Blood, sweat and tears

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Phelps
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The fighter walked up the aisle to the cage while the hard rock theme song blared through the arena.

Once he entered the cage, he removed his shirt revealing a heavily tattooed torso.

A second man who entered with the fighter, Staff Sgt. Derrick Kennington, formerly with the 20th Civil Engineer Squadron, took his shirt and moved close to speak to him.

The tattooed fighter and his opponent began to pace around the cage like lions about to pounce upon their prey, each sizing up his foe.

The referee called the two fighters to the center where they bumped gloves and stared into each others' eyes, each daring the other to give up.

After bumping gloves, they took a couple of steps back, but waited like coiled rattlesnakes.

A bell rang and the fight began.

Immediately, the two gladiators charged at each other like knights at a tournament.

The tattooed fighter took his opponent to the ground, mounted him and began to mercilessly pound him. Soon, round one was over and the fighters returned to their corners.

Sergeant Kennington went to his fighter, cleaned the blood off his face, gave him some water and hastily offered words to him.

As soon as round two began, the first fighter quickly took his opponent down again, and the referee soon ended the match.

The referee called the two contenders to the center of the caged ring and raised the arm of the victor, Staff Sgt. Ferdinando Acerra, 20th Maintenance Operations Squadron crew chief maintenance instructor.

"That feeling is addicting, the feeling of winning," declared Sergeant Acerra. "It's a huge adrenaline rush."

He started fighting by getting involved in jujitsu at Osan Air Base, Korea, before moving to Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. Once here, he said, Sergeant Acerra wanted to keep up with the fight training. Through Sergeant Kennington, Sergeant Acerra became involved with mixed martial arts here.

Sergeant Kennington was born into a family of fighters, he said. His dad was a former Golden Gloves boxer. He had his first boxing gloves put on when he was about five or six and would often box with his dad.

His interest in MMA was sparked when he saw it on TV, but didn't get started until he was stationed at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska in 2006, said Sergeant Kennington. He was a three sport athlete in high school and had been involved with intramurals throughout his Air Force career. He found MMA to be the more competitive sport.

The base commander didn't allow MMA on the base at first for safety reasons, he said. So, he researched the sport for about eight month to prove that it was safe.

"People get hurt all the time through sports," he said. "Most common injuries occur through minor ones. There are so many ways to win a fight other than a knock out. The referee will step in during fights to avoid serious injuries from occurring."

Once he got started with the sport, he didn't stop, said Sergeant Kennington. He had his first fight in Fairbanks, Alaska, Feb. 9, 2007 at an event with more than 2,000 people in attendance.

"It was a war," Sergeant Kennington said. "He got some good blows on me, and I got some good blows on him. We went back and forth."

He ended up winning the fight by a technical knockout and was also awarded the honor of fighter of the night.

Sergeant Kennington had a permanent change of station to Shaw in November 2007. He researched the area for MMA training and competitions but was only able to find boxing. He ended up having to go to Columbia, S.C. for jujitsu classes. He also bought some mats and bags, opened up a place in Sumter and started teaching classes.

At the time MMA fighting was illegal in S.C. so Sergeant Kennington had to travel out of state to compete, he said. The state legalized it about a year ago.

"I had to go to Louisiana to find a fight," explained Sergeant Kennington. "Some friends and I were looking for a place to train, so we bought a place. We did well as a team. We went 15 and one before we had to shut it down because of time."

On Dec. 10 2010, Sergeant Kennington traveled to Indiana to fight at the Hollywood Casino as the co-main event. There he fought against a seasoned Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran who had fought on television multiple times and beat him in the first round with an arm bar, a fight-ending move which forces submission.

Sergeant Kennington is ranked third in the Carolinas and first in South Carolina in his weight class, according to www.mmaforreal.com.

"The ranking system is nice," said Sergeant Kennington. "It gives me something to work for."

Sergeant Acerra agreed training for the sport takes a lot of work. He trained with Sergeant Kennington for two years after connecting with him in 2008 before his first MMA fight.

"MMA training contained a lot of high intensity workouts that I wasn't used to," he said. "I waited to compete because I didn't want to rush it. It was exciting going to that first one."

He ended up winning his first fight by a technical knockout.

However, not all of his fights have been victories. He lost a tournament Jan. 28, in Charlotte, N.C. by an arm bar.

"It was the worst feeling in the world," Sergeant Acerra said. "But, it put a drive in me to work harder so it wouldn't happen again."

Sergeants Kennington and Acerra practice sessions generally last about two hours. On an average week, they have three practices, Sergeant Kennington said. That's also outside of their squadron physical training sessions. When they are getting ready for a fight, training session can pick up to twice a day, six to seven times a week.

Their practice sessions incorporate a lot of conditioning as well as sparring and technique training, explained Sergeant Acerra. It will include cardio, sprints, striking, wrestling and take downs.

"I come home exhausted from workouts, but I feel great." Sergeant Kennington said. "I get in great physical condition without lifting weights. Because of this, I've never scored less than a 97 on my PT test."

Sergeant Acerra said he highly recommends that Airmen get involved with MMA.

"The fitness pay off is tremendous, as well as you learn how to defend yourself," he said.

On top of the fitness, it's also changed the way they think.

"When I first started fighting, my thoughts would be 'What if I lose, what do I need to do?" Sergeant Kennington said.

"We taught ourselves how to think positive and how to relax and stay calm," added Sergeant Acerra.

"Instead of visualizing getting beat, I visualize landing blows on the opponent," Sergeant Kennington said. "It's also helped my mental acuity on my deployments. I know I can take care of myself."

This is important for Airmen. "You want to be ready for anything," he added. "That's why they are instituting the Air Force combatives program, to be able to defend yourself in any situation."

A couple of months ago, Sergeant Kennington's supervisor recommended he look into the AF combatives program. So, he looked it up found the program and submitted his credentials. After a while, he got a response from the person in charge of the program, went on a permissive temporary duty to Maxwell AFB and became certified as a senior combatives instructor.

Sergeant Kennington PCSed to Maxwell to teach the course March 1.

"Fighting can be nerve racking, but it prepares you for anything and give you confidence," he said. "I believe what I will be doing will benefit the Air Force as a whole."