When Nick Thompson walks into the classroom on Tuesday morning to take the Minnesota Bar Exam, there’s a good chance he’ll have plenty of bruises on his body. Maybe a shiner or a broken nose.
There’s also a chance the 2008 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School will have the EliteXC welterweight championship belt around his waist.
On Saturday night, three days before he takes the biggest test of his life, Thompson has the biggest mixed martial arts fight of his life against Jake Shields in Stockton, Calif.
For the past five weeks, Thompson has not only been studying for one of the most mentally draining examinations in all of academia; he has also been training for one of the most physically demanding events in all of sports.
"I couldn’t think of two more difficult things to pile on top of each other simultaneously," said Sajin Kwok, who has trained with Thompson at the Minnesota Martial Arts Center in suburban Minneapolis for the past seven months. "Maybe a wedding?"
Adam Hansen has helped organize large viewing parties at local bars so his classmates can get together and watch the toughest law student in the land throw down in the cage. But he doesn’t expect the same kind of turnout on Saturday night.
"It’s just not going to happen this time," Hansen said. "Just to get people to get up and get out and go have fun, not too many people are willing to do that this close to the bar."
So what does that make Thompson?
"Absolutely crazy," Hansen said without hesitation. "But it’s the sort of crazy that I’ve come to expect from Nick."
Thompson knows he can’t fight forever. When his MMA career is over, he would like to go into contract or tax law.
A fighting tax lawyer? Thompson says it’s not as far-fetched as it might first seem.
"I think it’s a lot more similar than people think. You’re using your body as opposed to your mind, but in both cases you’re developing a strategy to beat your opponent. On one hand, it’s the IRS. On the other hand, it’s Jake Shields," he said with a laugh. "I’m not sure which is worse, either."
Molly Thompson never thought it would get this far.
One of her first dates with Nick was to watch a mutual friend in a mixed martial arts fight in Wisconsin.
"I’m a classy guy," Nick said with a grin.
After seeing her date’s eyes light up during the bout, Molly half-jokingly suggested that he give it a shot.
The first few fights weren’t pretty. They took place in small rural bars, where Thompson had to pay a $10 fee to take a beating.
"I thought he’d talk himself out of it," said Molly, who has now been married to Nick for a year.
In training, he would get knocked out regularly, earning him the nickname "The Goat," like those funny fainting goats on YouTube.
"People have nicknames like Pit Bull," the jovial Thompson said during a sparring session with Kwok. "I’d like to have a nickname like that."
Nick and Molly moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota so Nick could attend law school. Once he started training at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, his fighting career started to take off.
He has won 12 fights in a row and 20 of his last 21 to move up the chain of welterweights and put off becoming a lawyer, at least for now.
And he did it all while putting himself through one of the better law schools out there.
When Thompson defeated Eddie Alvarez in 2007 for the now-defunct Bodog welterweight title, he strutted into a sports law class a few days later with the belt around his waist.
The entire class, and his professor, gave him a standing ovation. But while his fighting career prevented him from getting the top grades in law school, Thompson more than held his own in the classroom, Hansen said.
"In terms of intellectual firepower, he was in the top group," Hansen said. "In terms of the amount of work he put into class, he was toward the middle.
"There are a lot of people who approach law school where that’s all you do for three years. A lot of people would study the amount of time that Nick studied, plus the amount of time that Nick trained. But he was always prepared."
When Nick first went to Molly with his desire to put an esteemed profession in the courtroom on hold to chase his bloody-knuckle ambitions, his wife was supportive, but a little apprehensive.
"It was definitely one of those things where I don’t think a lot of people have dreams that big," Molly said. "But at first it wasn’t something that I told my parents about. (Mixed martial arts) are starting to change people’s views. But there’s no way to gracefully ease someone into that idea."
Living a double life has taken a toll on both of them.
All the studying and training, which includes a diet that makes Jared’s Subway plan look like an all-you-can-eat buffet, leaves Nick Thompson little time or energy for his wife, relatives and friends.
"It is frustrating when you can’t make a Thanksgiving dinner or have to leave the family Christmas early because he has to be at the gym the next day," Molly said. "But there’s bad parts to every job.
"I just know he’s doing something that makes him very happy, so it’s been worth it."
All that hard work, all those long hours, all those lonely nights have led up to this moment _ er, these moments.
The Thompson-Shields fight is the co-main event of the night, which is why Thompson couldn’t turn it down despite having fought just six weeks ago.
"Winning the EliteXC belt on CBS is going to mean big sponsorship money, hopefully, and will help facilitate me not having to become a lawyer yet," Thompson said.
Then comes the bar, and Hansen hopes to see Thompson stroll in with another belt around his waist and cap his mind-numbing summer in style.
"Hopefully," Thompson said, "I’ll go 2-0."
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