Interesting article on TUF 1 competitor Jason Thacker aka Strange Brew

quote:

---

The only guy who was nice after the show was Rich Clementi," he says. "Rich phoned me at one point. Shortly thereafter, I wasn’t talking to anybody. I had withdrawn. After that, too, when the harassment began and all that, I pretty much lost all my friends. I really don’t have any friends anymore. I already had social anxiety and stuff, but I still hung out with people. They went away, because they didn’t want to get caught up in my mess."

---

quote:

---

I would later ask the retired fighter Clementi what prompted him to call Thacker out of the blue, just as everyone else was trying to forget that he existed.

"I remember after the show, I felt like the UFC just kind of dumped on him," Clementi said. "Was he prepared for some of the guys on that show? No. I think he was a guy who came from a market that they had interest in, and a market they didn’t have anybody in, so it made for an interesting story. But was he up to par with the other guys? Probably not. And it showed.

"That’s what I called him about. I just said, hey man, you know, this sport’s a tough thing. It’s easy to be successful and still want to do this sport. It’s harder to be unsuccessful and still want to be in this sport. It takes a certain kind of love. I’d seen all the Internet stuff, and I felt bad. So I told him, I would hate for you to quit and let that live with you forever. I said so if you want to get a few fights with guys who are more around your skill-set, and then decide to go out, that was the better way to do it. When you fail at something, and you don’t try to overcome that, it owns you for the rest of your life. And I felt like that was the pivotal moment where that was happening to him."

---

quote:

---

Clementi is the person who has had the single biggest influence on my life... Well beyond the fight game

He is truly the most mentally strong human I've ever met, and his desire to help others reach their goals is absolutely inspiring

---