Kevin Randleman should not be fighting.

That is what his list of injuries dictates. Fifteen surgeries over five years -- coming closer to dying, likely, than anybody he will ever fight against again -- have left him covered in scars and his MMA career slowed considerably from the days when he was rolling with Mark Coleman and the Hammer House in Japan, or even before then, sporting the UFC Heavyweight title. But, the former two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Ohio State University insists the injuries have had the opposite effect.

Kevin Randleman is fighting again, taking on Mike Whitehead in a light heavyweight bout at Strikeforce’s June 6 event on Showtime, and according to him, the injuries have made him a better man and a better fighter.

“You know what, I will tell you what, life is a roller coaster and I’ve enjoyed the ride,” Randleman said as he made his way to the Tapout gym in Las Vegas for training. “What got me through it all was my fans and the good friends I have, you know, my family. What seems like it was a hard (couple of years) was actually the best four years of my life because it made me slow down and realize what I was missing.”

Randleman’s hard-charging life style kept him away from friends, family and his children. Perhaps it would have stayed like that had it not been for the 2005 fight against Fatih Kocamis in Bushido Europe-Rotterdam Rumble. Randleman won by unanimous decision.

“I threw a right hook and tore a tendon in my shoulder,” Randleman said. “That’s what started it. Then, a week after that, I tore my right bicep and they had to go back in and redo my shoulder and bicep. Shortly after that, my lungs collapsed on me.”

Randleman had Coccidiomycosis, also known as Valley fever. It’s a sickness -- activated in Randleman’s system while training in the hot climates of Brazil -- that sounds both horrific and painful.

“Everybody in the world has it in their system,” Randleman said. “It just takes something to activate it. What activated it for me was the hot climates. I was in Brazil training, and the doctor said I had this for a long time because it was one of the worst they had ever seen. My lungs got incased by fungus and it was just too much weight and my lungs collapsed.”

Randleman said doctors removed around a pound of fungus from his chest.

“Think of a scab on your knee except I had a scab all the way around my left lung and partially my right lung,” he said. “So, they had to go in, and they didn’t have to take my lung out, per se, but they had to rip the fungus off of my lungs which is just like raw meat. So, it was bleeding and I was in the hospital for about a month and a half. Yeah. It sucked. Very painful.”

Three months later, the staph infection started popping up. It began as a pimple that constantly leaked fluid. It would go away for a while and re-appear.

“Every three months I had surgery for the staph infection,” Randleman said. “About two and a half years later (2007), I finally got a big staph infection on the right side, underneath my arm pit for training.”

Randleman developed a contusion during training and was taking repeated kicks to the side. One kick freed the bad blood of the contusion and the staph infection into his bloodstream.

“The bad blood and the infection got into my blood stream and started shutting down my organs,” he said. “My kidney, my liver and all that stuff were failing on me and I went into a coma.”

Photos circulated of Randleman’s infection, and they weren’t pretty. A large hole opened up in his arm pit revealing a hollow, infected area of raw flesh. In the hospital, Randleman came out of the coma after a few days covered in bandages that kept a secret from him. The man, who is possibly as gifted an athlete as has ever competed in MMA, was muscle bound pre-coma. But, that physique and fast-twitch explosiveness that allowed him to pick up Fedor Emelianenko and slam him down on top his head, creating a never-gets-older MMA highlight, had been mutilated while he was unconscious.

“They had to cut out my right chest muscle and my right lat muscle,” Randleman said. “The symmetry was gone.”

Randleman’s weight dropped from 225 to 185 through the ordeal, creating a buzz when he showed up at a UFC event and announcer Joe Rogan commented that he would be a beast at 185.

“People would see me, and they would be like, ah, you should fight 185,” Randleman said. “And, I was like, ‘I’m not even lifting yet.’ I mean the adversity made me stronger. The love of a good woman, my family, my friends, they just kept plugging away at me saying, ‘Ah, you can do this.’ It’s nothing. Now, in hindsight, it wasn’t nothing. It was the best four years that I went through because, before, I was never slowing down to look at life and how good it was to me. Now, I look at life, and it’s just better. I mean, I really, really do value my friendships with the guys I have in my life. I have no negative people.”

