Manny Neves - Mixed Martial Arts Master and Self-described Ghost Junkie

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I've never heard of Manny Neves (not listed in the Sherdog database), but I read this at PawTucketTimes , and I don't know about you, but this seems weird to me:

Neves, a veteran mixed martial arts (MMA) master and proprietor of the Elite Martial Arts Compound on Smithfield Avenue, has recently made some acquaintances who could put him at the forefront of a nationally-televised paranormal investigation.

It all started when Neves, a self-described ghost junkie, contacted the producers of cable television’s popular series Ghost Hunters (the second season of which debuts on the Sci Fi Channel in March).

As it turns out, just as Neves spent nearly all his downtime studying paranormal phenomena and watching horror movies, professional ghost hunters Jason Hawes and Brian Harnois, both of Warwick, loved to watch people place each other in vicious submission holds.

One day, Hawes and Harnois took time out of their busy schedules to visit Neves’ Pawtucket dojo. The three became fast friends.

Before long, said Neves, the trio were trading stories — of the ghost and fight variety — and taking each other out to dinner. This Summer, when Neves takes on Taunton native Mike Varner for the second time in three months at the Mohegan Sun Arena (Varner won the "Last Man Standing" MMA title in Fall River last December) Hawes and Harnois will have ringside seats, and in an upcoming episode of Ghost Hunters, so will Neves.

According to the former MMA Champion, the show’s producers have agreed to let him participate in one of the Ghost Hunters’ supernatural forays. The show chronicles the professional lives of Hawes and his co-host, Grant Wilson, as their relentless fascination with the spirit world takes them all over the continental United States, from a New Orleans plantation to Astors’ Beechwood Mansion in Newport.

Hawes and Wilson are the founders of TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), a locally-based research organization which published the first issue of its journal, TAPS Paramagazine, last June. Harnois is the show’s technology specialist.

For as long as he can remember Neves has been passionate about both mixed-style fighting and paranormality.

When he wasn’t training and fighting, Neves said he was a voracious reader of paranormal literature.

Just like fighting, said Neves, paranormal studies require a systematic approach.

You don’t just rush in and take on an opponent willy-nilly, according to Neves. You need to need to be careful, deliberate and strategic.

"[When I am on the show I don’t want to be some Joe Shmoe who runs away when he encounters a haunting," Neves told The Times in an interview. "I want to be the guy who stays there and analyzes the situation - looks at it scientifically. I’m sure my heart rate would be up, but I wouldn’t be scared. It’s the living that will hurt you, not the dead."

It’s almost remarkable that a man who turned to MMA because he was frustrated with the "jab, jab, jab" tedium of western boxing, would be such a fan of the intangible, but Neves said he’s already learned a few valuable life lessons from his new friends at TAPS. Between stories about ghouls and ghosts, Hawes and Harnois answered one of Neves’ most pressing paranormal queries: are Ouija boards real?

"They told me not to bother with Ouija boards because they can open gates to other dimensions, possibly even hell," Neves said. "The way he [Hawes] said it was so funny — Ouija boards have been around for hundreds of years, in some form or another. The earliest ones were made of beach sand. With that paranormal history, any Ouija board can open a gate to hell, you can’t blame it on Parker Brothers."

Neves has yet to shoot an episode of Ghost Hunters but said he is optimistic that he will be called upon shortly.

Ghosts and MMA, that's a new combination…