An MMA fighter stood up for a bullied Oklahoma boy. Then the stars aligned

Rayden Overbay winced and arched his back as the boy unloaded punches on him. He stumbled backward against the bathroom stalls looking for some escape, but there were attackers on every side. And behind them onlookers, half a dozen at least, some of them holding up cell phones fixed on an autistic, partially deaf 12-year-old getting the beating of his life. Rayden went home that day with a black eye, a busted lip, a bloody nose and a concussion.
Less than 24 hours later, professional mixed martial artist Justin Wren sat at his kitchen table watching the video, which had been posted to social media by one of the kids who shot it. It was like finding a long-lost home movie in the attic.
“I know how that feels,” he said to himself. “That was me.”
At Rayden’s age, Wren had been attacked in the locker room by a bully who had terrorized him for years. He’d been blindsided with the violent crack of a football helmet to the back of his head. It left an egg the size of a baseball and planted a seedling of doubt that his life might not be worth living anymore.
“I remember people laughing at me,” Wren told the Guardian. “No one spoke up or stepped in. I remember the bully walking away. Nothing happened to him. Just like Rayden.”



Give the Guardian some traffic below folks

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/nov/28/standwithrayden-justin-wren-rayden-overbay

Posted by Jamie B.


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