The following program
discusses sensitive issues
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related to addictive behaviour.
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Parents are
cautioned that some material
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may be too candid
for younger children.
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There are some
people that have been saved
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from the very abyss.
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Surrounded by demons
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and it is a most
incredible thing to watch.
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Today's guest, Nico,
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The Dragon is
one of those folks.
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It's gonna be amazing.
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Welcome to
Celebrating Life in Recovery.
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I'm Cheri, come join us.
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Okay, can God
save us from the abyss?
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And my next guest,
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exactly that
Called From the Abyss,
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it's an amazing,
amazing story or journey.
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But I want to start
with some where else
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cause when I
first came to Christ,
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when I first got into recovery,
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when I first
decided that, man, what if?
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What if I could
actually have a normal life?
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What if I could step
from all of this darkness
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and turn things over?
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And man, what if
God is crazy about me?
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What if He loves me?
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It was a scariest thing,
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one thing went to
another and at one point
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somebody gives me a
book and the book was called,
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"Ministry of Healing"
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and I read chapter four.
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And chapter four talked about,
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the chapter title
is "Saved to Serve."
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And I'm kinda going through that
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and it's all good,
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but I come to this
place where it says,
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"That part of the
journey was literally
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to look at heaven itself
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and the throne room of God
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and there's a bunch of
angels kind of around God
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and they are looking at us."
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'Cause that's the kind
of the scene that was set.
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And I'm thinking,
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the throne room of
God and angels around Him
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and they're talking
about someone like me.
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And the angel says,
"Man, can I work with her?"
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That got my attention.
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Can I work with her?
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And can I work with him?
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Can I work with you?
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And what they're
saying to God is,
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they are going to
stumble around a lot.
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They're gonna
relapse, they're gonna mess up.
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They're not gonna
be sure of themselves,
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they're gonna
have such a hard time
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and I know that I
could encourage them.
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I know that I
could stand them up.
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And I thought, "Wait."
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There's someone in heaven,
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there's angels in
heaven asking to give me
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that kind of strength and
that kind of encouragement,
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it changed my life.
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'Cause I thought they would
be arguing about the person
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that had it all together.
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The person that literally
has degrees in theology
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and can really go out
and change someone's life,
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that's not flaky
like me, that's not ADD.
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They didn't
have addiction stuff,
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that wasn't
raised to even question
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whether she had
the right to breathe,
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the air she breathe.
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And these angels are
calling me out saying,
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"You know what?
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I can help her, I
know I can help her."
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And I wanted to cry like a baby.
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I wanted to weep at that
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and saying, "God,
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I have to hold on
to the truth of that."
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And I wanna go years later...
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so, you know,
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I really believe that
my angel has done all that
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and we'll continue to do
all that till my last breath.
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But what was incredible
to me, is years later,
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I'm in ministry
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and I'm
travelling around the world
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and I'm in Australia
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and I ran into this
guy that I am awestruck by.
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I'm really not
awestruck by a lot of people,
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I don't know why that is
but every once in a while,
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I get star struck.
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And this guy, Allan
Lindsay, I'm star struck by,
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when I first came to
Christ, he did a book called,
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he did a series
called, "Keepers of the Flame."
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And I would sit
there or I'd watch this
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and I wouldn't be healed.
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He would say something
about some piece of literature
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that he was trying to share
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and I could feel the
healing happen, right?
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And so now, I'm in Australia
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and I'm staying at
him and his wife's house.
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And I can't even stand it.
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I'm thinking,
"God, how do you do that?
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How do you get
here from homeless in LA
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strung out on heroin
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with a family that
has a various addiction
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to standing in the house
of this incredible couple.
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And so I'm doing that outreach
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and I'm working with
some folks in Australia
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and I tell Allan
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for the first time in my life,
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"I would like to
study what is the judgement?
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What's investigated judgement?
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How is God gonna judge me?"
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'Cause I've been
afraid to study that
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because, you know, what?
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Man, if you roll out
a scroll of everything
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that I've done wrong,
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all the twisted
stuff in my life,
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everything that I
would be ashamed of,
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if you roll out that scroll,
I couldn't argue any of that.
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I am guilty, I am guilty.
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I'm so far
removed from anything that
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I would think that
God would value yet,
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I know He values me.
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But I'm afraid,
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how do I learn what
the truth is about that?
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So I'm at Allan Lindsay's house.