There was controversy along the way as well. Randleman’s fight against Whitehead will be his first in the United States since he was submitted by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua via first-round knee bar at Pride 32 in Las Vegas in 2006. Randleman’s urine sample given post-Rua fight flat-lined for hormones and he admitted faking the test, saying he was concerned that the regimen of pain killers and antibiotics he was on would cause him to fail the test. The move brought a suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

“The Shogun fight ... a month before the fight I got the staph infection again,” he said. “I was like, I can fight with this, you know, it’s no big deal. I was training really good. I was in great shape. But, when I got the staph infection, I asked the question and they told me if there is an infection you can’t fight. I told my Japanese bosses I couldn’t fight and they were like, ‘Kevin, you gotta fight. We built this fight around you and Mark Coleman fighting in America because you guys are the big American draws.’ So, I said, ‘OK, I will fight,’ and I kept training. And, the night before the fight, we had the rules meeting, and they said you can’t take this, you can’t be infected and stuff. I made a bad choice. I faked the urine test, and I got caught. The bottom line is if you do the crime, I did the time. I paid my debt and now I’m back.”

Randleman said he’s not concerned about those who feel he may have had other motives for faking the test.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I fight in America now, and you know what that means. I get tested every time I fight. So, every time I pass a test, that takes care of itself.”

In May 2008, Randleman took a decision victory over Ryo Kawamura at Sengoku II, but the 37-year-old has fought just two fights in the last four years and is 3-7 since 2003. To change that, Randleman is working at the Tapout gym as well as with Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas to prepare for his upcoming fight.

“I’m a better fighter than I ever was,” he said. “My hands are better, and I’m an ambidextrous fighter now. Because of the left shoulder injury that I sustained fighting in Japan, I fight both ways, and I’m a better southpaw than I was ever conventional. But, because of the way people fight, kicking the inside of your knee, I switched up from southpaw when I first started 12-years ago to conventional. But, after the shoulder surgery on the left shoulder, I had to come back, and I started working from the southpaw stance. I have two great jabs from both sides so, no matter who comes at me, if my left foot is forward, I still have a great jab. If my right foot is forward in the southpaw stance, I have a great jab with my right and both hands can be powerful. I’m a better rounded fighter.”

Perhaps the biggest advantage, according to Randleman, is that he is pain free. When he starts talking about all his “new” joints, not to mention the fact that he’s been shot, stabbed and has fallen off a few things in his life, his nickname, “Scarpatchi,” doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining.

“I’ve had both my knees redone, and I’m stronger than ever with my knees,” he said. “My knees were always sore and hurting, but now I have had surgery and therapy to straighten up all of these joints. Both my shoulders are fixed, my biceps are strong. I broke my neck, and had surgery on my neck about seven months ago. My neck is strong. It took me a year to get back to 100 percent, but I’m good enough now to beat anybody that I face over the course of the next year.”

The course of the next year begins against Whitehead. While he seems like a changed man, perhaps less likely to look into a camera pre-fight and spew venom worthy of his in-ring moniker, “The Monster,” the reborn Randleman says he can easily channel his old self. He wants to fight until he is 45, and he wants to wear a title belt again and to reach those goals he needs that level of intensity.

“Believe me, you can take the boy out of the ghetto, but you never take the ghetto out of the boy,” he said. “I’ve removed myself from the negative parts of my life, but “The Monster” is still there and “The Monster” comes out as soon as the cage shuts. As soon as the cage shuts I’m ready.

“I believe (Strikeforce CEO) Scott (Coker) saw the opportunity to have someone with a big draw,” Randleman added. “I’m marketable. I’m articulate, and I give them all when I go. So, for me, the sky is the limit. I never, ever gave it my all. I never took the job serious. I would stay out all night long. You saw what the last seven years of my life was like fighting wise. I lost that Monster edge, but now I have that Monster edge back because I’m healthy.”

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553.

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