Aaron Chalmers: MMA taught me discipline and kept me out of jail after being arrested five times for fighting on nights out
I was locked up for scrapping over an ex, ex-girlfriend in Newcastle and had my nose and foot broken in another tussle
I'VE BEEN locked up about four or five times for fighting.
I went through a stage at about 19-years-old when I was a little s***, just a young lad full of testosterone wanting to be the big man.
Had a few smacks from a few doormen but it makes me who I am today.
The arrests were when drunk on nights out, I couldn’t say how half of them happened.
One was over an ex, ex-girlfriend - a girl from Newcastle - who was out with some lads and we ended up scrapping.
Waking up in a cell, it's horrible.
In one fight I broke my foot and nose, and the next day I got out the police station and thought "this isn’t for me".
I paid £4,500 to get my nose fixed and I had it broken again in my first sparring session down here in Birmingham!
It wasn’t too long after the last arrest that I took up Muay Thai to get a bit more discipline - and it worked.
You couldn’t pay me to fight outside of it now.
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But I’m glad I did have those fights because it showed me I didn’t want to go down that path. What's the point, when you can get paid to do it in the cage?
And that's the case at Bellator 200 when I face Ash Griffiths.
In my last fight, against Karl Donaldson on BAMMA 33, I got clocked with a big left after racing out the blocks.
The excitement of fighting in my hometown got to me. I just wanted to knock him out.
When he caught me it calmed me down and I went back to the game-plan, knocked him out and moved my record to 3-0.
I've watched Ash's fights and he's quite handy on the floor.
So I've been working on the ground five times a week, practising takedowns, defence, working off my back and on top.
Standing up or on the ground, wherever Ash wants to take it I'm comfortable.
Working with some of my team - the likes of Fabian and Leon Edwards - is unbelievable.
If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be where I am today.
Training with all these fighters gives me a cutting edge over others. How many people have got sparring partners as good as mine?
Leon is five in a row on the UFC and is hopefully just a few fights away from a title shot.
Unless Ash is rolling or standing with top 15s in the world then it looks like he's going to be in for a bad night.