NORFOLK, Va. - Mixed Martial Arts is not just any ordinary training regiment for Nelson Lebron.
"I served in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "I did nine combat tours, seven and a half years of boots on ground. The gym has meant everything to me, I've found an outlet where I can deal with my PTSD demons."
Becoming a coach at UFC Gym in Norfolk was Lebron's chance to continue serving, something he's done for more than half a decade.
"A way for me to improve myself and improve others around me," Lebron said.
"He's like a second father for me," said Josh Murcia, one of Lebron's students. "He cares about all of us. He barely has any breaks and puts so much work into the kids."
That’s why the closure of the UFC Gym last week hit so hard for Lebron, the rest of the gym's coaches, and the trainees.
"It's something hard to hear," said 15-year-old trainee Sadie Kidd. "It was very hard to clean out the gym with all the different emotions going through."
Lebron is determined not to give up. He's started a fundraising campaign to help afford a new location to start a gym for the kids, hoping they won't have to start over somewhere else.
"It's of the upmost importance," he said. "It's about what we've started here. We started an anti-kidnapping organization, we were doing self-defense classes for everybody in schools."
"We all together made this a home," Adryanna Lebron, Nelson's daughter, said. "We're all brothers and sisters, we all stick together."
The setting of the training facility is going to change, and that's okay for the group. All they want is the chance to continue to learn to fight with the people they believe are their family.
"I've realized it's not about the gym, it's about the people," Murcia said. "We just need to train and be with each other."
Lebron's campaign has raised more than $1,000 for the potential new location. He says he's earning his business license to run the gym himself.
