On my block, I had all these guys coming in and out of jail. When I was 13, I was playing outside my house, and one of those guys came across the street and started cussing me out, wanting to fight me. People knew I trained kickboxing and would put the gloves on with my friends, so that made me a target.

I always have my group of friends at the gym. We used to go hang out somewhere before. Now we're just hanging out at the gym. We have sparring parties where everyone beats each other up, but then we all eat my dad's cooking, and I hire a massage therapist, so everyone is just kicking back and having a good time. I just keep the environment great.

The people around me saved my life, not MMA. It was people who said, 'You're better than this,' who told me, 'You don't belong in this world.' MMA and jiu-jitsu and training gave me an escape.

Brian Ortega Quotes