Issue 210

October 2024

Before championship belts were on the line, the world's greatest fighters were locked in their own battles. Isaac Barnett delves into the gritty and inspiring MMA origin stories that forged these warriors into the legends they are today. 

PADDY PIMBLETT – FAN FAVORITE

Paddy Pimblett was born on January 3, 1995, in Liverpool, England. Like many kids in his position, growing up was challenging in the notorious Liverpool. There was a lot of crime in the area he grew up in, and it didn’t help that Pimblett’s father was in and out of prison regularly during his youth. His mother often had to spend much time raising her son alone, but he still has a relationship with his father.

"It was hard not having a father figure all the time, but my dad sacrificed a lot so that we could get by," he told Skysports.

Contrary to his well-known outspoken persona, ‘The Baddy’ was a shy kid growing up. Other than two appearances in the school play and doing drama in school, he very rarely put himself out there, and he kept himself to himself. However, he did occasionally get into trouble, though his mother was incredibly strict, and she drilled respect into him from a young age.

Speaking on the Happy Endings podcast, Pimblett said: "I got slapped if I gave cheek. When we were younger, and my dad was away, she'd have to be authoritarian. She'd hit us with the belt. That's just normal for me. I remember getting suspended from junior school in year five or six. I was like, 10, 11, and I took a BB gun into school. Me and my two mates went to the yard shooting people, and someone snitched us up. We were the only other kids to get suspended from junior school. I got a beatdown off my ma for that."

When he turned 15, he had his first experience with MMA. One of his neighbors who attended a youth club with Pimblett showed him what is now regarded as one of the best UFC fights of all time: Diego Sanchez vs Clay Guida.

"I watched it, and I thought to myself, ‘I need to try that.’ So, about a month later, I went to the gym and just started training MMA. I never did jiu-jitsu or boxing or anything like that; it was just MMA, and I just got good and kept on training."

He started training at Next Generation MMA five days a week and fell in love with the sport. His older brother used to beat him up when they were growing up, so knowing he could now beat his brother was a driving force for him, like so many other MMA stars.

Just over a year later, ‘The Baddy’ was born, and he began his amateur career, building a legendary hometown following that support his every move to this day. 

TOM ASPINALL - THE HEIR TO THE THRONE

Tom Aspinall was born on April 11, 1993, and was raised in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England, by his parents Tracey and Andy.

His father was a BJJ practitioner who became one of the first black belts to come out of England. Andy worked in IT and computer sales, making a decent living. However, one day, he was made redundant, so he took the payment, retired, and started teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu full-time, inspiring his son in the process.

Speaking on the PoliticsJOE podcast, Tom Aspinall said, "He's everything to me. If he called me and said, Tom, I think you should stop fighting now. You've done enough. I would be like, no worries, and I'd go and tell the guys that I'm retiring. That's what he means to me. He took me to my first martial arts session, and quite literally, he's been to every other one since. He's missed the odd session, but near enough, every session he’s been there. My 100% trust is in him. If not for him, I would never have considered stepping foot in a gym and training."

Aspinall started grappling when he was six, but his first experiences with martial arts were in Leigh Self Defence Studio, where he trained in wrestling and boxing when he was seven. When he turned ten, he started to enjoy Brazilian jiu jitsu and took it more seriously. MMA wasn't as popular in Britain during this period, so no children’s classes existed. This meant Aspinall would often be the only child training in a room with 20 men, which he now believes is a crucial reason he can take a punch against men of his size.

Later, Aspinall's father began training at Team Kaobon and soon became friends with the gym's head coach, Colin Heron. After a few weeks of training together, Heron asked Aspinall if he could become the gym's jiu-jitsu coach, and he agreed, provided Heron decided to train his son. This sparked Aspinall's first real opportunity to go after a career as a Mixed Martial Artist.

Heron told the UFC: "I remember the first time I sat down with Tom. He was probably 16. I said, "What is it you want to do?" He said, "I want to be in the UFC. I said, ‘I'll guarantee that I'll put you in the UFC if you keep doing what I'm telling you to do.’” 

Aspinall had the opportunity to train with fighters Terry Etim and Paul Kelly, which helped him have a successful, undefeated amateur career. However, it was hard for him to get bouts, thanks to his growing reputation for finishing fights quickly, which forced him to turn professional. He also joined some of Tyson Fury's training camps, which helped him to develop his world-class striking abilities, which are now on display for the world to see.

SEAN STRICKLAND - HARD TIMES CREATE TOUGH MEN

Sean Strickland was born on February 27, 1991, and raised in Corona, California. It's been well documented during his reign at UFC middleweight that he grew up in a household filled with physical and substance abuse from his father. His dad attempted to kill his mother on multiple occasions, forcing the young boy to protect his mother, and even struck his father over the head with a guitar during one incident. As a result, Strickland, along with his brother, had an incredibly troubled upbringing and were raised mainly by his grandfather, who was extremely racist and had neo-Nazi ideologies.

Speaking on the MMA Hour, Strickland said: "My grandfather was like this big piece of shit. When you're a kid, you don't see that.

He just filled your head with crazy shit. You’re in seventh grade spouting off about Nazis, and you don’t even know what the fuck that means. But you hear it from someone you look up to and that identity consumed me. Later, my grandfather died, and I resented him for it. When you’re racist, you don’t get ahead in life. There’s no privilege from being racist, so I resented him for the majority of my life.”

His troubled home life made him frustrated with everything and everyone, causing him to struggle in social environments like school. 

What’s more, his racial beliefs caught up with him in school, and in ninth grade, he perpetrated a hate crime, which caused him to get expelled. Thanks to this, Strickland never graduated high school and needed to learn how to read as an adult. Fortunately, Strickland's mother didn't want her son to turn out like his father or grandfather, so she took him to an MMA gym, hoping that he would expel his inner anger. This made him realize that he wasn't a racist, and MMA helped change his thoughts, actions, and attitude for the better. Stickland excelled in the gym, using his past trauma as motivation that led him to make his professional debut in 2008. After five years, he had amassed a 14-0 record while winning and defending the KOTC middleweight belt three times before he made his UFC debut at UFC 171.