I lived in Iowa for pretty much the rest of my life, but I just moved to St. Louis and opened up a gym and MMA training center.

I got a little bit of the Marine mentality from my dad, I guess. You can't but help absorb the culture you're around.

I had never thought about being a professional fighter but meeting Pat [ Militich ] and the guys just pushed me in that direction.

I met Pat Militich when I was a junior in high school when I was 16 and just started training and went from there. I went to the same high school that Pat had attended and he would bring some of his fighters out to wrestling practice to work out and I got to know him that way. I immediately like it.

A lot of military kids make a lot of moves but I only made the one, so it wasn't really an issue for me.

You don't really realize the effect those things have on you when you're growing up but then when you look back you can see how they molded you.

I remember coming across some DVDs of the UFC and so I started watching that and became a fan of it. It was a little boring because of all the grabbing and holding and I fast-forwarded through a lot of it, but I still watched because I like martial arts.