Jamie Varner – The Champ Gives Back This Saturday

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By Thomas Gerbasi

If not for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Jamie Varner may not have become the WEC’s lightweight champion. In fact, he may not have made it to his sixth birthday.

When the future mixed martial arts champ was five years old, he was stricken with spinal meningitis. His parents, strapped for cash, had nowhere to turn until Varner’s aunt told them to bring their child to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, which took care of him and nursed him back to health.

“It’s one of the few hospitals in the world where you can go there off the street without insurance and they’ll take care of you,” said Varner. “They pretty much saved my life when I was five years old.”

19 years later, Varner is giving back to the hospital, as he is putting on the “1st Annual Jamie Varner Charity Seminar” this Saturday, November 22nd, at the Sunkist Kids Wrestling / Riches Family Wrestling Facility on the Arizona State University Campus, with two sessions - one from 11:00am-12:15pm (Beginners, Women, and Children) and the other from 12:30pm-2:30pm (Intermediate).

For Varner, the timing was perfect as he wound down from his August stoppage of Marcus Hicks and waited for the winner of the bout between Donald Cerrone and Rob McCullough to emerge earlier this month.

“I knew when the Razor Rob and Cerrone fight got postponed (in September due to Hurricane Ike) that I was gonna have a lot of down time, and normally I would just stay in the gym and keep training, but I figured now that I’ve defended my title, I could do something more, something bigger,” he said. “Before I won my title I don’t think I would have been able to have as much pulling power to draw in as many people. So now that I won the title and defended it, I felt like I could use some of that recognition to do something good and give back to my community.”

And the Phoenix Children’s Hospital was a no-brainer for him, especially given his history there, and that through his aunt (the hospital’s head Registered Nurse) he has been able to visit the children there in the past and to see the work being done at the facility.

“It is amazing there,” he said. “The kids, the doctors, and the nurses are the most amazing people and that’s why I chose to give to them.”

Varner isn’t just putting his name on a banner though. He has cut through the bureaucratic red tape usually associated with such events and worked with his team to handle the entire event, thus making it possible for all donations to go directly to where they’re supposed to, without any administrative costs.

“Trying to put everything together and getting it organized, I didn’t realize how hard it was to do it on your own,” said Varner. “I could have called the United Way or one of those companies that does charitable events, but the charity only gets a portion of the money raised because the organization has to pay their employees, so to actually put it together myself was a lot of work, and between me, my management, and MTX Audio, it’s been a long process getting the insurance and the facility, getting the flyers and banners made up, and trying to get everything lined up.”

But he’s had plenty of support, not only from the local fire and police departments, but from his Arizona Combat Sports teammates, including WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit, UFC prospect CB Dollaway, TUF8’s Ryan Bader, WEC fighters Aaron Simpson and Steve Steinbeiss, TUF3’s Jesse Forbes, World jiu-jitsu champion Gustavo Dantes, and up and comer Ben Henderson, all of whom will participate in Saturday’s seminar.

“It makes me feel really good and really appreciated,” said Varner. “I’ve always been there for my teammates – whether it’s holding Thai pads, wrestling with them, going for runs, or anything else – so the fact that they’re going to be there for me and helping me raise money for the kids, it’s really awesome, and I’m so grateful to have the team that I have. I’ve got to thank Arizona Combat Sports and all my guys for coming through for me.”

Thank you, Jamie Varner.

Admission to the seminar is free with a donation of cash, unopened toys or canned goods.

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