Fighting Rockstars and Homeless People. On the CBC and in a Tornado. Just a Nice little Thursday.

Last night I made my way down to Toronto from Sault Ste. Marie. This morning I got up early and went with my girlfriend to the Korean consulate to get our Visa processed. That was the last normal thing that happened.

I was looking to get a workout in so I got dropped off at Extreme Couture knowing that there was a jiu jitsu class I could drop in on. When I got there the gym was pretty empty (it was the middle of the day on a Thursday) so I started wrapping my hands to warm up with some rounds on the heavy bag. As I was getting ready Robin Black walked in. Robin Black is a former Canadian Rock Star turned pro MMA fighter. He had his own show on Much Music. He also just won the 135 lb title in Elite 1 MMA. Lots of people in the MMA community have given him a lot of grief and questioned his motives for competing in the MMA. He has been accused of being an attention seeker and using the sport as a publicity stunt. More on that later. Robin and I got talking for a while, partnered up and hit the bag on alternating rounds and then chatted about various things while we stretched. It turns out we have several mutual acquaintances in the MMA community. Robin was going to run one of the kickboxing classes, but found someone else to run it and instead came to the jiu jitsu class. Class was good. We worked on some techniques that fit into my repertoire pretty well and did a good amount of live rolling. After the class Robin told me to come train the rest of the week when he was in. He also invited me to give him a call the next day and come to a party he was throwing at the Bovine club in T.O. in celebration of his championship win. Rockstar Party. Sweet. Details and pictures to follow.

As for Robin Black the MMA athlete... The guy lives MMA. I obviously don't know the guy well but I think he is in this sport because he loves it. He works at Extreme Couture, he trains multiple times a day, he's in fighting shape and when he talks about the sport you can tell he has a genuine love for it. And the guy is legit. After working out and rolling with him I can honestly say he is for real which is more than can be said for most of the keyboard warriors who've been trashing him and his MMA credibility.

The rest of my day was also pretty interesting. I got interviewed by the CBC about some current issues. The camera man had a mini freak out when I said I was from Sault Ste. Marie because he grew up in the Sault and went to Korah. About 5 minutes later Lisa and I got assaulted by what I'm assuming was a homeless guy. Homeless or not he definitely had some serious and unmedicated mental issues. I'm not sure why he picked us but he came all the way across Dundas square looking directly at us and started to give us hell about being Scottish and Irish (Way off, by the way) and crying foul about what all the white people have done. He went on and on for probably ten full minutes, getting more aggressive and threatening all the time. He challenged me to fight, called me names, questioned my manhood, you know... all the good stuff. I really thought he was going to try and slug me and I was ready to duck a punch and hit him with a nice running double if need be, but it never came to that. Eventually a bystander found a security guard who escorted the obviously troubled fellow off of the premises.
Did I mention that while I was eating dinner the sky turned yellow, then green and opened up like floodgates? Not to worry though, that was just the precursor to several tornadoes touching down in the GTA. No big deal. Seriously... Tornadoes in Toronto.
So ends day one of my travels... We'll see what tomorrow brings.