Denver Post photo of Michael Martinez and his girlfriend after recent wrestling practice by Mahala Gaylord

PAGOSA SPRINGS — As his life hung in the balance, with his body becoming more unrecognizable by the minute, Michael Martinez felt a previously unknown sensation.

Confusion.

He sat in a tub in an Albuquerque hospital with nurses frantically scrubbing rolls of excess skin off his charbroiled body. The drugs they gave him only partially eased pain that pounded him like a logger's ax.

A wrestler nearly his entire life, the two-time state champion at Pagosa Springs High School and three-time Western Wrestling Conference champion at Wyoming knew pain. Pain is one of a wrestler's four major food groups.

But confusion?

Click here to read complete feature on wrestler Michael Martinez

Photo Gallery of Michael Martinez by Post photographer Mahala Gaylord

MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT AMAZING VIDEO ALONGSIDE THE GREAT ARTICLE!!