O  & P Business News  Cover Story

April 15, 2004   

Against All Odds: Ron Mann Takes Mixed Martial Arts to the Next Level

Despite his transtibial amputation, Mann defied martial arts teachers, faulty prostheses and even himself to become a no-holds-barred ultimate fighter.

  By Dan Pastorius

April 15, 2004

Hailing from the innermost sports grounds of Brazil, mixed martial arts could possibly be the world’s most dangerous mode of combat. In incorporating all forms of fighting — including karate, boxing, wrestling and virtually every subcategory of hand-to-hand combat imaginable — this intense style of competition falls into an ”anything goes“ type of classification. There are no rules, penalties or illegal moves involved in the sport. As far as fighting methods go, it is easily one of the toughest, most aggressive techniques around.

 Competing or training in mixed martial arts is obviously not for the faint of heart, much less someone missing a limb. The arms and legs are the main offensive weapons in combat, and uses of this style of fighting can incapacitate and even kill one’s opponents. Punches and kicks are quick, hard and decisive. A skilled mixed martial arts fighter is trained to take advantage of and focus on any vulnerability that an opponent may have — one slip up or wrong move could ultimately prove fatal. A prosthetic arm or leg is an ideal target for an opponent to focus on, one that could critically and quickly determine the end result of a match.

 Suffice it to say, the chance of an amputee becoming seriously injured in a mixed martial arts competition is exceedingly high. Chances like these are not ones an average athlete might take, much less someone with a transtibial amputation. Ron Mann, however, is far from your run-of-the-mill competitor.

”When I lost my leg, I realized my mortality and I realized people do die,“ Mann said. ”Realizing this allowed me to grow and to focus myself down to the dedication I needed to participate in this sport. For me, it was like turning a light switch — I was going to continue to fight and continue to strive forward no matter what, regardless of how my life went until that point.“

 Origins of a Fighter

 Before his amputation in 1996, Mann was a spry 24 years of age. He had just been discharged from the Army after working as a medic in the emergency room, and had studied Tae Kwon Do and kickboxing while he was stationed in Korea and the United States. Mann took martial arts quite seriously and, at the height of his training, captured the Korea-wide Army Tae Kwon Do championship for his weight and belt division.

 A daredevil of sorts, Mann was also very involved with motorcycles, and enjoyed racing and stunt riding with friends. As fate would have it, his hobby took a bad turn as he and a friend collided while attempting to pull ”wheelies“ at each other in a motorcycle stunt. Both men were thrown to the ground and slid several feet across the sun-baked pavement. While his friend immediately recovered and was unscathed from the collision, Mann knew he was injured pretty badly.

 ”As soon as I got hit, having medical knowledge I did a quick evaluation, and it seemed okay until I got to my leg,“ he explained. ”As soon as I saw it, the front of it was shattered and I remember thinking to myself that the doctors could pin it back together and I’d be walking in a year. When I turned it back over, most of my calf was gone. It didn’t even hurt until then; I didn’t even realize how bad things were.“

 Mann was laid out on the burning blacktop concrete for over an hour before an ambulance arrived. As technicians quickly applied a tourniquet to his leg, the realization that something very serious had happened began to sink in to his subconscious. He knew what was going to happen next.

 ”I remember getting taken down the hallway of the hospital and asking the doctor right before they put me under if he could save my leg,“ Mann admits. ”He gave me the same medical response I told people when they came into my emergency room — ‘Well, we’ll do the best we can.’ I knew right there, and I told him not to save me if he couldn’t save my leg.“

Overcoming Fear

 Due to the severity of the collision, Mann’s surgeons had no choice but to amputate his left leg below the knee. Despite the fact that the operation was unavoidable — it was almost a complete amputation at the scene of the accident — Mann was seriously traumatized from the event, both physically and mentally. He wasn’t sure if he could cope with his newfound disability and entered a 30-day period of depression that almost cost him his life.

 ”Being 24 years old at the time, that was the prime of my life,“ he said. ”I was straight out of the military and was as hard and as lean as I thought I could be. When you lose a limb like that, especially at that age, your entire mental focus is physical — how you physically appear, how you interact in life, you’re deep into sports still and you do everything physically. Plus, you haven’t settled down emotionally.

 ”There was a period during those first 30 days where many times I contemplated suicide,“ he explained. ”I’d finally gotten to the point where I’d had enough. There were all of these emotions running through my head, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I finally decided I wasn’t going to quit. If I died, that was okay, but I was going to die fighting instead of quitting.“

 It was at that point that Mann got over his fear of living life as an amputee and decided to do something. He began a regimented rehabilitation process. His unbridled desire to start kickboxing again inspired a newfound purpose, and he began scouting local martial arts schools in his hometown of Lansing, Mich. Despite Mann’s determination, however, finding a teacher, let alone a place to train, was a difficult task. No one would accept him into their school, either because of his disability or because many considered his prosthesis a deadly weapon.

