His UFC clients call him the Witch Doctor, a man with magic hands who helps heal mixed martial arts fighters and keep them balanced.
Steven Friend calls himself a holistic therapist, combining spirituality with a knowledge of the human body. Whatever the title, the 63-year-old who now makes Las Vegas home is a fixture at UFC fights. "He's amazing, he's phenomenal," said UFC president Dana White.
White first met Friend after seeking help for what he thought was a blown-out knee. A doctor found no structural damage but referred him to the semi-retired Friend. They met at the doctor's house, where White was told to take off his shoes and lie on the table.
"I'm thinking I'm going to get hit over the head, get turned into the gimp from "Pulp Fiction" or something," White said with a laugh.
Instead Friend fixed him.
"He starts working on my knee - and I swear to God to you guys I thought my knee was broken, it was that bad - and within 15 minutes he had me jump off that table and my knee felt like I had never hurt it before."
White has kept coming back, dubbing Friend the Witch Doctor because of his unorthodox style and success rate.
"Everything I've ever had wrong with me, this guy has fixed."
Through White, Friend has built up a stable of UFC clients and was in San Diego to help a fighter with a back problem for Wednesday's Ultimate Fight Night card on a U.S. military base.
He is so popular that Canadian Georges St Pierre and Matt Hughes both used his services before they fought each other for the welterweight title in Sacramento last month.
Friend gave them each two treatments a day for two days and saw each of them before the bout. St. Pierre won, by second-round TKO.
"Now that was a tough one. ... My buddy got knocked out and my other buddy knocked him out," Friend said.
Other fighters to use his services include Randy Couture, Diego Sanchez, Karo Parisyan, and many of the cast of the Ultimate Fighter reality TV show. He just worked on a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Friend's background is eastern medicine, which he says he has combined with western medicine's anatomy, physiology, endocrinology and neurology. He's been doing it for 30 years.
Friend says the body is run by a system of energy, which can fall out of kilter. He balances or restores it.
"I use my hands," he explains. "It's all touching, but it's precise things I do."
It's unorthodox. If a fighter's left shoulder is ailing, Friend might get at it by working on the right shoulder.
And he is often called on even when fighters are healthy.
"A lot of times I work on people where they can be more efficient in what they do, not just to recover from pain. Most of the treatments that I give now are not for relief of pain. It's when I relieve the pain, then they want me because they feel so much better, they want me to work on them before they go in and fight."
"The thing is if you help people, they all of a sudden start believing in what you do. All you've got to do is help them. And the work I do is instantaneous. If you have a problem, you know within 20 minutes if I'm helping you."
But he says a lot of medical science supports what he does. citing the book The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and The Foundation of Life by Dr. Robert Becker, a retired professor of medicine at Syracuse University.
"It is really a science, but it is a limited-accepted science," Friend said.
Friend, who is writing his own book, has studied for years - in his own way.
A former construction worker in Alaska, he used to check out books from the medical library at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. "I studied medicine from all over the world, I was fascinated by it."
"I just had an ability that I could sense what was wrong. What I did was just add knowledge and understanding to it."
He attributes some of his perception to spirituality.
"The thing about spiritual things, they need to commit to practical use or they're not any good," said Friend, who was a minister for a time, of no particular denomination, and still quotes the Scriptures.
The spiritual aspect appeals to fighters, says the UFC president.
"Fighters are spiritual people usually," White said. "And when they meet this guy, it's over. Matt Hughes and him are like best friends now. Georges St Pierre, Randy Couture. Talk about any of the top talent in the UFC, they all go to the Witch Doctor."
Friend cannot heal everything - "If I had a cardiac infarction, I'm going to tell you right now I'm in the hospital seeing a cardiologist" - but says combining east and west medical models works well on pain management, stress control and low energy.
He cites the case of Sean Sherk, who called him the day he beat Kenny Florian for the lightweight title in October.
"They said he's got a shoulder problem. I go in there and say 'you've got a shoulder problem. You've got a torn rotator cuff, there's no doubt about it.'
"How did I know that? I ran the energy up through it and it started to burn."
Sherk still wanted to fight. Friend said he got him into shape that he could get in the ring. Sherk won a bloody five-round decision, without using his right arm when possible, and underwent shoulder surgery. According to Friend, he may be out a year.
After the fight, while getting a facial cut stitched, Sherk told Friend his right shoulder didn't hurt during the bout.
"I did let the UFC know that it was torn before he went out there," Friend said. "But it was his choice."
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