Padecky: Santa Rosa chiropractor Matt Bernd to make MMA debut

The temptation, the easy assessment, is that Matt Bernd thinks outside the box. Not true. Not true at all. Bernd doesn’t think outside the box. From where he stands Matt Bernd can’t even see the box. He’s the outlier of outliers.

Consider his life situation.

Bernd, a Cardinal Newman graduate, for the past 20 years has had a thriving chiropractic practice in Santa Rosa. He has worked on many professional athletes, movie stunt men as well as celebrities Cate Blanchett, Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton. Bernd is in his 22nd year of marriage, with two daughters. He is no frustrated jock or a dumb one either, earning a tennis scholarship to St. Mary’s College in Moraga while getting his bachelor’s in science. Bernd has deep roots.

Bernd is 45 years old and has dedicated his life to improving the health of his fellow humans. Remember that last sentence before you read the next one.

On Saturday night at the Sho-Ka-Wah Casino in Hopland, Bernd will step into the octagon for his first mixed martial arts fight. A chiropractor literally will be sticking his nose in a sport that has sent many of its participants to hospitals. See a still photo of Ronda Rousey’s face meeting the left foot of Holly Holm for further details.

“My brother might think I got a screw loose,” said Bernd jokingly of his 61-year old brother, Mike. Mike is also a chiropractor, sharing the practice but not the enthusiasm for fighting with his brother. “But I’m a big believer in this saying: When was the last time you did something for the first time? I think it’s important to step outside the box and confuse your brain.”

It’s almost guaranteed Bernd will confuse a few brains when he fights. Two of the 12 matches scheduled Saturday will feature professionals, the rest amateurs like Bernd, and no one will stand out more than the chiropractor. The most common profile of an amateur MMA fighter is an unmarried man in his early 20s with a side job providing just enough money and all the time to pursue his craft. Successful, married, white collar professionals flipping naked-skin sidekicks at 45? What? Have YOU been hit in the head?

“Here’s a guy who has everything he could ever want in his life,” said David Terrell, a UFC legend who trains Bernd. Terrell is running the fight card through his NorCal Fighting Alliance. “Yet they are going to lock the doors on him and he’ll go at it. I was pretty surprised when Matt came to me and told me. I was shocked. I wasn’t sure he was serious. I give Matt a lot of credit.”

It’s not as if Bernd reached the end of his bucket list. He hasn’t bungee-jumped, skydived or run the Colorado River rapids. Rather, it’s the unique challenge of fighting with the only protection a pair of 4-ounce gloves. Seven years ago, it came to him rather suddenly, truth to tell.

“I had worked on a lot of UFC fighters and they kept telling me to come to David’s gym and check it out,” Bernd said. “OK. I went. I tried it out. It was a 90-minute workout. I was choked, beaten, battered. At the end of it I went outside and threw up.”

A person will react one of two ways to that experience: run away never to be seen again, or be the moth drawn to the flame.

“It drew me to the flame,” Bernd said. “For some unknown reason.”

A small smile creased his face. He was being coy. Guys stepping into the octagon rarely are coy.

“It stimulated me physically, emotionally, cerebrally, spiritually,” he said. “People have this misconception about MMA, that it’s brutal, no-holds-barred animalistic, primitive. I see it more as an art form. I see it as a chess match.”

To the untrained eye it’s human cockfighting. To the practioner it’s anticipation and reaction and balance and thrust and measured movement and stamina and calm and pace and throw a dollop of courage in there as well. That he has had three knee operations (medial meniscus tears, two on his left, one on his right) is fairly standard stuff for someone so engaged.

“I’ve never done anything that has fatigued me like this,” said Bernd, who runs 10Ks, mountain bikes, paddle boards and sprints on a track. “I’m in the best shape of my life.”

“What’s your resting pulse?” I never asked that question before, but Bernd is a chiropractor. Bernd took out a finger clamp. It read “51” beats per minute.

“Let’s give it a minute,” said Bernd, 5-foot-11, 175 pounds. “I just sat down.”

The 51 became a 50 … 49 … 48 … 47 … 46 … 45. I was about to ask how many fingers I was holding up when the meter stopped at 44. Being in shape will help if Bernd doesn’t see the punch coming.

“Yes, you can get knocked out at any time.”

Bernd didn’t say that last sentence with trepidation.

“That’s part of the thrill, isn’t it, to avoid that by living so completely in the moment?”

“Absolutely,” Bernd replied.

How many times do any of us have tunnel vision so all-inclusive that everything else evaporates? Professional athletes, at least the good ones, revel in those moments, their brains trained to dispatch the unnecessary.

“Is the percentage of chance to become injured in MMA greater than other sports?” Bernd said. “Absolutely. But the more I train, the less likely I will get hurt.”

For the past six weeks Bernd has trained six days a week for two to three hours a day. That’s a 15-hour day with work added. That’s of course after he got permission from Stacey.

“What did she say when you told her you were doing this?”

What a stupid question from a married man.

“I didn’t tell her,” Bernd said. “I asked her ‘what if … ’ I couldn’t do this without the support of my family or without David for that matter. I was granted a one-time fight. No, when I started seven years ago, I never thought I’d get this deep. It’s something I think about all the time. Even when I sleep.”

Here’s what I imagine. Matt Bernd is asleep, a smile on his face. Every kick lands with a splat. Every punch is a thumping piston. His arms are vise-grips. His legs are fast-closing pressure plates. His opponent is surrounded. Everywhere he looks there is Matt. He is a ham sandwich and Matt Bernd is eating him up.

And then Matt leaves the octagon with the guy he just pummeled and works on his spine. The chiropractor is making a house call. What a dream.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.