Ladies and gentlemen...The Return of the BAMF...

"Bullfighting is like sex: it’s good watching it, but it’s better doing it.” - Frank Evans, 66 year-old matador de toros

And it is with that I present to you Frank Evans, of Salford, England, the only British native ever to receive the formal title of “matador de toros”. That's bullfighter to the Spanish-impaired. After a knee injury forced his retirement in August 2005, the crowd carried Evans, known as El Inglés, from the bullring on their shoulders, in the only show of respect befitting a 40 year career. Yeah, you read that right. Forty years as a bullfighter. “It was a marvellous send-off, but deep down I didn’t want to go. I should have simply stopped and waited for the knee surgery instead of retiring,” Evans told Britain's The Times, in a recent interview.

So Evans, like so many other retired athletes, hit the comeback trail. But as he was getting his surgically repaired knee back into shape, Evans hit a snag. Doctors found a blockage and a valve leak in his heart, requiring quadruple bypass surgery. Not to be deterred, even by that, Evans resumed working out in January in his native England.

Over this last weekend, as Villa-nueva de la Concepción's town fiesta was winding down, El Inglés returned to reclaim his glory, despite his knee trouble, heart trouble, and protestations from friends, family, and doctors. And reclaim it he did in his first fight in three years, winning two ears from a black two-year old bull after parking his sword, to the hilt, in the neck of the bull, earning the applause and waving white handkerchiefs of the crowd. “This confirms what I’ve been telling all those doubters, that I’m fit enough to do this,” Evans later commented.

Yeah, so get the fuck off his lawn, haters.

This was not a one-shot comeback fight for charity. Evans is in the process of setting up a professional fight this fall, as well as trying to get fights arranged in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, so he can say he has fought in every country that kills bulls in the ring.

Mr Evans understands that his age may be a bit of a disadvantage, but that being an active bullfighter is all that matters. “It doesn’t matter if you accomplish your goals, but you need to make the effort.”

And when you can make the effort, with balls apparently that big, there shouldn't be anybody or anything under the sun standing in your way, whether it be friend, family, cardiologist, or 1,500 pounds of pissed-off bull. Salute, El Inglés. Salute.