Issue 153

April 2017

His UFC 22 knockout performance defined his fighting career, but outside the cage life punched Brad Kohler from pillar to post.

From: Bloomington, Minnesota,

First seen: July 1997 (HooknShoot – Absolute Fighting Championship 2),

Last seen: September 2012 (Throwdown at the Crowne),

Record: 12-15.

Brad Kohler will be remembered most for his second UFC appearance. The devastating 30-second knockout against Steve Judson at UFC 22 was replayed on highlight reels for years to come. It was almost the perfect KO.

Since that signature win in September 1999, he has endured more challenges than most inside and outside the cage. After building an 11-4 record, his win over Yoshihisa Yamamoto marked the end of the successful period of his career.

In 2003, he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, which can be life-threatening.

“It was crazy after having good health my whole life to then have to figure out how to overcome the adversity of what happens when your blood was not reproducing,” Kohler tells. “I was not able to work, train or even drive. I was in treatment twice a week for three years, getting chemo and blood transfusions.”

Once he was healthy, Kohler began training like he had during his prime and returned to competition after six years.

Though he didn’t return to winning ways, he was successful in the business world as the owner of a number of Snap Fitness gyms in his home state of Minnesota.

But tragedy struck again. Kohler, an avid aviator, took flight one day after an argument. With his mind clouded with emotion, he neglected a few safety checks. Those oversights nearly cost him his life.

“I was out flying my ultralight airplane and went out there while I was upset,” he recalls. “I forgot to take the air filter off the carburetor and as I took off I lost power at about 80 feet and came straight down.

“My stomach and intestines were torn apart and my left leg was almost chopped off by the propeller. A bar went into my abdomen and ripped my stomach. It took nine months to even start to sit up again. I was stapled from my sternum to my belly button. The doctors had to do a bone graft and put a pin and screw in my leg.

“Things became very tight and as I was down for so long my business failed. I lost everything, including my $600,000 home.

"I fell behind on child support. Minnesota put me in jail for contempt of court while I was still injured and unable to work. When I got out I only had two gym bags and a bicycle.”

Once released from hospital, good friend Chris McCune allowed Kohler to live in his gym for nearly two years until he got back on his feet. He began to train again, but then he had another setback.

“My right middle finger was so badly damaged from years of competing they had to fuse it. I wanted to get that fixed before I started training again. They did the operation and I contracted a bone infection. They had to cut the finger off.

“So around March 2011, I lost my middle finger. I’m living in the back of an MMA studio with no job and no money. I was training people at Chris’ school and doing the best I could working there as a coach.”

Eventually, things started to turn around. Kohler fought again and got his first win in 13 years. He also created a training tool called The Combo Hitter, the signature product in a growing line of gym equipment. Business is good.

“I decided to invest all my time in it,” he says. “I’ve been knocking on doors and doing my own social media. I’ve got athletes like Mark Coleman and Wes Sims endorsing the product. I am in over 150 gyms.”

He took more of a licking in life than most, but Brad Kohler is still standing in the fight game.

11 DEFEATS

Kohler began an 11-fight winless run in October 1999 until he finally picked up a win in his final professional fight, aged 48, in 2012.