Soldier of God: One preacher’s harrowing journey from war victim to bare-knuckle fighter

“Every little thing went black.”

That’s how Joshua Oxendine describes the second his leg was almost destroyed after his platoon was ambushed throughout a mission in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

On the time, Oxendine was barely 9 months into his navy service, deployed to the entrance strains with the Infantry First Battalion, eighth Marines out of Camp Lejeune in his residence state of North Carolina. His group was known as out onto a mission when catastrophe struck and a pair of IEDs — improvised explosive gadgets — erupted. When his eyes lastly opened and the darkness remodeled into blurry imaginative and prescient, Oxendine realized he acquired hit.

“Stuff began going loopy,” Oxendine says. “Subsequent factor you realize I look down and my ankle was sitting the place my knee was. I utterly snapped my tibia and fibula in half.”

The devastating occasions that day ended Oxendine’s navy profession, which had barely even begun after dreaming of becoming a member of the service like so lots of his relations earlier than him.

It was as if tragedy adopted his each step.

Rising up in Robeson County — a notoriously powerful a part of North Carolina with the state’s highest charges for violent crime — Oxendine was basically born into preventing. That was simply the lifestyle for youths in his neighborhood. Oxendine fortunately had a father who all the time regarded out for him and drew him towards boxing, which was the proper outlet for a child who was already entering into scraps. Oxendine fell in love with the game and shared that pleasure together with his father, who was his greatest pal as a lot as he was a father or mother and mentor.

Sadly, Oxendine was simply 14 years previous when he acquired a intestine punch in contrast to any he’d felt earlier than when his father all of a sudden handed away.

“I used to be nonetheless a child,” Oxendine says. “I didn’t actually know easy methods to be a person but. I used to be anticipating my dad to show me easy methods to be a person, that’s what a father is meant to do. Shedding my dad damage actually dangerous. He was my greatest pal. We did every part collectively.

“One second he began feeling dangerous and went to the physician and so they mentioned he had lung most cancers. Six months later, my dad was gone. It was fairly powerful. It was a troublesome time.”

As a lot because it damage to lose his father, Oxendine took a invaluable lesson from the second. It was one thing he remembered once more after his leg was mangled abroad whereas serving his nation.

“[My dad’s death] helped me put issues into perspective and notice time by no means stops,” Oxendine says. “You’re not going to be right here endlessly so that you’ve acquired to stay your life right here, and if you wish to be nice, it’s a must to do it whilst you’re right here.

“So I put within the work. I put within the work due to that. I by no means take a day as a right.”

Oxendine nonetheless carried on boxing as a strategy to honor his father, however as a lot as he beloved the game, he all the time envisioned his future as a soldier serving within the navy. Because of a household stuffed with Military veterans, Oxendine mapped out his future earlier than even graduating highschool, besides he bucked the development of his relations when he determined to hitch the Marines.

“I wished to be the red-headed step baby,” Oxendine says with amusing. “I wished to be one of the best on the earth identical to now. It’s a delight factor for me. As Ricky Bobby mentioned, should you’re not first, you’re final, so I joined the Marine Corps as a result of they are saying they’re the primary to combat and so they’re one of the best.

“That’s what I used to be going to do for 20 years. I wished to retire a Marine. That was my life. Individuals need to be NBA gamers. Individuals need to go to the NFL. Individuals need to go to the UFC. I wished to be a Marine.”

His dream was shattered on that fateful day in Afghanistan. Oxendine by no means gave up on himself, however his navy profession was over — and because of his harm, he was informed he would possibly by no means stroll once more.

“To be informed you’ll by no means have the ability to run, stroll, have the ability to do what you usually do, it’s powerful to listen to at 18,” Oxendine says. “I’m not even actually a person but. It’s powerful. However I by no means let no person inform me I can’t do nothing.”

After returning residence to the USA, Oxendine began his lengthy and grueling rehabilitation. There have been moments to start with the place he virtually gave up and conceded defeat, particularly after discovering simply how troublesome it could be for him to stroll usually once more, a lot much less do anything standing on his personal two toes.

“At first, I type of believed [the doctors],” Oxendine says. “While you’re laying in mattress and also you’re in a lot ache, and my leg is principally as huge as my [body] and I had two emergency surgical procedures, again to again, and to undergo all that ache, I simply thought, ‘That is my life now.’”

It was solely due to encouragement from his spouse that Oxendine lastly broke out of a funk that had him believing he could by no means absolutely recuperate.

“She informed me, ‘You’re not going to put there endlessly and do nothing. Let’s go,’” Oxendine mentioned. “‘It’s not who you’re. You recognize what you signed up for, now let’s present them who we’re.’ Each time life will get powerful, I’m going again to that second.”

Simply deciding that he was going to stroll once more didn’t all of a sudden imply that Oxendine was higher. It was an extended and arduous course of simply to face on his personal, a lot much less stroll with out the help of crutches.

