ALL of my work is in this portfolio. Below you can see some of my highlighted pieces.

The name Rousimar Palhares will go in one ear and out the other of most who entered MMA circles this decade. But those who watched limb ripped from limb during Palhares’ prime years know he left a mark. The controversial Brazilian was a specialist of the highest degree — a submission artist, but not the kind with an extensive bag of tricks. Palhares mostly knew one trick, but it was a good one. It delivered results. It's why all his opponents, whether they won or lost, never forgot him. There is a vast difference between modern MMA and the sport’s origins as 1990s “human cockfighting,” and Palhares competed in the UFC well after rules were established. He just happened to fight like there weren't any. In fact, you could say the very idea of rules was a thorn in the infamous leg-lock master’s side. And in the end, he paid the ultimate price.

We tend to look back at MMA’s early days as a volatile, unpredictable and borderline unhinged collection of bizarro pugilism loosely defining the “era.” Japan’s all-women fight promotion Smackgirl, founded in 2001, couldn't have matched that description any better during its eight-year existence. As its principals will tell you now, few of them had any clue what they were doing — whether it was the fighters or the people running the company. Those who did made the most of their experiences, but they still hold obscured spots in the MMA history books.

Like any sport, MMA also has its fair share of notable pioneers and figures that helped build it up to where we are today. Becoming ‘Mega Megu’: The Megumi Fujii story provides an in-depth look into the mind of a woman who crafted a lasting, yet overshadowed, legacy in the world’s fastest-growing sport.

All it takes is one perfectly placed punch and any man or woman can defeat another in a fight — no matter how wide the contrast in experience or skill. On one fateful Saturday night in October 2003, that couldn’t have been personified any better than it was by 25-year-old Danny Lafever. With 17 years in the rear-view mirror, Kalama, Washington’s Lafever currently lives his life as a union carpenter building scaffold. A profession he’s been entrenched in for 13 years and counting.

Margaret Carr covered her ears and released a shriek of terror upon discovering her son with his leg twisted completely backward. Looking down the stone road, she saw an injured and disoriented Randi Field. It was unknown if the eighth-grade student would survive and when police arrived on the scene they expected a fatality on their hands. If not for eight-year-old Brandon Carr, there wouldn’t have been any speculation.

A regular summer Sunday turned into a day Tom Theocharis will never forget after trouble ensued over 5,000 miles away. With his girlfriend vacationing in Greece, the Stratford, Ontario, Canada native began to worry after their text conversation ceased mid-way through. Fighting to contact the Greek police, Theocharis attempted to make sense of things, inevitably finding out an irreversible accident had occurred. Nearly a year removed from the death of his partner and it’s all still a reality that...

At a glance, you'd probably never think there's anything to the woman who flashed her breasts at an entire arena after delivering a devastating jab-to-uppercut first-round finish. You know what I'm talking about if you were a combat sports fan in late 2022. It was the rare bare-knuckle boxing viral moment that buzzed loud enough to reach mainstream media. But that's all it looked like: A substanceless five minutes of fame from an attention-seeking unknown. In reality, it was simply Tai Emery bei...

Yokohama Arena, 1997. The UFC's first-ever event in Japan. Five thousand fans are in attendance on a cold December night as Kazushi Sakuraba makes history, being crowned as the first and only Japanese fighter to hold UFC gold of any kind. He wins an openweight tournament, not a championship, but it's the start of a legacy, not just for Sakuraba, but Japan's rich mixed martial arts history and rise to prominence in a fledgling sport.

At UFC 248 earlier this month, Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk put on an instant classic inside the Octagon. As soon as it was over, many in the MMA community were praising it as one of the very best fights of all-time – regardless of gender. And for very good reason. With that in mind, the contest automatically went to the peak when discussing MMA fights involving female athletes. So where exactly does it fall among the very best? Is it easily No. 1?