Plenty of fighters face challenges heading into bouts. Injuries, broken bones, and tweaks sustained over years of hard training can bother a fighter before a big fight. There’s nobody else facing the challenges ahead of Zion Clark, however, who was born with no legs, and just won his pro MMA debut. Clark, who was born with a rare birth defect called Caudal Regression Syndrome, discussed his MMA debut, and his plans to win a title, with MMAFighting.
“It could have been better. I’m going to be honest about that. I felt like I could have closed the distance a little bit more. I felt like I did an OK job keeping center mat and forcing him to the cage. That was a big point my coaches had — don’t give him room to move. If you’re going to go on offense, don’t give him room to move. If you’re going to go for counters, let him come to you.
MMA Fighter With No Legs Wins Debut
I feel OK, I feel good. Happy that I won but still a little too close for comfort for me on how it played out.” Clark took up wrestling in elementary school, and began training seriously after being adopted at age 16. Clark recalled leaving college and feeling the call of a career in mixed martial arts.
“I was leaving college at that point and I was starting to figure out what I want out of this life, what do I want to do? Initially, what propelled me to a lot of these places that I’ve gotten to? Martial arts. It’s something that I live, something that I breathe, so it was a no-brainer for me to join the team.”
Clark continued, explaining his philosophy. “I’m a martial artist first before everything. There’s no track and field without the basis of wrestling for me. There’s no breaking world records without the basis of wrestling for me. I’ve really circulated my life around this. Not that I’m obsessed, but more so that I’ve learned a lot of values and it’s helped me through some dark times.
Now I’m in a place where I can do some damage. Why not run this train off the rails? I try to keep it moving forward. I don’t want to ride the wave of this one fight. I want you guys to see the next one.
Take it all the way to the top. I want a belt. Simple. That’s as simple as it is. But for now, I’ve got to get there first, so I’ve got to focus and learn right now.”
Do you think Zion Clark can win a belt? Let us know in the comments.
