WHERE ARE THEY NOW? GUY MEZGER: FROM MMA FIGHTER TO HEALER

To be successful in mixed martial arts nowadays, you need an all-around game.

- MARK JACOBS

But 30 years ago, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship started, there weren't many well-rounded fighters. The earliest competitors were grapplers or strikers but almost never both. Then came Guy Mezger.

Having gone to college on a wrestling scholarship and competed in judo, Mezger certainly could grapple. But he was also a pro kickboxer who was ranked as high as No. 1 by some organizations when he stepped into the cage for the first time as an alternate back at UFC 4. It was the beginning of a life-changing experience for someone who said he never really liked to fight but was just good at it.

Raised in Texas, Mezger came from a difficult background. He grew up poor with an often-abusive father. "We weren't originally that bad off, but my mom finally divorced my father, and he didn't pay child support, so we became poor," he said. "I was 11 and already getting into a lot of fights when my mother moved us to a better neighborhood. But it was embarrassing for me to be poor living there, and my self-esteem issues multiplied."

His saving grace was a talent for sports. Preferring individual over team competition, he gravitated toward wrestling and the martial arts. A star wrestler in high school, Mezger also trained in chung do kwan, a traditional style he described as "old-school Texas karate, not this BS you see today." Passing his black-belt test at age 20 was one of the toughest things he ever endured, he added.

After getting kicked out of college for not attending class, Mezger realized that his best option was to become a professional fighter. "You know your life is pretty bad when being a pro fighter is a step up for you," he said.