‘Joker’ Guymon delivers positive message
Mike Guymon was overcome with emotion as he fell to his hands and knees in the center of the octagon…
Mike Guymon was overcome with emotion as he fell to his hands and knees in the center of the octagon at Ultimate Fighting Championships 113 in Montreal.
All the years of training, all of the fights in other organizations, his battles with depression, it all came gushing out as the Woodbridge High graduate celebrated his first UFC victory over Yoshiyuki Yoshida on May 8, fewer than nine months after he attempted suicide by trying to provoke a police officer to shoot him.
It was just everything at once, it all came out, said Guymon, 36, who said his suicide attempt came after a dispute with his wife about divorce on Aug. 10, 2009.
That Yoshida fight, it was that road, everything traveled. The last year, just everything, I cried so hard. Backstage I had another good cry, probably harder than the one I had in the octagon. I just sat on my hands and knees crying my eyes out, thinking about all the stuff — and not just the stuff that happened to me — but people that supported me from Day One to the people now.
Guymon has come full circle in life and in his career as a mixed martial artist. The 15-year veteran gets a chance to fight in front of his hometown fans when he takes on Daniel Roberts at UFC 121 on Saturday night at Honda Center on pay-per-view.
For me, it’s all been a dream, Guymon said. Signing with the UFC, getting my first victory in the UFC and this is like a dream within a dream to be able to fight in my back yard at the Honda Center.