When Kyle Maynard decided to try high school wrestling, plenty of people thought he couldn't do it because he was born with congenital amputation of both forearms and both lower legs. But Maynard, who didn't just compete but won most of his high school wrestling matches, showed that he could do it.
Once he was done with wrestling, Maynard decided to turn his attention to mixed martial arts, and then the attitude toward him changed: Not only did many people think he couldn't do it, but a lot of people thought he shouldn't do it, and that, if necessary, the authorities should step in to stop him from doing it.
Eventually Maynard did get his amateur MMA match (he lost by decision), and the route he traveled to get to that match is the subject of a new documentary, A Fighting Chance, which can be viewed in full here after the interview.
In an interview with MMAFighting.com below, Maynard explained why he wanted to fight and what's next in his life.
Michael David Smith: This documentary does a pretty thorough job of explaining why you wanted to fight, but I'm sure you still get the question all the time. So why did you want to fight in MMA?
Kyle Maynard: Just to experience it. I'm not looking to be a professional fighter and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again, but I think life is meant to be lived through experiences. Some people think it's about collecting things or collecting money, but to me it's about doing stuff. I'm such a huge fan of MMA that I wanted to have that experience.
How did you become an MMA fan?
I became a real fan around UFC 40, started getting really into it, and then at UFC 46 Randy Couture invited me out to his locker room for his fight. I was 17 at the time and it was my first live exposure to the sport. It was an unbelievable night.
You obviously have a great passion for the sport, but the documentary goes into a lot of detail about the people who said that no matter how badly you wanted to do it, you had no business fighting, that you'd get hurt, that you couldn't pass a typical pre-fight physical. Did any of those people have a point?
Yes, I can see that viewpoint, if I look at it completely objectively, I can totally see the skepticism. My problem was that the athletic commission in Georgia said I could fight, and then when the heat was put on them they came back and wouldn't let me do it. So that left me without much choice but to go fight in Alabama, where there was no commission to stop it. Some people called it a freakshow and didn't want me to do it, but I just can't let other people's opinions control what I do.
And then there were really nasty things posted online, and I began to feel sorry for some of those people who said what they said. People said they wanted someone to come take a chainsaw to them so they wouldn't have arms and legs and they could fight, too. People said they wanted to beat me up so badly that I'd never want to compete again. And I'm guessing most of the people who would say those things would never have the courage to step into a cage and fight. Ultimately, the experience, to me, was so worth having, and it ended up being one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
People posting anonymous comments on the Internet can be incredibly cruel. Were you shocked by some of the things people wrote about you?
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I had never experienced anything like that before. In the past people who saw my story and took it as inspirational, but then when I wanted to try MMA all of a sudden I was controversial. But people can spin any story negatively. It doesn't matter what it is -- it's not like hateful comments from anonymous fans are unique to MMA. My sisters have been involved in cheerleading, and there are parents of cheerleaders who will go online and post outrageous things about other cheerleaders.
You mentioned the term "freak show," which your sister said in the documentary really bothered her. Did it bother you, too?
Not really. My sisters have always been really protective of me. If I bring home a girl they don't approve of it's really bad, or if someone stared at me at the supermarket they'd get bothered by it. My sister actually went online and replied to some of the people who had written bad stuff about me, but then a bunch of people started posting awful things about her, too.
The member of the Georgia Athletic Commission who wanted to prevent you from getting licensed to fight was also disabled. Did it bother you that a person with a disability was using your disability to keep you from fighting?
He was a police officer who was shot in the back, and he's actually a really nice guy. I was disappointed with the fact that the commission betrayed me, I thought, but I don't have hard feelings personally. Looking at it from the perspective of those people on the commission, I think they thought they needed to protect themselves. It wasn't so much protecting me, but they were afraid that if I got hurt in Georgia, it would look bad. The concern for my health was not the priority.
But you did fight and you made it through the fight healthy. Do you want to fight again?
I wouldn't rule it out, but I'm out of shape right now because I've been focused on my motivational speaking, traveling around the world doing that. But I love doing jiu jitsu and my instructor, Paul Creighton is a great guy and I think the most underrated MMA coach in the country and only isn't better known because he's so humble. He was a fighter -- he fought B.J. Penn in the UFC -- and he's just a phenomenal, phenomenal guy.
I'll always do jiu jitsu. That has been my biggest passion athletically. I absolutely love it, even more than MMA and even more than wrestling. And I view it as a lifetime sport. I know people at the gym in their 60s who are still training.
If fighting isn't in your future, is it safe to say motivational speaking always will be?
Yeah, I live in Atlanta but I've been gone the last month, speaking in Costa Rica, then Los Angeles, then Virginia. But I don't know what the future's going to hold. I try not to pigeonhole myself into one thing. I love variety and experience in life, and if I've got an opportunity to go after, I'll go after it.
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When Kyle Maynard decided to try high school wrestling, plenty of people thought he couldn't do it because he was born with congenital amputation of both forearms and both lower legs. But Maynard, who didn't just compete but won most of his high school wrestling matches, showed that he could do it.
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