Sometime in 2013 MM-eh, my popular website devoted to the Canadian Mixed Martial Arts scene was hacked, and I lost everything.
MM-eh! News and Notes from Canada started off as a weekly column on Sherdog.com on November 16, 2006, and in 6 years I wrote roughly 150 articles for Sherdog, some of which were also cross-posted on ESPN.com when Sherdog was contracted to be their MMA content provider.
In early 2012 I felt that things at Sherdog had changed and made the decision to go out on my own, and the original MM-eh.ca was born.MM-eh grew quickly.
In 2 years I had dozens of interviews under my belt, had over 100 print articles, had attended dozens of MMA events across Canada, and my contact list included the who’s-who of Canadian MMA talent, from GSP, to Shawn Tompkins, to 100% of the Canadian fighters on the UFC roster.MM-eh had a Fighter section with every Canadian fighter having a page of their own similar to what you might now see on Sherdog or Tapology. It had a section that listed upcoming fight cards and who was fighting on them, which was the model for what you see now on almost every other website.
I had wonderful contributors from across Canada who helped me grow, and an appreciative fan base who brought my viewership to over 10,000 unique monthly visitors from every continent except for Antarctica.
Then one day I couldn’t log into my site. At first I thought it was possibly an issue with my web host, but after hours speaking with them it was determined that someone had conducted a malicious attack on my site and wiped out pretty much everything.
I felt every emotion you might think of. Anger, disappointment, frustration…but one emotion you might not expect me to have had was relief.
You see the whole time I was writing about MMA I was also a full time member of the Royal Canadian Navy, and much of that time I was posted to various warships and sailing on Exercises and Operations around much of the world.
I was exhausted from the hustle of trying to coordinate both worlds, so at that down-point in my life I made the decision to drop MM-eh.
For my final posting in the Navy I was sent to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, to lead the Naval detachment at the Great Lakes Marine Security Operations Centre (GL-MSOC), an organization that combined 5 Federal agencies whose mandate was to monitor the St Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.
I went into that posting with the knowledge that I wanted this to be my last posting in the Navy, so although it was a challenging job, it was the first time in years that I could allow myself to relax and just enjoy life.
Life in Niagara was good. I met a wonderful woman and her daughter with whom I’ve been for over 7 years now, and when I set out to find a BJJ gym I was fortunate to meet professional mixed martial artist Matt DiMarcantonio, a jiu jitsu wizard, and one of the most genuinely kind and friendly people I’ve ever met.
When “DiMarcs” and the gym I attended parted ways the BJJ program withered away, and with it so did my interest in finding somewhere new to train.
Then just about 3 years ago now I heard the wonderful news that DiMarcs had teamed up with Chris Prickett, an assistant coach for the perennial Canadian Wrestling Champion Brock University Badgers, and the pair were set to open up their own gym. Before the new gym had even opened it’s doors I was signed up as member #1, and now 3 years later Niagara Top Team is a valid contender for being the top MMA gym in Canada.
Over the years I had the occasional yearning to write a thing or two, but didn’t do much about it. But now, as a member of NTT, I had a reason. I’ve written a few things for NTT and their athletes and have rediscovered the joy of sitting down and giving words a purpose.
So that’s where we are now. Yes, not me…we.
With the new MM-eh I intend to slow down and focus on certain content only. I don’t need to write small sound bites about every tidbit of MMA news. There are many other places for you to get all of that.
What I will focus on will be quality and in depth coverage of the people involved in the sport, and the situations that surround them.
I hope that viewers who know me already will come back, or if you’re new…welcome, this should be fun.
Andy Cotterill