5 UFC fighters who had unexpected jobs before making it in MMA

#2 Junior dos Santos

UFC Fight Night

Junior dos Santos is considered to be one of the nicest people to have entered the UFC Octagon. It appears that the reason for his manners lies in his roots.

Dos Santos spent most of his childhood in abject poverty. He was raised by his single mother in Cacador, Brazil. By the age of 10, JDS had started his first-ever job. He was an ice cream vendor on the streets, an extremely difficult profession for such a young boy. With life being as tough as it was, he was forced to take on a second job as a newspaper boy.

Throughout his childhood, poverty is what defined him, but he did not let the conditions he lived in, conquer his spirits. At the age of 21, JDS met Yuri Carlton who trained him in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He won several tournaments in BJJ and then was invited to take part in MMA. At a local institution, he trained in Mixed Martial Arts, and that was where he met his future boxing coach Luiz Dorea. This is the same boxing coach who, years later, would lead him to a UFC Heavyweight Championship reign.

Knowing about the hardship he endured in his younger years, it is incredible that Junior dos Santos reached the levels in MMA that he did. If anything, his career is a true testament to the strength of the human spirit and also explains why he is so dangerous in the Octagon — he knows what he is fighting for.