“It took about three years,” Oxendine says. “Clearly I needed to discover ways to transfer my toes first. Then I used to be on crutches and so they put me by means of a bubble the place you may stand in it and also you stroll [without gravity], so you will get your motion proper. And then you definately’re strolling in a pool.

“The primary time I walked with out something, I knew I might do it. That confirmed me proper there, ‘Alright, let’s get it. Let’s do it. This ain’t going to cease me.’”

Oxendine was decided to not solely get again on his toes, however he wished to rehabilitate his injured leg to the purpose the place he might run once more.

Truly, he wished to have the ability to run for a number of miles at a time, identical to he did as a Marine. His service profession could have been over, however Oxendine nonetheless felt he had a number of information to interrupt from his time within the navy.

“I used to be very in form within the navy,” Oxendine says. “I’d run about three miles in 16:40 after I was within the Marine Corps. Knowledgeable on the rifle. That was my life, so I wished to get again there. I used to be like, ‘This isn’t going to outline me. Let’s get it.’”

This previous April, Oxendine tracked his each day operating — he accomplished almost 100 miles within the month. It was mission completed after a crippling flip of occasions that would’ve prevented him from ever strolling once more, however as an alternative Oxendine took that as a problem.

That very same perspective introduced him full circle to return to the boxing health club as a strategy to honor his father, but it surely additionally gave him a needed outlet as he sought to claw his manner out of the post-traumatic stress that haunted him after his service abroad.

Like so many troopers earlier than him, Oxendine usually had waves of despair wash over him, and he wasn’t certain easy methods to break free from that creeping sense of dread. Too usually, he heard horror tales about buddies he’d served with within the navy who got here residence and took their very own lives whereas struggling by means of the identical signs that chipped away at him as properly.

“I misplaced a number of good guys after we acquired out of the navy to suicide,” Oxendine says. “It hurts my coronary heart that we’re all brothers however we go our other ways in life. We attempt to sustain with one another, however you by no means actually know what individuals are coping with as a result of they don’t say it.

“You reside hundreds of miles away [from each other] and then you definately get a name in the midst of the night time listening to that you simply misplaced some brothers to suicide as a result of they will’t address that demon, they will’t address that despair and that PTSD.”

Oxendine credit his religion, his spouse, his three daughters, and the game of boxing because the saviors that prevented him from struggling that very same destiny.

“It’s a blessing that I used to be capable of finding boxing,” Oxendine says. “To search out that outlet. To have the ability to do one thing that I like and luxuriate in life.”

Boxing led Oxendine to then attempt his hand at MMA, however the explosion and recognition surrounding bare-knuckle preventing over the previous few years actually caught his consideration as one thing he wished to attempt.

To listen to him inform it, Oxendine was actually simply returning to his roots.

“I grew up preventing within the yard with no gloves on. It’s what we did,” Oxendine says. “You needed to combat for what you wished after I was youthful, so it was all the time in me. I knew I had that canine in me. I wished to attempt it simply to see how I favored it. I discover out I’m a straight canine.

“It’s totally different as a result of in bare-knuckle, yeah, you may be technical, however it’s a must to be a canine. You don’t win since you’re technical. It’s bare-knuckle. One fortunate shot can take you out. It’s not all about approach. The principle factor is it’s a must to be a straight canine, it’s a must to be an animal.”

To this point in his bare-knuckle profession, Oxendine is 2-0 with a pair of knockouts. He’ll search for a 3rd straight victory on Saturday, Could 13, when he faces Mark Irwin in a combat to crown the primary ever BYB Excessive light-weight champion at BYB 17: Brawl at Rock Hill.

The accolades are good, however that’s not likely what Oxendine is after when he steps by means of the ropes to do battle with one other man.

“My opponent might be entering into there [thinking], ‘I’m going to win this championship.’ It’s not about that for me,” Oxendine says. “Clearly everyone needs to win, everyone needs to dominate and placed on an ideal present. It’s not about wins and losses for me. I’m a strolling testimony that regardless of how onerous life will get, regardless of what number of occasions you get knocked down, if you wish to be someone, no matter you need to be in life, you may put within the onerous work, the dedication, you may get up one foot at a time, and preserve strolling. Maintain pushing. Don’t let nothing cease you.

“That’s my major purpose. That’s my major goal right here, is simply to be a strolling testimony for everyone to see.”

Oxendine’s phrases really match in additional methods than one. His nickname, “The Preacherman,” is quite befitting contemplating when he’s not coaching, preventing, or at residence together with his household, he’s a pastor working in the direction of his Bachelor’s diploma in Christian ministries.

It might be troublesome to wrap your head round a minister who additionally occurs to be a bare-knuckle brawler, however Oxendine wouldn’t have it every other manner.

“My life is full,” Oxendine says. “I actually don’t have to do that. Life is sweet for me. I’m very blessed however I adore it. It’s who I’m.

“Naked-knuckle is an artwork, and each combat is like an empty canvas and I get to color a fairly image. It’s fairly cool that I can return to my roots after I go in there after which come out and inform individuals about Jesus.”