Words
to Chris Ballard
Chris
Ballard, kicking, as many will remember him
As
most of you probably know, British, European and World Kickboxing Champion and
star of Extreme Brawl,
Chris Ballard passed away
last week.
This
came as a big shock to the MMA community.
Promoter
and friend, Andy Jardine has been visibly gutted by the news. Jardine was responsible
for introducing Chris and his flamboyant brand of showmanship to many Mixed Martial
Arts fans. Here, Jardine records his last words to Ballard.
Our
sincerest condolences to his family & friends.
Chris
Ballard, rest in peace.
SFUK,
7 January 2003
"The
nature of the warrior is he/she is capable of giving and feeling extreme love,
deeper than the average person. Unfortunately on the other side of the spectrum
he/she is also capable of extreme hate, and hate manifests itself as anger and
then suffering, which then leads to depression.
But
because we chose to be warriors in the first place means we were already suffering
in some way or form and the comradship you find amongst your training and competing
gives you a new lease of life, but in time you forget why you started training
and competing in the first place, it becomes about money, glory, ego, all negative
thoughts when it comes to the true nature of why we did Martial Arts in the first
place.
So when
this happens we need to tap into our past and go back to basics and examine who
we are now and how we can change for the better and overcome new obstacles, what
I mean is we must be ready to fight every day mentally, for each day presents
a new challenge to deal with, where do we find the strength to deal with this,
through our training which is in fact a type of meditation and of course we draw
strength from each other, down the gym, on the phone, training partners etc, you
no what I mean right?.
I
myself have experienced extreme love, extreme hate, extreme anger and extreme
suffering, physically and of course the harder one, Mentally, I have always bounced
back no matter how hard it was and at times when I thought there was no hope,
but through my experience I know it always gets better, does this make any sense,
tell me? "
Chrisâ
" yea your right Andy".
"I know how hard it is to loose people you love, but there are people that
love you even if its not the love you are looking for its still love none the
less, and you can draw strength from this to get you you through the hard times,
you got me?. A lot of people respect you for being an awesome fighter and an even
more so for being a gracious runner up, so you see there is even victory in a
loss sometimes, but in your personal life the victory from a loss comes later,
much later, you just have to be patient mate and call me if you need to talk"
"ok."
"I love you mate (Hug), enjoy the rest of the after show party and please
remember what I have said."
"That's
the last words of importance I said to Chris Ballard at the after show party,
I thought I got through to him, im gutted, I still cant believe its true, last
year I lost Paul Clay from my gym, now Chris, I can't begin to imagine what his
mum or his friend who found him James McSweeney are feeling. My deepest thoughts
are with you, and my fullest respect To James McSweeney how he has handled the
whole situation, a very difficult predicament to handle.
What
else can I say except for, if there is anyone else out there thinking bad things,
please donât be proud and seek help from anywhere." - Andy Jardine
