Big Pygmy fighting for the forgotten TONIGHT
Pygmy chief to Justin Wren: “Nobody knows what’s happening to us. Nobody knows our suffering. We don’t have a voice. Will you help us have a voice?”
The MMA fighter getting the must publicity today is not Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey. He made the front of CNN.com and ESPN.com did a feature. His Kickstarter is the number one film project on there in popularity at present. He did NBC, ABC, and CBS news in LA Yesterday. His book is on preorder for half price. He did the JRE, TFATK, and more, all in the last two days.
And Justin Wren fights Josh Burns at Bellator 141 on Friday, after a layoff of five years.
Jeremy Botter did a tremendous longer form piece on Wren’s great, great, great journey, very briefly excerpted below. Wren was a star high school wrestler with realistic Olympic aspirations, who transitioned smoothly to MMA, getting into the UFC.
In a narrative far too common in combat sports, he was severely injured, became addicted to pain pills, and fell into a spiral of recreational drugs. He fought his way out of addiction through his faith in Jesus Christ, and then had a vision. It was of the poorest, most despised people in the second poorest country on Earth, the enslaved “forgotten people.” Wren fought for the forgotten people, and now has returned to the US, and remains a fighter, in every sense.
Do yourself a favor and skip to the link a bottom so you can read the whole thing.
Justin Wren knelt and leaned over Andibo, an 18-month-old infant who had grown to mean so much to him since inexplicably he found himself here, in the stirring wilds of the African Congo.
Andibo suffered from a parasitic infection all too common in the region. His mother, a widowed slave, had offered the local hospital eggs, a chicken and a bag of charcoal to purchase the treatment that would save Andibo’s life; it equaled roughly $1. But the doctor in charge of the facility refused care, saying that he wouldn’t waste medicine on a pygmy “animal.”
A few years earlier, Wren was a UFC fighter. Now, he felt helpless as he watched the child take his last breath.
Wren helped fashion shovels made from tree branches. He and his friends dug a tiny grave. They buried Andibo in a casket Wren had purchased for $50.
His hands ached, blistered from the rough stick used to dig the grave. He was filled with sadness, desperation and anger. He didn’t know what he could feasibly do.
After Wren buried Andibo, the Pygmy chief came to him.
“Nobody knows what’s happening to us. Nobody knows our suffering. We don’t have a voice,” the chief said. “Will you help us have a voice?”
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He created a foundation, Fight for the Forgotten. He helped purchase 2,470 acres of land that was given to the Pygmies. They began digging water wells, one at a time. Today, Fight for the Forgotten has dug 25 wells, with more on the way.
He began working with agriculturists, bringing seeds to the region and teaching the Pygmies how to grow and harvest their own crops. He helped create a food source that did not exist before he arrived the first time.
The Pygmies, once fearful of the massive Wren, accepted him as one of their own. They gave him two names: Efeosa, which means “the man who loves us,” and Mbuti MangBo, which means “the big pygmy.” Today, the organization has 20 full-time employees.
One night, Wren was with his fiancee under the forest canopy. They had no mosquito net, and roaches fell from the trees above and landed on her, who had never camped outside before.
Wren had a realization. What if he returned to mixed martial arts and used it as a platform to spread awareness of the Pygmy people?
He’d spent over four years carefully stomping out his own desires to fight. He was terrified that if he returned to fighting, the addictions would return.
Wren talked to Scott Coker, the president of Bellator MMA. Wren still didn’t feel entirely sold on the idea, mostly because he was still wary of the ghosts of the pasts returning to haunt him
Coker told him that Bellator would give him a platform to share his story and the story of the Pygmy people. Wren decided to move forward with it and signed with Bellator. He will debut on Friday night against Josh Burns at Bellator 141.
Wren plans on donating 100 percent of his win bonuses to the cause. He’ll speak out for the Pygmy people and give them the voice they lack, but he will also use his financial gains to help dig more wells, buy more seeds and replant trees that have been deforested by those seeking to exploit the land’s rich minerals.
The Big Pygmy is back, and he is no longer fighting for himself.
