Today, Stergos Mikkios proudly calls himself a member of the ONE Championship roster. Yet if things had unfolded just a little bit differently for the Greek Muay Thai specialist, he might not have made it to the bright lights of the Singapore-based promotion.<\/p>\n
In fact, he might not be alive at all.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, when Mikkios was struggling to gain a foothold as professional fighter, he made a few hasty decisions and ultimately wound up with a gun in his face as a result.<\/p>\n
Now enjoying new heights as a ONE Championship fighter, he’s hoping up-and-coming fighters will learn from his mistakes.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
For Stergos Mikkios, the trouble began shortly after he made his professional Muay Thai debut in Thailand. Things were going pretty well in the sun-soaked Southeast Asian country, but he increasingly found himself pining for his homeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to go back,” Mikkios recently told BJPENN.COM. “I wanted to go back to Greece. It had been a long time for me since I\u2019d gone back to the homeland. I was really looking forward to working with Greek people, working in the industry of fighting with my fellow Greek brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mikkios’s longing to return to Greece grew, he began chatting online with a gentleman in his home country \u2014 whose name he has chosen to withold \u2014 who offered to act as his manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some communication with this gentleman,” he said. “I did a little bit of research, but I didn\u2019t do much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked a media guy from Greece [about him],\u201d he continued. \u201cHe told me \u2018yeah man, he\u2019s a big name in Greece. He has good connections with fights, he has some really tough fighters under him, and I think he\u2019d be perfect for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This was all Mikkios needed to hear about this manager. He decided it was time to move back home.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, his long-awaited homecoming hit a snag almost immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had [one final] fight in Max Muay Thai [in Thailand],” he said. “I made my money, buy the plane ticket, and then I miss my flight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airlines, as most travelers know, are typically unsympathetic when it comes to missed flights. Mikkios was told there was nothing that could be done, and that he would need to buy another ticket. Unfortunately, his pockets were almost empty.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, he had nobody to call on for help. Mikkios grew up in an orphanage, and has never had much of a relationship with his family. And so, feeling increasingly desperate to get home, he called on his new manager \u2014 a man he still hadn’t met \u2014 and asked for a favor<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no money left,” he said. “I literally had nothing from the beginning, from the beginning in this career. I was in orphanages, I had no support from anyone.<\/p>\n
“The days were going by, my [Thai] visa was expired, everything was going wrong. So I slept over the airport one day, and I decided \u2018let me ask this guy to do me a favor and book me a ticket to Greece.\u2019 I have no other money.”<\/p>\n
As it turns out, his new manager was happy to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018ok man, I\u2019ll do that for you man, no problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A few flights later, and Stergos Mikkios was back in Greece.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, things took a troubling turn quite quickly. His new manager failed to find him any fights, or even adequate training. To make matters worse, the manager began heavily policing what Mikkios posted on his personal social media channels.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started telling me \u2018don\u2019t post anything, don\u2019t do this,'” he explained. “He\u2019s telling what exactly to do. He was controlling me like \u2018hey man, don\u2019t do this, don\u2019t do this.\u2019 Inside I\u2019m like \u2018what the f*ck is he doing?\u2019 But I listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this strange behaviour, Mikkios did his best to stay positive and continued to press his new manager for a fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like \u2018hey man, when am I going to get a fight? I want to start training, you know?\u2019” he explained.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018nothing is going on right now, man.\u2019 It was around May to October that I waited. So all these months in Greece it\u2019s dead. There\u2019s nothing<\/em>.\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cI like, well \u2018I want to fight outside Greece. I don\u2019t want to fight in Greece. I told you that I\u2019m ready for a higher level, I not trying to fight for smaller promotions and wait for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n Just when Mikkios’ was becoming discouraged, however, his new manager invited him to Athens, where he promised that an apartment, some sponsorship deals, and even a part-time job awaited him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018October, you\u2019re going to come [to Athens], I\u2019m going to get you an apartment, I\u2019m going to get you some sponsorships with supplements, I\u2019m going to find you a small job so you can make some extra money, and I\u2019m going to get you a sponsor for some meal preps,” Mikkios explained. “In my head I\u2019m like \u2018that sounds f*cking awesome.