Former MMA fighter Johnny “Merc” Mercurio now coaches track at FVHS. Photo by Stacey HallBy Yasir Khaleq, Staff Writer
Shot-put and discus throw coach John “Johnny Merc” Mercurio also lives the highs and lows of life as a professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer.
“I fight professional mixed martial arts and boxing and professional kickboxing… it was until after I was done with track in college I was about 21 I actually started to fight full contact professionally and I kind of fell into it”, said Mercurio.
A fighter before he was a thrower, Mercurio did karate and taekwondo competitively at seven years old. He competed until he entered high school, and then stopped to do football instead. Mercurio also gained his interest in throwing during high school. He wouldn’t start fighting again until after college.
“It was until after I was done with track in college I was about 21 I actually started to fight full contact professionally and I kind of fell into it…one of the track coaches recommended me, he said I’d probably be good at it. I tried it out, and I haven’t left since,” said Mercurio
One of Mercurio’s favorite parts of throwing and coaching throwing is how relaxing it is. He enjoys interacting and coaching his athletes, and takes advantage of the time he spends with them.
However, professionally fighting is taxing on Mercurio. It’s extremely time consuming and quite tiring. In addition to fighting, Mercurio is also a trainer for many Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters.
“I’m around full contact [fighting] all the time, throwing is really relaxing out here for me. Working with the high schoolers at a much slower pace, track is actually a nice getaway for me. The hectic part is, you know, fighting doesn’t necessarily pay all the bills,” said Mercurio. “I train a lot of fighters too; a lot of top guys in UFC I help with strength and conditioning, I help with their boxing mitts. It’s kind of one of my specialties… That keeps me busy all the time. And that’s hard work even training them. It’s exhausting.”
Despite all the hard work and hours that go into fighting and training other fighters, Mercurio realizes that this is his only shot at professional fighting and achieving something great while professionally fighting.
“I still have a lot of things that I haven’t achieved yet… I still think I have seven more solid years of fighting in me, and I want to take advantage for it. It’s really weird, I can’t wait for the moment I hang up my gloves and retire, but like, I wanna take advantage of all that opportunity. If you really think about it, 36, 37 is still young, you’re still a young man. You still have a lot of future ahead of you. It’s not like after those ages you can go back. This is my only opportunity to do it, and I wanna take it as far as I can,” said Mercurio.
