You know the feeling. You load a YouTube MMA fight. You’ve seen a million of these things before. You’ve never heard of either fighter, and you yawn, glancing out your office window, wondering if it will rain during your lunch break. Then the camera pans right, to a 116-pound fighter with a 40 pound beard. Wait a second. You take in his impressive body to beard ratio. Your enterochromaffin cells stand up and cheer, spilling their little plastic glasses of serotonin like Mickey’s Malt Liquor.
Tyler Stokes doesn’t just fall down, then immediately scramble his opponent with a sharp right hand. He climbs onto his back and executes a rare crotch submission. Stokes has done his beard a great honor. It is Movember, and it was his destiny.