It was 1996; I had just won my pro card and was invited to do a photo shoot at Gold's Gym, Venice. 
This was when I first met Craig Titus. During my early years as an IFBB Pro, I became close friends with Titus and it's something not many people know about. Craig and I found common ground to forge our friendship because we both turned pro that same year. After we had met, Craig and I kept in touch with a couple phone calls here and there. Out of nowhere, I found out that he was going to be taking a little vacation to "Club Fed" (that's federal prison for those of you who might not know). His little stay over there came with the ultimate shitty door prize, losing his Met-RX contract and being ostracized from the industry. Shortly after his less than triumphant return, I had to be in Venice for a stopover before heading to Hawaii for a guest appearance. I ran into Craig and we hung out for a while. He told me that he was just trying to get back into the industry but he was meeting a lot of resistance. He felt like he was being blackballed from the industry and that supplement companies didn't want to deal with him. Craig also admitted to me that he was getting down and feeling frustrated about the whole thing. Who could blame him?
I really empathized with him. Everyone makes mistakes and I felt bad for him because of how he was being judged. Now, I had no idea what he would later become - so don't judge me - but Craig was a very charismatic guy and we used to have a ton of laughs. He was a friend and any true Canadian takes care of their friends when they need it. I told him that he could come out to Canada and stay with me any time he wanted. I think he jumped at the chance because he didn't feel welcome anymore in a place that he considered his home. It worked out that he went to visit family in Detroit and guest pose at a body building show there first. Then, after that, he was supposed to come out to Canada. I, actually, met Kelly Ryan, for the first time in Detroit. Craig confided to me how he felt about Kelly and it seemed their relationship flourished. As the two of them got closer, being his friend, I got to know Kelly very well.
When Craig and I both landed in Toronto's airport, Craig wanted to immediately go to a gentleman's club. Being the Courteous Canadian Colossus, I conceded to Craig and we began our strip club adventure. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was wild. Strippers love bodybuilders. About an hour into our odyssey, Craig started talking about a group of guys that were looking at me and making rude comments. It shouldn't be surprising that they were making "steroid freak" comments. I never really paid any attention to guys that make these kinds of comments. It's just a waste of time. That wasn't how Craig felt though; he got pissed but I told him to relax and got him another lap dance. Did I mention that, in Canada, lap dances are totally nude, not just topless?
We paid our tab and left. Craig was in a weird hurry to leave and I couldn't figure out why. Turns out that the group of guys he had referred to earlier were leaving at the same time. They were getting in their truck and Craig hollered out to the one guy that had been doing most of the Kovacs bashing. Using his charisma, Craig had tricked him into thinking he just wanted to ask him something. The guy had no idea that Craig and I had overheard what he was saying. I had no idea what was coming next; Craig was unpredictable. Just before the guy came within ear shot, Craig muttered to me to go get the car started and be ready to leave. Just a tip to you young guys out there, this is usually a bad sign.
The "Kovacs basher" left his large group of twenty-somethings and strutted over to Craig. Immediately, Craig started interrogating him, "Why were you disrespecting my friend? What did he ever do to you? Why the ^*&% are you talking shit about him if you don't know him?" The coward was speechless. He lied and denied saying anything but the time for words was over. Craig bitch-slapped the spineless coward to the ground. It took one bitch-slap. That was it.
I blinked and Craig was already in the payload of my truck, bashing the roof and screaming at me to drive. Craig wasn't wrong for wanting me to be ready to leave. The other twenty-somethings had bats and knives pulled and were coming after us. I leg pressed the pedal so hard, I thought it was going to go through the floorboard of the truck. As we sped off into the cover of darkness, I shouted to Craig, "Hey, I live in this area, we may have problems." He replied with a less than assuring, "Don't worry bro." Luckily, I'm not a regular and I never saw those guys again.
Considering this was the first night I had the pleasure of Craig's company, I was a little concerned and somewhat curious as to how the remainder of his visit would play out. In upcoming installments of the Kovacian, you can expect more Tales of Greg and Craig.