A True Fighter

 Finally, Mann came across Loredo’s Cross Trainers, a school that allowed him to train, participate and take part in class activities as an equal. This was important to Mann, as he felt he had been discriminated against by each successive training facility that had turned him down. His instructors gave him only one condition —that he must work just as hard, if not harder, than their already enrolled students.

 ”One of the first things I told them was that I’m an amputee, and I asked if that was a problem,“ Mann said. ”They said ‘no,’ and that if I was going to train here they expected me to train as everyone else does. From day one, my instructor, as well as all of my other teammates, never cut me any slack. If my leg came off during grappling, we kept training — there was no stopping for me to put my leg back on. If that was the way it was going to be in the ring, that was the way I was going to train.“

 Mann continued training for two years. As time passed and his skills continued to grow, he eventually felt the urge to start competing. Unsure of how he would be looked upon by officials, he entered an amateur kickboxing bout and refrained from mentioning his disability. When entering the ring, Mann made sure to wear long pants to hide his prosthesis and fought his first match as a disabled fighter, unbeknownst to all that were in attendance.

 Mann won the fight by knockout. Not only did he prove to his trainers and detractors his true devotion to his craft, he confirmed to himself that his disability made him no less of a person than anyone else.

 ”When it was all over and his trainers walked (Mann’s opponent) out of the ring, I went to the center of the ring, took my leg off and raised it above my head for the crowd to see. I remember it being quiet for a second, and then people recognized what it was and went crazy. They couldn’t believe it. To me, that was the point where I recognized that I am a fighter, that I am not a disabled fighter, and that I can compete on the same level as anyone.“

 The Ertl Procedure

 Eventually, Mann ran into problems with the functionality of his prosthesis. His leg began to continually break down, and he was getting sores and cysts on his residual limb each time he trained. When his regular prosthetist cited he could do nothing to help him, Mann was referred to Jan Stokosa, CP, a prosthetist known for his artistic approach to prosthetic components.

 Upon evaluating Mann, Stokosa immediately realized the problem and refit him with a more suitable prosthesis. After some time, he built Mann a custom prosthesis for him to train and fight with. Created using some extra padding and a unique socket design customized to his individual anatomy, Stokosa’s prosthesis worked wonders for Mann, who only days before was reduced to crutches.

”I can’t believe how quickly my leg began to heal just from his specific design,“ Mann noted. ”Before I met Jan, my leg had completely gone to waste. Ten days after he fit me, I was walking again.“

 However, Mann wasn’t in the clear just yet. Stokosa strongly encouraged him to undergo the Ertl procedure, an operation he needed badly to better absorb the constant stress he was placing upon his residual limb. While Mann was hesitant about the procedure — it involved surgery and an extended amount of down time — Stokosa practically insisted, badgering him for years until he finally agreed to the operation.

 ”Ron got to the point where he was training more and more, and we just couldn’t keep the fit,“ Stokosa said. ”The way his original surgery was done did not reconstruct the tissues of his limb from the bone all the way up to the skin. They used what is called a conventional amputation technique, and that resulted in sharp bones that over time got worse. He had pain, both at rest and when he was wearing his prosthesis.“

 Mann finally underwent the Ertl procedure with fantastic results. The operation was a success and had Mann training and fighting harder than ever after his recovery.

 ”After Ron had the Ertl procedure, it took him about 13 months before he was full-on training,“ Stokosa said. ”The surgery was a major lift in his functional ability — whatever he wanted to do, his leg could now take it.“

Enjoying the Moment

 Today, Mann actively trains and competes as a no-holds-barred ultimate fighter. He believes his preferred method of fighting — mixed martial arts — expresses his pure ability as a martial artist and as an amputee. He plans to continue training in mixed martial arts, as well as Muay Thai, Machado Jiu Jitsu and American boxing, and relishes the opportunity to compete every chance he gets.

 Mann also has several other goals lined up, including following his childhood dream of becoming an emergency room doctor. In between working a full-time job and attending O&P conferences as a guest speaker for College Park Industries — the company that makes his prosthetic feet both for fighting and for everyday use — he is a part-time pre-med student at Michigan State University. He also makes time to visit amputees and people facing amputation to share his experiences and help them with their questions and thoughts.

 Mann is obviously a busy person these days, one far removed from the man he was shortly following his accident. As far as the future is concerned, he cites an easygoing approach of ”living every day for the day, and every moment for the moment.“ In spite of this outlook, however, one thing is for certain — as long as Mann continues on his self-designated path of education, discipline and constant activity, he cannot go wrong.

”I’m still learning and growing daily,“ he said. ”When I speak at seminars, I try to motivate people to get out and show them that just because you have an amputation or some sort of disability, it doesn’t mean you’re crippled. Most people take it for granted that they will always be here, and are content to let life go by instead of being active and proactive and living life. For me, being out there and being active is one of the best things I can do. It saved my life.“

This page is one of many within the ErtlReconstruction.com website.  If you arrived here as a result of a web search (and don't see our navigational menu on the left), please follow this link to reach the main entry page.