\u2019 I never expected that. I was really enthusiastic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unfortunately, Mikkios’ enthusiasm was promptly met by empty promises.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t have anything for me yet [when I arrived], so I end up crashing at his girlfriend\u2019s apartment for a little while on a bunk bed,” he said. “I\u2019m waiting and waiting, and they couldn\u2019t get me shit, man.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, Mikkios was lined up with a gym \u2014 but it did not provide the quality of training he needed as a professional fighter who had already fought some of the best in the world in Thailand. He also says he sensed that some of the people at the gym were involved in some less than savory activities on the side.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some people that are mixed up in a little bit of the night life [stuff], but I didn\u2019t really pay much attention to it,” he said.\u00a0\u201cI go to the gym and the way they have their training set up for us \u2014 the pro fighters, not the amateurs \u2014 it\u2019s combinations like one-two-three-low kick, one-two-body kick, that\u2019s it, and you do it for the whole f*cking round. I don\u2019t need this shit. It wasn\u2019t the level that I was expecting. It was not that good.\u201d<\/p>\n Furthermore, Mikkios still hadn’t been set up with an apartment \u2014 not to mention the sponsorships and meal preps he’d been promised.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still waiting for an apartment,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m waiting and I\u2019m waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was waiting for the food preps, I was spending all my own money, the training [was poor]\u2026 I was really getting aggravated.\u201d<\/p>\n Just when it seemed as though all hope was lost, however, Stergos Mikkios\u00a0was\u00a0finally\u00a0<\/em>booked for a fight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI did a Muay Thai fight of five rounds against a twice-my-size Romanian,” he recounted. “I ended up finishing him in the fourth round with elbow cuts.”<\/p>\n “I ended up making 500 Euro. I ended up giving 100 Euro to the manager, another 100 for the flight tickets [to Greece], and ended up having 300 Euro in my pocket.”<\/p>\n As an established pro, Mikkios was accustomed to much larger pay checks, and decided to bring the issue up with his manager. It’s the job of a manager, after all, to track down the biggest possible paydays for a fighter.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t be having fights for 500 Euro after three or four months [without any fights],” Mikkios said. \u201cHe\u2019s like like ‘this is your problem. You\u2019ve got to find a job.’\u201d<\/p>\n To make matters worse, Mikkios’s manager was demanding more money from\u00a0him, explaining that he wanted to be be paid back in full for the plane tickets he purchased.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m like, \u2018I only have 300 Euro. I can\u2019t really pay you off when I only have 300 Euro.\u2019 So I\u2019m like \u2018why don\u2019t you book me another fight, and then from the next fight, I can pay you off. Because I don\u2019t have any money, I don\u2019t have a job, I can\u2019t pay you off. And the amount of money that I have, it\u2019s for me to survive right now. I don\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n The manager, for whatever reason, balked at the idea of helping Mikkios find another fight. In fact, he began to make threats.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018oh, I\u2019ve got to work for my f*cking money?\u2019 I\u2019m like \u2018well this is your job as a manager [to get me fights].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe sort of threatened me like \u2018if you don\u2019t get me the f*cking money, there\u2019s going to be some big consequences.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Needless to say, things were quickly falling apart for Stergos Mikkios, a fighter who, mere months earlier, was enjoying quite a bit of success in the combat sports hotbed of Thailand.<\/p>\n \u201cThings are sort of collapsing,” he said.\u00a0\u201cThe partnership really crashed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By this point, Mikkios had moved out of his manager’s girlfriend’s apartment and was crashing with a friend. When his friend could no longer host him, however, he found himself confronted with homelessness.<\/p>\n Without any other options, he emptied out his wallet and hunkered down in a cheap hotel room for a few nights.<\/p>\n “I ended up getting a hotel room for a couple days and figuring out what I had to do,” he said.<\/p>\n It was at this point that he decided it was time to track down another manager. After doing a bit of digging, he was pointed in the direction of an established combat sports manager who seemed like the real deal, and reached out.