If things had continued as they were going when Lucas Pimenta was a 13-year-old living in Brazil, he might never have been drawn to mixed martial arts. He might be a boxer instead.
Back then, Pimenta traveled to his boxing gym nearly every day for six months, embracing the sport that was popular in both the area in which he lived and throughout the country.
But crime in the area closed the streets that he used to travel there, and Pimenta was not allowed to pass through to train.