MMA helps former drug dealer turn life around
Two days after the robbery, Humphery started training for mixed martial arts with his younger brother and kicked his drug-dealing life to the dust during the transition.
Michigan amateur MMA fighter Darryol Humphery had an uncle by the same name in Flint, Michigan. In 1987, a then 17-year-old member of a drug dealing gang shot the gang head to death, as well as five others, including the fighter’s uncle. The gang head had repeatedly behaved disrespectfully towards the killer, and the others were witnesses.
The younger Darryol Humphery could have grown up with this uncle’s murder as a warning, but instead it gave him credibility on the street. In 2010 Darryol was delivering two pounds of marijuana on Flint’s north side, when he was robbed at gun point of his drugs, and nearly his life.
Within two days he had quit dealing and started MMA. Eric Woodyard has the story, for MLive.com.
During the robbery, all Humphery said he could see was the face of his oldest daughter, Dy’mond, flash before his eyes as the guys blasted shots past the side of his head to scare him.
Humphrey fled the scene once the men took off, luckily without any major injuries outside of severe ear-ringing from the shots fired.
“I promised that day that I would never sell nothing else,” Humphery pledged. “That’s a way to make fast money and I can’t knock anyone who does, but that’s not a way to live your life.”
Two days after the robbery, Humphery started training for mixed martial arts with his younger brother and kicked his drug-dealing life to the dust during the transition.
Four years later, Humphery, now 25, is heading into his final amateur MMA fight this Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Birch Run Expo Center as the main event on the United Fight League’s “Dreams” fight card.
Humphery’s 125-pound UFL title is on the line versus Loc Houck.
“Darryol has belts from some of the major leagues in Michigan,” UFL owner Joe Shaw said of Humphery. “He’s the real deal.”
The freestyle, mixed martial arts style used by Humphery was developed through wrestling at Flint Central High School and boxing for a few months at Berston Field House, but neither one of those sports cured his fight hunger. He found thrill through MMA.
“He’s an in-your-face, aggressive fighter and it’s hard for me to get him to step back out of the pocket because he likes to press people and strike first,” said Kelly True, Humphery’s trainer on the True Fighter Fight Team. “He’s really talented. His technique is on a pro level, his hands are always up and he’s always moving around. He’s definitely ready for the pro level, without a doubt.”
Humphery wants to enter the professional stage with the momentum of this bout behind him.
“Honestly, when I go into the cage I don’t feel no pressure,” said the father of three, who is expecting another daughter in February. “If you have any type of fear or doubts going into the fight, then it’s already lost. If you’re going to give your fight away then you might as well not even go in the cage and waste nobody’s time.”
Images via Laura McDermott
