Justin Wren put his MMA career on hold for a higher purpose. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
The world of MMA can be an insular one. The sky is always falling, it seems, and it is easy to get lost in the labyrinthine noise of what so-and-so said or did. Clickbait and Soundbytes are the new Scylla and Charybdis. Following this sport can gently and cogently separate us from the rest of the world; indeed, escapism is the coquetry of most sports fandom. This reality is one thing for fans and media but quite another for the fighters themselves.