My parents were divorced and my dad was in the Marines. I lived in California until I was 10 then we moved to Bettendorf, Iowa when I was in the fourth grade. I had an older brother so it made it a little easier to adjust to things.

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.

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.

I just started training with the best fighters in the world trying to get better. I was a pretty good athlete so I did pretty well with the team and that gave me confidence that I would be able to compete with people.

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 did takwondo from the time I was pretty young and also played I did taekwondo for martial arts and then also played football, baseball, and basketball against older kids because of my brother being older. I learned pretty quickly to not be intimidated and to not back down.

I'd always done martial arts I was always interested in fighting.