The telephone rang on Christmas Eve, as Nik Lentz was headed to a friend's home for a holiday party. He saw the phone number of his manager, Monte Cox, appear on his caller ID.

Lentz, a UFC fighter, wasn't expecting to hear from Cox. When he saw who it was, he briefly wondered why he'd be getting a call from Cox on Christmas Eve.

Perhaps, he thought, Cox was calling with holiday wishes. Or, he surmised, Cox had a fight offer to present that might have been good news.

Lentz answered and Cox's familiar voice came on the line.

But this was not a pleasant call, definitely one that Cox did not want to make.

Cox told Lentz he'd been talking to UFC officials, and they weren't happy with Lentz's fighting.

Two weeks earlier, Lentz had lost a bout to Mark Bocek at UFC 140 in Toronto. About 14 months before that, Lentz defeated Andre Winner in a fight that UFC president Dana White didn't find too compelling.

White, as is his style, held back no punches. He blasted Lentz and Winner for putting on what he believed was a horrible fight. The fans picked up on it and began ripping Lentz. The level of hatred and animosity directed toward him was, he said, utterly shocking.

But nothing was as shocking as the news Cox was to deliver. After eight UFC fights, the UFC had seen enough.

On Christmas Eve, Nik Lentz lost his job.









Being unemployed did not make Lentz very happy. The party was not much fun. It was not, however, the most significant of his problems.

His father, Jon Lentz, had been the glue around which the family had been built. Jon had dreams of seeing his son succeed athletically, but also wanted to help his two daughters reach their dreams.

He put one daughter, Mandy Kopmick, through law school. His other daughter, Alyson Lentz, was planning to go to medical school at the University of Minnesota and Jon was going to finance that.

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All three children pleaded with him to keep his money. They would, they said, find a way to take care of themselves.

Jon Lentz had cancer. First, he'd had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but he was able to beat that. But then, the cancer came back and it surfaced in his lung.

Miraculously, he beat that, as well. But then, a third time, the cancer found its way to Jon Lentz's bladder. And this time, it didn't look so good.

Doctors said there wasn't much they could do beyond a surgery that would cost Jon Lentz around $100,000.

"Family was a huge thing to my father, and he taught me that from a very young age," Nik Lentz said. "If you don't have family, you don't have anything. He'd said throughout my whole life and throughout my sisters' lives that he'd be there for us. He'd say, 'I am going to do everything in my power to put you in a situation to be successful.' He was going to take care of his family. That was very important to him."

So, perhaps it wasn't too surprising, knowing that about Jon Lentz, to know that when decision time came, there really wasn't much of a decision.

Jon Lentz declined the surgery he needed to save his life, because if he paid for it, he couldn't afford to pay for law school and medical school and to put his children in the best possible position to be successful in their lives.









Jon Lentz is a former musician and studio engineer. He's 49 now, not all that comfortable talking about himself, even less about his private medical issues.

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