MMA fighter’s shoe color helped save victims in deadly Kentucky tornado
Brian Brooks is a professional mixed martial artist with a passion for footwear with vibrant colors. The shoes that 41-year-old fighter wore over the weekend are now part of the reason why he is being hailed as a ‘hero.’
Brooks was at home with his daughters when the Kentucky tornado ripped through the town of Mayfield and destroyed a candle factory where his wife and sister-in-law worked.
“It’s my wife,” Brooks told Fox News about a phone call he received. “She calls and tells me she loves me, that she’s trapped, and they’re smashed. And she hung up.”
Brooks franticly drove to the scene hoping to keep his family from harm.
“It was like the worst war movie you see on TV,” he said. “The people were screaming and you could not see in the dark.”
Remembering that his wife was in the women’s restroom when she placed her call, the fighter searched through the debris, helping others along the way.
“I just started climbing and finding people, just helping everybody I could,” Brooks said.
Brooks’ sister-in-law was trapped under the rubble but recognized his easily identifiable shoes and began to shout his name.
Brooks later explained to Fox News, he has a penchant for footwear with “crazy” colors – which may have saved his family’s lives.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and started trying to pull,” Brooks recalled – but in his way was debris from the roof, barrels of candle wax, and parts of the crushed bathroom. “Everything was on top of them.”
At least eight people died at the candle factory as a result of the Kentucky tornado.
“I’m so grateful,” Brooks told Fox News. “I just want to say my prayers for everybody who wasn’t so lucky.”
According to Brooks’ Tapology page he holds a pro MMA record of 1-4 and last competed in November 2019.
