As the biggest fight of my life gets ever so closer, I thought I’d look back and see just how far I’ve come.
I was 13 when I first got introduced to the sport when my high school gym class went to a local martial arts studio for orientation week. Well I signed up for classes that night. There was just something about this sport I was instantly drawn to.
I was lucky how I first started training in martial arts, we did everything. We did some grappling, we did some striking and we put it all together, so it was basically a hybrid form of MMA.
Right from that point on my life was surrounded by fighting. That was my driving force every day. That’s where my thoughts were going, and I was competing within two weeks in a grappling tournament.
I also remember sneaking UFC videos into the house to watch them. My family is definitely not a fight fan family and I wasn’t really allowed to watch them. I remember the first UFC video I watched was UFC 3. I got a hold of a VHS tape and snuck it into the basement to watch it on the VCR we had down there.
I continued training martial arts with my first instructor until I was about 16 years old and was competing in Pankration and fighting all over the world. But then I wanted to improve my striking and Shawn Tompkins had a gym fairly close to me so I went there. I knew he was the man to take me to the next level.
Looking back at those years, not only was Shawn a huge mentor in my life, but he had the bleach blonde hair, etc., so he was a pretty cool figure. Going on road trips was fun. We’d load a van that probably fit eight people and we’d have 12 guys driving down to Iowa or Indiana or wherever the weekend trip was to go fight in a bar in kickboxing events.
Those were definitely memorable trips. And I must admit there was numerous times where the after-parties led to police visits in the morning at the hotel. We’ve definitely matured over the years.
I continued competing in amateur kickboxing and then we got the call to see if I wanted to fill in and fight Richard Nancoo for the Canadian super-lightweight title in Hull, Quebec with UCC. We didn’t hesitate one bit. I won that fight in June 2002 and went on to successfully defend the belt a couple times before I lost my first pro fight in another promotion.
My first professional fight in MMA was for the Canadian championship, so you could say I definitely jumped into MMA with both feet.
At that time I never really thought about doing it professionally as a career. The thing that drove me, and still drives me, is the passion for the sport. I never looked at it as my career path. I knew I’d always be involved with it and I just loved to compete and train. I know a lot of fighters dread going to the gym, whereas that’s what I anticipate every day. I love it.
But back then I was going to university studying business. I was competing in TKO (formerly UCC) on the side, defending the Canadian title. But I was still looking at a career in business.
I graduated from the University of Windsor with a business degree in 2005. I started going for job applications in marketing and sales and that’s when I got the call from the UFC to fight Yves Edwards at UFC 58: USA vs. Canada. I had to make a decision. If I was going to fight at that level, I have to give everything towards it.
That was the time when I realized I had a new career path. UFC 58 was my first fight on pay per view, my first fight in Las Vegas, the big show. I remember walking around the venue before the fight, walking around the casino, and looking all around and thinking this is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. That was the moment when I said to myself, "This is what I’ve worked towards and what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life."
I won that fight in March 2006 and then my next UFC fight at lightweight before dropping back down to 145 pounds and competing in other promotions, including five times in the WEC before returning to the UFC in January after they added a featherweight division.
And now that I have my final preparations for UFC 129, it’s funny how things have come full circle. At UFC 58, both Georges St-Pierre and I were fighting on the main card and we were both winners. And at UCC 10, the same night I had my pro debut and won the Canadian super-lightweight title, Georges beat Justin Bruckmann for the welterweight title, and that was one of his first pro fights. Now the two of us are fighting for titles again on the same card, in the first ever UFC event in Ontario.
Let’s hope history repeats itself.