From small town to big time

Steve Carl started his life as a scrawny boy growing up in Belle Plaine with a lot to prove.

A state-qualifying wrestler for the Plainsmen, a serious car accident threatened to end his athletes career. But despite doctors telling him he'd never compete again, he battled back and fought last weekend in a national mixed martial arts tournament event in Atlantic City.

“This isn't just a job,” said Carl, now 27 and 6-feet, 170 pounds. “I can't just clock in and clock out. This is my life.”

Carl lost to his bout by unanimous decision to former MFC welterweight champion Douglas Lima, but made an impression early with a shot behind Lima's ear that gave the Brazilian “rubber legs.”

“If I go out there and I give it all that I got and I leave it all out there and I lose? What can you be mad about,” he said before leaving. “You gave it what you had.”

Keoni Koch, coach of Team Hard Drive in Cedar Rapids, called his Carl “an animal.

“Steve's been training for a long time,” Koch said. “I think he's in the best shape of his life.”

Before Carl became a gladiator in the ring he was a “real little kid, growing up in a real small town. You always dream of getting out, doing something else,” he said.

After graduating from Belle Plaine, he joined the military and began his MMA career at Fort Hood, Texas, while in the Army. But a roadblock got in Carl's way - a head on car collision in 2006.

“I shattered my right leg, broke my hip, broke my nose,” he said.

Several surgeries, titanium rods, and plenty of time off followed.

“They told me I would never be able to fight again or play sports or anything,” Carl said.

It was a low point Carl turned into motivation.

“I ran into him outside of town after this car accident,” Koch said. “He said ‘I'm going to get back into the gym' and I said ‘No, you ain't.'”

But Carl did more than just get back in the gym. In his first comeback fight - after nearly two years out of the ring - he submitted his opponent in 59 seconds.

“It's just defying people who don't believe in you,” he said. “If people tell you, you can't do something, you're like ‘oh yeah I'm going to do it.'”

Now, Carl has an inner circle of believers and fellow fighters in Team Hard Drive.

“When he gets into the cage, he truly has an entire team of people at his back,” Koch said.