Mike Bronzoulis had already taken a rough and often-delayed road to get to his professional mixed-martial-arts debut in October 2007.
He had been through his parents traveling often, so he was forced to often care for himself. He fought to stay out of gangs, using the martial-arts classes in which his father enrolled him at age 8.
He had been though near legal troubles, a string of jobs and car accidents that led to poor prognoses from his doctors. But his confidence was never shaken, he said, as he continued to believe he was born to be a fighter.