Tim Kennedy's ability to cope with contrasts keeps him sane

Tim Kennedy headlines UFC's Fight for the Troops at Fort Campbell in Kentucky on Wednesday.

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But what the elder Kennedy didn't know is that, in small pockets of the globe, a new sport was emerging. "The dark ages," as Kennedy called them. A show in a rope ring at a Tijuana bar here. A contest at a Native American casino there. A brand new sport of no-holds-barred fighting for which all the disciplines Kennedy studied could be combined. "That's why I was so good at MMA so early because I'd done everything," Kennedy says.

Tim Kennedy began fighting in unofficial bar brawls.

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As he finishes the story, he lets out a smile. And then it becomes clear: The miracle of Tim Kennedy isn't so much that he lived but that he's still fully alive.