Andy Ogle’s new life as a prison officer

One of the appeals of mixed martial arts over its grandfather, boxing, is speed. Things happen faster.

The media around MMA too is faster – a card that starts at 6:00 p.m. ET and ends after midnight can be captured in a few Gifs.

However, Chuck Mindenhall sometimes take the opposite approach, doing more long-form pieces than is the norm, and they are needed and awesome.

He recently profiled retired UFC featherweight Andy Ogle.

‘The Little Axe’ lost his second fight, but then went on a seven-fight win streak. That got him on The Ultimate Fighter 15: Live. He beat Brendan Weafer to get on the show, then tapped out Mike Rio, before losing to Al Iaquinta. The UFC gave every fighter on the show a shot in the world’s dominant league.

He lost a split decision to Akira Corassani at UFC on Fuel TV: Struve vs. Miocic on 29 September 2012. Then he bounced back with a win over Josh Grispi. Next, he was supposed to fight Conor McGegor at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen August 17, 2013, but pulled out with an injury. Ogle was replaced with Max Holloway, who took ‘Notorious’ to a decision.

Ogle then lost four in a row, was cut, and retired from fighting. He is now 27, and works in a different cage, as a corrections officer, or as it is referred to in England a prison officer. in Newcastle upon Tyne.

“So now I’m a prison officer, and I’ve got to kick ass in a different way,” he says. “Still with love, and still with devotion. Still with a lot of care. Guys here are being dragged up, they’re not raised. If I didn’t compete in martial arts when I was younger, it could have been me.”

“There’s like murderers in there, and rapists and everything. It’s a totally different world. I don’t know, no two days are the same. It’s pretty wild, and it’s pretty cool.”

“A lot of these guys just made stupid mistakes. They didn’t know how to navigate their aggression or their testosterone. A lot of them are like, Mr. O, boss, boss, boss, I wish I had gone down that path. And I say, when you get out, just start doing a little bit of kickboxing and keep yourself on the straight and narrow.”

“When I first started fighting, I loved fighting. It was all I ever thought about. Hindsight is kind of 20/20. I never really needed it. If you make it really well, you’ll be able to pay your way. But unless you’re the naught-point-one percent, there’s got to be life after it. There’s been a lot of fighters, who’ve had a lot of head trauma and the resulting factor is that life afterwards is slurred speech. You’re putting a lot of risk even trying to make it. You’re putting all your eggs in one basket. For some guys, it’s because they’ve got nothing else. For me, it was because I loved to do it.”

“I didn’t want to be like, ‘this is my story, I was…’ I want it to be like, ‘this is my story, this is what is.’ That was a chapter, and the next chapter is I’m an officer, and I’m thinking with the same dedication, the same determination, there’s nothing to say I can’t change a few people’s lives in the prison.”

Ogle does have a long term plan. He wants to be the governor of the gaol.

“I want to delegate,” he says.

Read entire long-form article…
Follow author Chuck Mindenhall on Twitter…