<\/p>\n He would come to regret this decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI went and reached out to another manager and trainer with a gym,\u201d he said. \u201c[He had] a fighter who had a fight in Bellator, so I\u2019m like if this guy can connect somebody with Bellator, he can connect me. I\u2019m at that level. So I tell him about my story and this and that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI tell him \u2018this is what happened\u2026 I was supposed to get some help with an apartment, fights, I was going to make some money, and nothing that was promised was given to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t call [the other manager] names or anything, I just told him he wasn\u2019t a man of his word.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis guy went to the [first] manager or somebody at that gym and told them everything that I said.\u201d<\/p>\n Entirely unaware of what was going on behind his back, a distraught Stergos Mikkios decided to go back to his hometown of Rhodes. Before he departed, however, he needed return some borrowed gear, so he messaged his former coach.<\/p>\n \u201cHe invited me to the gym at 9:00pm when the last session was over,” he said. “He\u2019s like \u2018maybe we can chat a little bit.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI went there at night, I didn\u2019t think twice about it,” he continued. “I should have thought \u2018why do I have to go there at that time?\u2019 But I did not think about it. I was not suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mikkios arrived at the gym, there was nobody around, so he sent his former coach a message.<\/p>\n \u201cI message him when I get off the bus,” he said. “He\u2019s like \u2018ah f*ck man, I forgot, I went home. I’m so burnt.’<\/p>\n “I was like, \u2018well what do you want me to do? Do you want me to leave [the gear] here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Mikkios didn’t get an answer, he wandered into the gym to return his borrowed gear.<\/p>\n \u201cI got up into the gym to just leave the bag, and some guys come in with masks, with one gun,” he said. “They set it up.\u201d<\/p>\n These men in masks were not alone. They were accompanied by the manager, who had been tipped off by the coach that he would be coming.<\/p>\n \u201cThey got me in the building,” he said. “The manager starts talking shit like \u2018why would say this shit to this [other manager] after all I\u2019ve done for you? All I tried to do for you.\u2019 He started punching me right on the f*cking mouth \u2014 over eight times. I think he f*cked up his knuckles.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe says \u2018you piece of shit, you want to die? You want to f*cking die?\u2019 He takes out his phone and starts making a f*cking video tape. He says \u2018say you\u2019re my bitch on this f*cking video.\u2019 I\u2019m like \u2018I\u2019m not saying shit man. Punch me as long as you want, I ain\u2019t\u2019 saying shit. I\u2019m nobody\u2019s bitch.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s when Mikkios’ lingering debt came up again.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s punching me and he\u2019s like \u2018where\u2019s my money, when you going to give me my f*cking money?\u2019 I\u2019m like \u2018I don\u2019t have any money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn my head I\u2019m thinking \u2018you did all this for what, to make yourself feel better?\u2019 But I didn\u2019t say it out loud because I had a gun pointed at me.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily, Stergos Mikkios was eventually allowed to leave. Entirely fed up with his dealings with the manager and his associates, however, he decided not to call the police.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t go to the police or nothing, I\u2019m just like \u2018f*ck this, man,'” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”<\/p>\n “My girlfriend was like \u2018don\u2019t give them any money, take them to the police, take them to court. Don\u2019t give them anything that you\u2019ve got.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Even once he was back in Rhodes, Mikkios continued to hear from his new nemesis.<\/p>\n “I ended up finding a job in Rhodes working construction,” he explained. “He\u2019s messaging me, calling me, like \u2018you\u2019re going to die, you\u2019ve gotta bring me my money, you\u2019re not going to be able to fight anywhere\u2026.\u2019 He was threatening me constantly.”<\/p>\n This continued up to the point that Stergos Mikkios had signed with ONE Championship, where he was set to debut against\u00a0Ognjen Topic.<\/p>\n “I blocked him but he still could message me on my [Facebook] fan page. He\u2019s like \u2018I\u2019m going to f*cking find you, and you\u2019re not going to f*cking make it to that fight. You\u2019re going to go there beat up.\u2019<\/p>\n In the end, these threats were thankfully not delivered upon. Mikkios was able to fight Topic. And though he lost the fight by decision, he finally had some money in his pockets and promptly paid his debt.<\/p>\n “I ended up giving 400 Euro to the last trainer that I trained with to give it to that motherf*cker, and that was it,” he said. “Just to clear my f*cking mind. But you know what, it\u2019s haunted me.”<\/p>\n For Stergos Mikkios, it was finally over \u2014 and just in time for the beginning of his ONE Championship career. As you can imagine, however, he admittedly had a hard time rediscovering his love of fighting after this harrowing experience.<\/p>\n