amputee

(Props: BloodyElbow)

Maybe you've followed our coverage of Kyle Maynard's impending MMA debut — which goes down tomorrow at Auburn Fight Night, and can be seen live on KyleMaynardFight.com for $14.95 — but you don't have the whole story if you've never seen this man in action. We wanted to pass along the above clip of an appearance that Kyle did on Larry King Live a few years ago, which shows that yes, he can write his name (and type 50 words per minute), he has insane body control, and he can put you in a very painful keylock, if need be; the entire transcript of the interview can be found here. No matter what happens tomorrow night, we're pulling for him...

After the jump: The poster for Auburn Fight Night, which promises another special guest with a completely different handicap...

A while back we told you that Kyle Maynard, the congenital amputee who wrestled at the University of Georgia, was planning to make his pro MMA debut at a small show in Alabama.  Well, that’s happening this weekend, and not everyone is happy about it.  Columnist Brad Zimanek for the Montgomery Advertiser refers to Maynard’s impending debut as “a freak show,” insisting that MMA fights are “basically no-holds barred combat” and the only people buying tickets to this thing are those who want to see “how badly Maynard gets beat up.”

Clearly, anyone who thinks Maynard's fight is a freak show needs to watch Bob Sapp fight cartoon characters and learn what a real freak show looks like. Maynard may get beat up on Saturday night.  That’s a possibility, given that this is a fight he’s going into.  But isn’t that his choice to make?  There probably weren’t a lot of people who thought he could wrestle at the college level, but that didn’t mean college wrestling became a freak show the moment Maynard got on the mat.