Bad Morning…
Multiple MMA sources say that Charles Lewis, better known as Mask, the man behind the MMA clothing line TapouT, died early Wednesday morning in a car crash in Newport Beach, California.
Mask was reportedly driving his red Ferrari around 1 a.m. when he collided with a Porsche, hit a curb and hit a light pole. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his passenger was hospitalized with unspecified injuries. KTLA News reported that the impact of the crash broke the Ferrari into two pieces.
Police said the Porsche came to a brief stop and then sped away. The Los Angeles Times reports that the driver of the Porsche, Jeffrey David Kirby, was later apprehended and charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. His bail was set at $1 million………..
What the **** man! (thinking and thinking… and yet i don’t what else to say but… just those first 4 words came out without even thinking about saying anything but that). I remember meeting this guy for the first time before I joined the military… almost felt like yesterday almost… it was in Myrtle Beach, Florida. He showed up to one of my Jiu Jit Su/Muay Thai class as usual with the mask thing going on and his 2 partners in crime were always around to see the upcoming fighters… it was a MMA day too so we sparred for couple of rounds for 4 minutes rotating around and I was one of the new guys after getting kicked out California but that’s a different story… anyways I was being looked on the whole time they were there checking our routines out and talking to us individually… I gave a good performance on my sparring and my sensei said I was excellent striker and calm on the ground and then that’s when I shook Mask’s hand and ask me a bunch of questions about how long of this and that you know… but the thing is not only I met and seen this guy not once but 2 times and that wasn’t not too long ago… and that was when Tapout came to Camp Pendleton in December 2008 when I’m in the military… they were on base for signings and giving away his new line of shirts and stuff to the people. He signed my old tapout shirt saying "Do You Want To Be ****ing Fighter" and shook my hand again and reminded him I was that kid training in that same fight club in Myrtle Beach, Florida. And the last he said to me before I had to go enjoy my weekend was "Thanks for Serving Our Country bro"… don’t want say the long version of that because he’s always had that kind of preacher kind of talk everytime he spoke. I’m sure there’s a lot guys that can relate to this because without Mask in Tapout… you know the other two aren’t a lick of nut to do much for making shirt designs… it’s like the designer’s ideas are gone but they’re still going to be making shirts that are more likely not going to have any creatavity anymore without him…
