“The Reverend of MMA” Turk Vangel

“The Reverend” Turk Vangel is the founder and editor-in-chief of MMA Gospel and host of MMA Gospel Radio. He started off many years ago as a wrestler in junior high. This led him to the world of freestyle wrestling which he loved due to the slams and the generally more aggressive style it presented. He was lucky enough to compete in the AAU junior Olympics and the Pan Am Games, and the AAU freestyle nationals. In 1993 he was introduced to the UFC via video tape. He watched everything he could get his hands on and became a fan of Royce Gracie and Bas Rutten over the years. Eventually, “The Reverend” began to train in mixed martial arts to get a better understanding of the sport. He began training at Beavercreek Martial Arts, a Jorge Gurgel affiliate school under professional fighter Mike Patt. There he studied Brazilian jiu jitsu and Muay Thai. His love for the ground game grew from here. Reverend Turk would scour the internet looking for mma news and listening to podcasts until one day he decided that he needed to bring a show to the fans. Something that was pure MMA and not comedy with some mma thrown in to the show. He started by doing small segments on BengalsWorld News Radio. This led to the starting of MMA Gospel Radio and the MMA Gospel Blog.

MMA Gospel Radio is now the top ranked mma podcast online as voted on by the fans and the Reverend is looking to keep moving forward and giving the fans what they want. This has led to the creation of this site. Much more is on the way from The Reverend.

Reverend Turk is single but has a beautiful step daughter named Lotus. When not covering mixed martial arts and interviewing fighters he was a machinist and a welder that has worked for custom motorcycle companies such as Led Sled Customs and 138 Cycle Fabrication. Now he spends his time in Southern California soaking up the sun.  His loves, other than mma, are his family, custom built bikes and rat rods. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/mmagospel

New York Gary Friedman

Gary is a lifelong boxing fan who has become a huge MMA fan. He currently lives in NJ. Follow Gary on twitter at www.twitter.com/MMA_Gospel_Gary

Ronald Young Jr.

Ronald Young Jr. or ohitsbigron is an IT professional working in Washington DC area.  He also works part time for the radio station WIHT or Hot 995. which serves the greater Washington DC area Maryland and Virginia.  He stumbled upon MMA by watching an Ultimate Fighter marathon on Spike in the summer of 2008.  Before this he was an avid Kimbo fan and was a casual MMA watcher but that summer in 2008 changed a lot for him.  Since then he’s been nonstop about knowing all parts of MMA UFC and otherwise.  Some of his favorite fighters include Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Frank Mir, Pat Barry, Nick Diaz, and Kenny Florian. Follow Ronald on twitter at www.twitter.com/ohitsbigron

Patrick Guera

Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Patrick Guera has taken MMA and made it his sport. Patrick was first exposed to MMA with UFC 1 at a friend’s house. Theyordered the pay per view and were completely hooked. To this day Patrick still uses the Gracie front kick as his main defense tactic. When MMA began to grow as a sport in the mid 2000’s Patrick used the incredible access the Internet provided to become a rabid MMA fan and is never short on an opinion of the sport on any given day. He has written several prophetic blogs on various aspects of Mixed Martial Arts and op‐ed pieces for large publications. He is hoping to spread the word with the ever growing community at MMA Gospel.

Dan Griffin

Daniel Griffin was raised in southern Louisiana.  The son of a former Navy SEAL and Top 10 ranked full contact karate fighter, he began to study the martial arts at only four years of age.  His love of mixed martial arts also started early in life when his father called him into the living room in 1993 to show him a video tape of the very first UFC event.  Daniel studied Shotokan karate and Tea Kwon Do as a child an began studying Isshin-Ryu karate under six time World Police and Fire Games kick boxing champion Morris “Magic” Polion and currently holds a black belt in TKD and a 5th degree black belt in Isshin-Ryu karate.  He fought in four world karate championships and won six consecutive Alabama state karate championships before beginning to fight as a kick boxer at age 16.  After building an overall 36-2 kick boxing record (7-2 professional) and earning the moniker “Dynamite” for his aggressive, fast paced style he turned his attentions to fighting mixed martial arts on a regional level, winning two championships at welterweight and lightweight in the Mississippi based O-1 Productions Slugfest promotion.
After several shoulder injuries, Dan stepped away from the cage and started the Griffin Fighting Systems fight team in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  The GFS team was very successful on an amateur level, with 13 active fighters with a combined 27-3 record including Dan’s brother Adam Griffin, who went undefeated in the Slugfest promotion and held their Bantamweight title, and Robert “Iron Man” Thompson who went 10-1 as a GFS fighter.  He also started the Southern Fighting Alliance promotion and put on three successful shows before leaving the promotion due to personal reasons.
Daniel currently lives in Morris, Illinois with his girlfriend Mallory and manages a Verizon store for a local agent.  He still follows MMA very closely, stuffing his DVR with UFC, Strikeforce, and Bellator events and watching older bouts on a regular basis. Follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/Dan_MMAGospel

Mallory Mejia

Mallory is the MMA Gospel staff photographer for the East coast. Her passion for the sport comes through in her pictures and in her rants commonly found on twitter.  Be on the look out for MMA action as seen through the eye of Mallory. Follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/Mallory815

Jim Xavier

Jim is a native to California and a pioneer of the home entertainment industry who began his career in 1981 in the very early days of the VHS tape format. Jim was drawn to the, then, revolutionary home entertainment industry because it challenged conventional wisdom and Jim says he “hates conventional wisdom, it is for conventional people.” During his career in home entertainment Jim has become well regarded as an innovator, motivator, mentor, change agent, problem solver and partnership builder. Jim has worked for Technicolor for 23 years and in 2001 he was asked by Disney Studios to sit on site at their headquarters in Burbank, California to oversee their DVD manufacturing supply chain. His rejection of conventional thinking is partly behind his motivation in becoming involved in MMA as an evangelist for our sport. Jim says, “MMA is something completely different that has been rejected by much of the existing sports establishment. This is very similar to the issue that home entertainment faced from the studio system in the 1980’s and I loved breaking that system.” While not a fighter or martial arts practitioner Jim is an avid long distance cyclist and runner. In recent years Jim has become a collector of Tribal style tattoos and has about 80% of his upper body covered in that style.