I am writing to share my life experience and my experiences in martial arts and the fighting industry. From the time I was a small child, I was drawn to wrestling and martial arts. Unfortunately, my family was very low income. I was often lucky to get three meals a day. For a brief period, we even had to live in our car. Often I had to live in a tough neighborhood so my entire childhood was a fight. We were constantly moving from town to town. Always being the "new kid" meant I was constantly being beat up. Frequently I was beat up by two or more people at a time. I was a skinny, weak kid which made me the perfect target for neighborhood bullies. 

At the age of eight, a local boxing club offered to train me for free. I jumped at the chance. As usual though, when I started to fit in and build confidence, we moved again. Once again I found myself fighting every day. This time, at the age of nine, I found a group of boys much older than me to hang out with. They merely wanted me around for amusement but I thought they were my salvation from the constant fighting. Soon though, they began taking turns beating me up or setting up fights with other kids from the neighborhood. They even began putting me up to stealing whatever they wanted from local stores and other establishments. At the age of eleven, we moved again to Georgia. This meant a new group of kids to beat me up and ridicule me. I stopped going anywhere, even refusing to go to school sometimes. I just sat around, eating and watching television. This caused me to gain a tremendous amount of weight. To add to this problem, I was put on medication which caused me to gain weight also. Things did not go well in this new home until I turned fifteen. At this time, I sought out a local hero, a professional wrestler, that I had always looked up to. I convinced him I was eighteen years old and he began training me to wrestle. I trained every day for two to three hours. It was the roughest year of my life! I was frequently so beat and battered that I could hardly walk, but that did not stop me. At the age of sixteen, I was traveling all over the south, building my name as a pro-wrestler. I quit school to do this full time, although I later returned to get my G.E.D.

I started working out with weights and my body responded well! I started shedding the fat and replacing it with muscle. For the first time, I felt good about myself! Here I was at a young age living my childhood dream! I was in good shape, doing what I had always wanted and making more money than most people I knew. At the same time, I began studying various grappling arts which complimented my career. At the age of twenty, I was very established in my career and, by this time I had plenty of television experience. I was well known in parts all over. Needless to say, no one picked on me anymore.

From grappling, I went on to study various types of Kung Fu and martial arts. Jumping from one art to another, taking the aspects I really liked, and combining it with my grappling experience. Although I was excelling very fast and enjoyed martial arts, no style had kept my interest.

At the age of twenty-two, I injured my arm which put my wrestling career on hold. This allowed me to put more time into my martial arts and bodybuilding. After my recovery, I decided not to pursue my wrestling career. I began personal training - helping people in all aspects of fitness. Then one day I had the opportunity to enter my first bare-knuckle event. I took my training to a much higher level and went for it. To everyone’s surprise, including my own, I won first place, taking home a very good pay day. Even though I won, I was beat and battered, to the point of being physically sick. I decided that, although the money was good, it just was not worth the trauma to my body.

Then I had the good fortune to be introduced to James Lacy’s Mew Hing style of fighting. I had finally found the style that was right for me. Not only did this system contain lightning fast speed and bone crushing power, it allowed me to be part of history unlike so many watered down systems I had been introduced to. So once again I entered the Bare-Knuckle scene, to test the skills being shown to me from Grandmaster Lacy. The event was small, but the fighters were well trained and in great shape. Once again I won first place, but this time I was not as battered. I was sore for a couple of days but this was a major improvement from the last event.

A couple of months later, I went on to a much bigger event, with the support and inspiration of James Lacy. This time I was actually able to think in a split second and decide what was the best strategy. It was a two night event, with the winner of the first night facing the winner of the second night. I noticed a tremendous improvement in my punches and my overall fighting skills. For the third time, I won first place. The skills shown to me by Grandmaster Lacy have really changed my life.

Now my sights are set on learning and passing on to others the most authentic style of Kung Fu being taught today. I have made up my mind not to enter any more fights. It is like the old cliché "Been there, Done that". I feel it is a much bigger accomplishment to learn all I can in my lifetime from the Five Elder Arts and teach other people this truly amazing system of Kung Fu.

-Mac Waters 

Mew Hing Productions
42499 Old Highway 80
P.O. Box 427
Jacumba, CA 91934-0427 USA