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Help bring a smile to a child's face! I'm about to step into a ring for an amateur fight and I need your support. I'm not fighting for a title or the cheering. I'm fighting to bring smiles to children who don't have one. Together, we can make a difference.
About 1 in 600 children are born without a fully formed mouth and palate. Their disfigurement prevents them from talking and eating properly. Cleft lips and palates affect more than 2.5 million children in China alone. Fortunately, advances in medicine mean that most disfigurements can be corrected through surgery. However, if you are born into a family that is too poor or in a country without advanced medical facilities, you learn to grow up hiding from people, adapting as best you can and never being able to smile.
Operation Smile brings together the funds and the expertise to bring these children a smile. It takes 45 minutes and costs about 5000HKD ($666CDN). I want to raise 20,000HKD so that we can give 4 children the gift of a smile. All money raised from my campaign will go to Operation Smile.
I joined the White Collar MMA event so that I could challenge myself and push my fitness transformation to the next level. Learning to box, kick and wrestle has been a challenge. Getting punched in the head, choked out and pushing through injuries is a crazy way to way to raise money for charity and to get in shape. Nevertheless, the main event on Nov 28 is an opportunity to make a difference in some children’s lives. Please give generously and when I step into the ring, I’ll know that I’m fighting for more than just myself. I’m fighting for smiles.
More about Operation Smile (website)
More about White Collar MMA in Hong Kong (website)
A big thank you to Vuyisile Colossa for giving me a chance to compete in WCMMA.
More about Howard’s fitness journey
In the summer of 2012, I was 38 and 225lbs. My son, Tim (then 15), encouraged me to join him in some MMA training. Committing to the training and cleaning up my diet made a huge difference - 6 months later I was down to 167lbs.
Over the past 15 months, I've had a lot of great people support me. I'd like to thank the following coaches for their part in my transformation:
Legacy Gym Boracay - these guys accepted me when I was just a fat guy trying to get up a hill! Ole Laursen, Marcus Waters, Ritchie Redman, Kris Persson, Zeb Kadestam
Men O War Boxing Team - led by the passionate Danny Lawley. Danny gives 100% to all of his fighters and only expects hard work in return. He pushes you hard and encourages you even harder - the perfect coach.
Tiger Muay Thai - spending 4 weeks in Phuket got me in shape. In particular, Komrit Lukkuangmuekol helped me with my boxing.
Phuket Top Team - Andrew Leone and the guys amazed me with their wrestling. An injury endeded my training early but I appreciated the lessons learned.
Macau BJJ - Daniel Perreira and guys bent me into a 6 foot pretzel and tapped me out and we called it training.
Macau Fight Club - Chris Rogers and Justin Casey - what started as footy training sessions has become a great boxing club in its own right.
Lex - surprisingly, my style has become more and more Muay Thai based. Lex fit my training in before his night shift work. He pushed me to develop power in every single hit.
Emmanuel Reyroso - a Taekwondo machine, he forced me to get more flexible to get my kicks higher.
Toby Ryan and Janz Rivera - striking, grappling and MMA - these guys helped me to bring together the boxing, Muay Thai and BJJ into something a little closer to MMA.
Last, but most important, my family (Doreen, Tim and Becca) who has supported me 100% and allowed me to put in all of this time. They gave up vacations so that I could train. They were willing (and sometimes unwilling) training and sparring partners. Our change in diet and commitment to fitness have made all of us healthier.
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