My Journey From Kicking Pads to kicking Cancer’s Ass
by Greg Nelson
Thai Boxing has been one of the driving forces to who I am today. A lifelong athlete, martial artist and wrestler, my life was forever changed when I was introduced to Ajarn Rick Faye in the summer of 1983. Upon beginning my journey under his tutelage, I was introduced to Guru Dan Inosanto and shortly after that Ajarn Chai. It was in 1985 at the Smokey Mt Camp where I fully found how genuine, intense and passionate Ajarn Chai was for Thai Boxing and his students. Not knowing I was suppose to bring a sleeping bag and tent, Ajarn Chai set up a bed next to his in the instructor’s quarters despite objections from some of the other instructors. It was the second time I had met him, yet he fought for me, a student he barely knew. His show of compassion was soon added to by his relentless pursuit to push every student to their limits, and sometimes beyond….I was hooked!
My years of wrestling had built the foundation of discipline, hard work, pushing my limits, and the love of combat sport, Thai Boxing became the continuance of that love. Not only did I find the art that fed my appetite for extreme training, but I also found a task master to guide my development and push my limits. I had a sick desire to drive my body as hard as I could and I now had a role model that had the same desire to oblige those wishes. As my training continued I took every chance to travel to every camp and seminar I could to train with Ajarn Chai. Everyday I did padwork with Ajarn Rick Faye as nothing else could give me so much glorious pain. Thai pads and the standard set by Ajarn would have unforeseen benefits in the future.
In 1989 I took my first trip to Thailand and stayed with Ajarn Chai at the Sirisute family house. I was so blessed to be with his mother, father and all his sisters, they treated me as family. Not only did I get to experience their hospitality, but also got to see the beauty of the Thai culture. It was on this trip that Ajarn Chai brought me to train at Sor Prantalay the home of the great Rainbow Sor Prantalay. I was the first farang to train at this camp and was given a pair of Rainbow’s shorts. It was this trip that increased my love for the clinch as Ajarn would show me the finer points in the driveway of the Sirisute home.
In 1990 I spent my summer in California and stayed at Ajarn’s house much of the time. Again, I was blessed to have Ajarn work with me breaking down the finer points of technique and drilling the importance of stance and form. Coming back to Minnesota I had a renewed vigor and eventually opened my own school in 1992 with the hopes of training Muay Thai and eventually fighting. The first Pacific Northwest Muay Thai Camp was at the same time period. Everyone there pushed hard, we were driven hard and we fed off each others desire and drive. Our leader was relentless and we did our best to be like him. Through that camp I have made some great friendships that have lasted the test of time, Frank Cucci, Mark McFann, Terry Gibson (RIP), to name just a few. Now 27 years later I am still making friends at that same camp.
In August of 1993 our hard work and time finally got to put on display. After a week of training with Ajarn at the Wisconsin camp, my team and I headed to St. Andrews Gym in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago. There I along Dean Lessei, Marius Dan, Troy Ninedorf fought in the first Muay Thai fights in the Midwest. I brought all the years of training and the fire lit by Ajarn Chai into that ring and made sure everyone knew this was not kickboxing. Everyone of the fighters that represented the TBA that night had their hand raised, training to fight in the ring was now a reality in the Midwest.
That weekend propelled us to train even harder, but now we had fights to look forward to. The Academy fight team was officially launched and has been training and fighting ever since. I went back to Thailand in 1992, 1994 and then to coached Team Muay Thai USA in 1996 at the Prince’s Cup. Again, it was ultimately the Sirisute family that got us to where we needed to be so our team could fight. Our hard work paid off as Kurt Podany won the Gold and James Cook the Bronze. Our small team of 4 fighters and a coach were one of the 32 teams from around the world, and we brought home 2 medals. Since then we have had fighters train and fight not only in Thailand, but in Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Holland, Japan, Poland and across the US.
Since that day in 1984 when I met Ajarn Chai at the Degerberg Academy in Chicago the way I trained and looked at fighting was fundamentally changed.
It started a fire that pushed me to train, probably many times, too hard, but pushing my limits became a lifestyle. We never know where our life will lead us, but for me training and fighting became who I was. The daily grind of heavy bag, Thai Pads, sparring and clinching hardened my body and mind. Without knowing it I was training for a fight that would bring me to my knees. That fight came in 2002 when I was diagnosed with Stage IV Liver Cancer. The scans showed 2 tumors on my liver, spleen and kidney involvement, they told Vee, my wife at the time, “Get your affairs in order.” She was given a dismal prognosis, but all I knew was how to push through pain and fight. I fought and beat that first cancer after 6 months of chemo, but now came round 2. Pain started to rip through my legs and eventually I lost my ability to walk. I was transferred down to Rochester Mayo Hospital and battled searing pain, that baffled the doctors. As my body was ripped to shreds by shots of Methotrexate into my spine, high doses of morphine, being sedated by 48 hour ketamine drips and cut into in attempts to find the problem, they finally found cancer in my sciatic nerve. I was diagnosed with Neurolymphomatosis. At that time there were only 33 known cases of this rare and fatal cancer. However, I too was forged by Thai Boxing to be a rare individual and fatal to cancer. Through the efforts Vee, my kids Nina and Gunnar, my mom, and all my family and friends, my doctors at Mayo (Ghobrial IM, Buadi F, Spinner RJ, Colgan JP, Wolanskyj AP, Dyck PJ, Witzig TE, Micallef IN, O’Neill BP.), and the grit and the “fight until I die” mentality developed through years of brutally intense Thai pads and training, I became the first survivor of this cancer. I battled through the pain long enough for the doctors to use me as a guinea pig until they eventually gave me a stem cell transplant, and it worked.
The drive and desire to excel in Thai Boxing was now shifted to my desire and drive to walk, then eventually train. Despite going through chemo, bald and bloated by prednisone I surprised everyone and still made it to Thai Boxing camp. There was no way cancer was going to keep me from camp! The man that showed me the art of Muay Thai, instilled a ‘never say die’, never give in, never give up, never quit and push through every barrier attitude would not be denied. I owe Ajarn Chai and the art of Thai Boxing more than I could ever repay. Therefore, I do my best to pass it on the best way I can to as many people as I can. My hope is, that those that are fortunate enough to learn and train in Muay Thai will develop far more than the fighting prowess of this proven art, but they find the spirit that drives Ajarn Chai to give his everything for everyone he meets. May you all catch the fire that burns in my soul to push and persevere, that was lit by the man that is a living example of dedication, drive and sacrifice that has given his all so we can become better human beings.