (some of them mildly NSFW) on her MySpace profile, along with a goodbye letter that veered between heartbreak and self-blame:
THIS IS THE JUSTIN I KNEW AND LOVED! A GENTLE LOVING AND TOTALLY SILLY AT TIMES BUT ALWAYS PLAYFUL MAN THAT REALLY SHOWED ME WHAT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE WAS AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO LOVE LIKE THAT AND BE LOVED LIKE THAT. IM SO SORRY JUSTIN THAT I DIDNT HELP YOU MORE, I THOUGHT I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING FOR YOU. I THOUGHT I WAS BEING RESPONSIBLE AND NOT SELFISH BUT NOW I REALIZE I WAS WRONG. I THINK I COULD OF BROUGHT YOU PEACE AND I KNOW THAT YOU KNEW THAT. I WISH I HAD RESPONDED THE LAST TIME I SPOKE TO YOU DIFFERENTLY. I DIDNT REALIZE THING[S] WERE THAT BAD FOR YOU AND I HATE MYSELF FOR NOT TRULY LISTENING TO YOU AND I KNOW IT MUST OF BEEN HARD TO ASK FOR HELP AND I WISH I HAD BEEN A BETTER FRIEND FOR YOU. I WILL FOREVER REGRET NOT LETTING YOU BACK IN. I WILL FOREVER LOVE YOU AND NEVER FORGET YOU OR HOW YOU TAUGHT ME TO LOVE. I LOVED EVERY SECOND WITH YOU JUSTIN, WE NEVER HAD A BAD TIME OR A FIGHT. I JUST WISH I DIDNT LET THINGS COME BETWEEN US. IM SORRY I PUSHED YOU AWAY TO DEAL WITH YOUR PROBLEMS ALONE INSTEAD OF HELPING YOU WORK THROUGH THEM CUZ YOU REALLY DID MAKE ME HAPPY JUSTIN AND IM SAD I’LL NEVER HERE YOU LAUGH AGAIN.. I LOVED BEING YOUR ANGEL, NOW I GUESS YOU’LL BE MINE…. I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU JUSTIN!! RIP BABY
Not included in the pictorial tribute was this one of Levens mock-holding Brittney at gunpoint, which must have seemed like harmless fun at the time, and is now chilling to look at.
Levens is still listed on Marco Ruas’s website, although the language of his fighter bio has been changed to past-tense. And on a tribute page created by author Carol Gambill, Justin’s mother left her own testimonial:
Hello. I am Justin’s mother. I want to really thank the person who has made this site, it is beautiful and I think he would have appreciated it. Regardless of what the media portrayed, Justin had a family who loved him very much and we miss him every single day. The last time I saw him I told him I loved him more than anyone else in the world and I would happily die for him. I am glad I had the chance to tell him that. I think sometimes he forgot he wasn’t alone. Justin had a wicked sense of humor. He could make me laugh so hard. He would get this wry look on his face just before he let go a zinger. Justin was planning on moving out to Colorado to help me here with the farm. He loved it here and he loved the animals. He was hoping to make a fresh start. I think the darkness just got too [heavy] for Sara and him.
Justin will be having a niece or nephew born the end of April. This baby was conceived on or near Justin’s birthday. (Too much information for a mother to know, I know, but it’s so cool.) Justin was the most amazing dichotomy of a human being. He would quite happily beat the crap out of anyone, but if you needed help or you were an animal, you had a loyal and loving friend. When he was a little boy anytime we walked down the street I had to give money to the homeless people or I got such a lecture from him. I was in San Francisco recently with friends and we all went home broke from emptying our pockets in his memory. Next time you meet someone in need, give a little bit, in Justin’s honor.
