There is a whole tradition in fight photography of the stoic face: the set jaw, the focused eyes, the composure that says I have prepared for this and I am not afraid. This is not that photograph.

This man is laughing. Full teeth, tongue out, the expression of someone who has just discovered that the thing they were most afraid of turned out to be the funniest thing that has ever happened to them. He is pointing the camera right back at me, and I think he might be winning that exchange.

We talk about fighting like it is always gravity and gravitas. But for some fighters, at some moments, it is also this: a man in a cage in the middle of Tennessee who cannot stop laughing. I don’t know what set it off. I know I’ll remember it longer than any of the serious ones.

(photo/words: Brian Ragle)