The last time Jared Gordon died was on Christmas Day of 2015. After his heart was restarted by an Emergency Medical Technician and he was resurrected from the dead, he remembered lying in a speeding ambulance and opening his eyes to see members of the New York Police Department looking down at him. The officers weren’t happy about responding to a drug overdose call on a frigid Christmas afternoon. There were presents to be opened, dinner to be eaten with family, sports to be watched on television.
“Am I going to jail?” Gordon asked the officers.
“No,” one of the officers said. “It’s Christmas, and none of us feel like doing the paperwork. We’re taking you to Mount Sinai Hospital”
“Where are my drugs?” Gordon asked?
“I think we’re going to hold on to those,” another officer said.
Gordon slept through Christmas night into the early afternoon at the hospital. When he rose again, he pulled the IV tubes out of his arm, and walked shoeless out of the hospital to get high. It was the third time that Gordon had come back to life after being clinically dead from an overdose, and he knew a fourth time would likely be his last. There would be no more divine interventions in his future. If Jared Gordon wanted to live, he needed to fight for his life.
The Church Street Boxing Gym is not the type of place that welcomes distractions. As you begin to descend the four flights of stairs to the sub-basement level gym, the sounds of fighters at work overpower any outside noise. There are no windows through which to check the weather or to peoplewatch. The only daydreams permitted are of championship belts.
Jared “Flash” Gordon begins jumping rope to warm up for today’s training session. As a UFC fighter and mixed-martial artist, Gordon has to work on a variety of physical disciplines to remain competitive in every fight he takes on. To neglect one would be the equivalent of playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, without ever being able to use paper. But in mixed-martial arts, the stakes are less forgiving. Your opponent will bash your scissors with his rock repeatedly until you are unconscious. Today, Gordon will work on his striking.
His coach, Jason Strout. watches from the elevated ring, as several of Strout’s fighters, including former Bellator light heavyweight champion, Liam McGeary, are warming up to prepare for their session. “Let’s go!” Strout shouts at his team. “You’re here! You might as well work!”
“Jason likes people to think he’s the grumpy boxing coach,” Gordon says. “But he’s a great guy. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. I might not even be alive right now.” ....
Read more: Jared Gordon Fights for His Life – Athletes Quarterly
Written by Michael Dolan / Photos by Mark Peterson
