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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.