via stmedia.startribune.com

This is staggering:

Nick Thompson has a hectic few days at the end of this month. He's in the main event for the CBS-televised mixed martial arts event on July 26, a Saturday night, in Stockton, Calif. And then on Tuesday the 29th, he will be starting the two-day bar examination at the Minneapolis Convention Center. "It wasn't supposed to work out this way," Thompson said. "I had a fight in Tokyo in early June. I was going to take two months off and study for the bar." And then they got the call with the offer: Jake Shields, Elite XC's welterweight title bout, main event on CBS. "You can't turn that down -- not me, anyway. And my wife, Molly, agreed with me."

As someone with several jobs, I suppose on some level I can partly relate - "partly" being the operative word. How on earth he is able to train for a fight with one of the best welterweights in the world while simultaneously preparing for an exam that would license him to practice law in the state of Minnesota is beyond my comprehension. All I can do is wish him good luck and give him a tip of my hat.

Thompson is a case study in the value of hard work. He has transformed himself from a MMA middler to a legitimate international welterweight talent knocking on the door of the top 10 rankings...while pursuing a law degree. He, like Kenny Florian, are men that deserve our admiration for maximizing their potential. Let their sacrifice and effort serve as a lesson to all.