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So I'll ask him.
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"Allan, I want to study
this, where should I go?"
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And he just
looked at me and smiled.
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And he said,
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"I want to send
you to the testimonies
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and I want you to
look at this chapter."
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And so I find it and
I open up this chapter
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and it was
Joshua and he's praying
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and he's pleading for the people
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and stuff and he's serious.
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He's like, you know,
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'cause you may be in
the same boat together.
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So he's like, you
know, I wanna pray for them,
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I wanna actually
intercede for them.
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And Satan himself stands up.
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Satan stands up
and walks around.
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And he walks
around like, "Excuse me,
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I just wanna say something.
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You kicked me out
of heaven for this guy,
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are you kidding me?
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You kicked me out
and this guy gets in.
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Let me tell you what he's done."
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And I couldn't even breathe
because that was my fear.
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Is, man, I can't stand up
against that kind of argument.
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I don't have
anything that I can say
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this is me and it's all good.
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I'm here for the Grace of God.
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I'm here because God said,
"Stand up, don't be afraid."
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But, you know, I'm reading this
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and I'm watching that scene
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and scene goes on and on about
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who he is and what he's done
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and finally Jesus
Himself has enough.
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When He has enough,
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I could just
feel it in the story
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and He walks up and
He just quiets everybody.
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And He walks up to
Joshua and He says,
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" Joshua, you are standing there
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in filthy garments,
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can I change out your clothes?
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Can I give you
something clean to wear?"
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And He covers him with
a robe of righteousness,
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so his sins are not even seen
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and He says, "It's done."
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It is finished.
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I have died for him,
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he has the right
to be in this room.
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And so what I learned
about the judgement is,
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I am...
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it's finished for my case.
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Jesus died for me,
He's gonna get me home,
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we're gonna be okay.
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Our next guest, I
can't wait till you meet him.
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But I'd like to show you a
little roll in of who he is
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and a little bit of
what he's done in his life
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and then I'm gonna bring him up.
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I...I just adore this guy,
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incredible.
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But you go ahead
and watch this with me.
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All right, now
we're going to take you
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into the world of a man
who is an ultimate fighter.
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Like the video
you are about to see,
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this sport is
disturbing for some
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but for "Nico, The
Dragon, " it's a way of life.
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It's called the
ultimate fighting.
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The idea is to beat your
opponent into submission.
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It's been call
vicious and barbaric.
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You know, you can't tap out.
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And you can have your
corner thrown in the towel,
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but it's an honest thing.
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Nicolas Hill or as he's
called Nico, The Dragon,
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is the 1999 UEFA
world fighting champion.
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He fought all over the
world, for South America,
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for Russia and it's
closest Woodland Hill.
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Were you ever
scared at any point of time
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when you've been learning?
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Always scared.
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Really? Yeah.
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You learn to make
through your friend,
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you just invited in.
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Oh, you may not like it,
you may think it's barbaric.
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What it is, is real.
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Nothing phoney
about mixed martial arts.
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This feature spotlights
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a local fighter named Nico Hill
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or better known to
his fellow competitors
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as Nico, The Dragon.
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And I kid you not,
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this man
physically destroys people
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in a steel cage ring.
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But at the same time
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knows the
entertainment value of a sports.
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From his movie role,
down to his car, The Dragon,
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you can definitely see that
Nico has stepped at Hollywood.
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But before he
hit the big screen,
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the only way you could catch
Nico was on underground video.
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This is how Nico
started his career,
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it's known as mixed martial arts
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or cage fighting.
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The object, you
and your opponent
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surrounded in a wired cage,
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no rules, fight to the finish.
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You get there, the crowds there,
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they shut the cage behind you,
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it's you and your opponent.
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It's not like
football or another teams
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where we've got
other people behind you.
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I can't even
imagine the angel that said,
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"Let me have that guy."
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He better be a fighter.
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That's all I am saying
and I, you know, it's all...
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I'm gonna go
ahead and have a break.
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I'm gonna call you
back to just meet Nico,
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hear his story and man,
00:09:39.01\00:09:41.14
know that God has the
power to change any of us
00:09:41.18\00:09:44.71
and He does it
00:09:44.75\00:09:46.08
because He has a
plan for our lives
00:09:46.11\00:09:47.55
and this plan for
Nico's life was huge.
00:09:47.58\00:09:50.29
We'll be right back.
00:09:50.32\00:09:51.65