Daniel Straus gets back on the horse, yet again

Former two-time Bellator featherweight champion Daniel Straus epitomizes the sport-defining maxim “Nana korobi ya oki” (Fall down seven times, get up eight).

Born into poverty in Ohio, Straus was on his own by the time he was a junior in high school. He supported himself, not always via legal means. A wrestling phenom, Straus was academically ineligible to go to states his senior year, but was given a wildcard slot in the NHSCA Senior Nationals, and won.

College wasn’t in his future; Florida and jail were. Straus was incarcerated from 2004-2007 on robbery charges. Then he discovered mixed martial arts, lost his first fight, won one, then lost one. 1-2 isn’t a storied start to a successful fight career, but Straus fought on.

He next went on a 21-2 tear, that culminated with beating Pat Curran for the Bellator featherweight championship, on November 2, 2013. In March he lost the title in a rematch. But Straus fought on.

The belt changed hands and he got a shot at new champion Patricio Freire, but lost. Straus fought on and got a second title shot at Freire, and won. Then he lost the trilogy fight.

Straus fought on, of course, but for the first time lost back-to-back fights, getting triangled by Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 184 on October 6, 2017.

Then came the fight of his life.

On December 17 around 3:00 a.m. Straus crashed his motorcycle with a passenger on the back. He was not impaired, but doesn’t fully recall what happened. The passenger was unhurt, but Straus was, terribly.

A week into recovery, Straus began to regain movement in his hands and feet. He had to learn to walk again, and he did. Eight months on he has left his previous gym, ATT, and has been training since early summer, currently at Xtreme Couture in Vegas. 

When this first happened and I was still recovering, I was crying because I couldn’t tie my shoe. I couldn’t sit at a table because I couldn’t pick up a fork. I couldn’t eat cereal. I couldn’t do a lot of things, said Straus to Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. So now to tie my shoes, to turn my head, to be able to walk — s***, to not even have to wear a neck brace — I’m very grateful. That’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this process, is patience and gratitude.

I think one of the things we really take for granted in life, in general, are the smallest things in the world. My first time of being smacked in the face with that reality was being in jail. Being locked up. To go through that in life and think, I’ll never be there again, and then to get tested in another way. It’s really humbling.

Straus hopes to find a coach who can help put him back together again, better. He wants to regain the Bellator belt for a third time, and is grateful to the promotion for standing by him throughout.

If I’m left here alone to build by myself, I’ll never be a world champion again,” he said. “Especially with people thinking, ‘Oh, he’s been hurt, let’s overlook this guy,’ or whatever. Well, that isn’t the case. If I can get with somebody that has enough patience and enough care and enough love to build me back, and who wants to see me do well, then boom — I’m a world champion again.

And Straus got back on the horse, literally. In early July he was back on a bike, pushing 170, miles per hour.

Going fast again is a mental thing,” he explained. “I’m trying to get back into the fight game. The one thing you can’t do if you’re getting back into the fight game is be scared. So, my first thing was, hey, you’ve got to get back on the bike. If you can get back on the bike, you can get back in the cage.