The boys from Top Turtle MMA Podcast loaded Episode 69 with three major league guests and an in-depth preview of one of the most anticipated cards of this year, UFC 211.

Among the guests was UFC featherweight Jason Knight, who fights on the FX portion of the preliminary card this weekend against Chas Skelly.

Growing up in Mississippi, the MMA sphere was not an early influence on Knight. When asked on the podcast, Knight spoke candidly about his humble beginnings in the sport.

"I was 14 years old and just a bad kid; I grew up tough," Knight said. "Any time somebody looked at me the wrong way or said something I didn't like, we were in a street fight. I was fighting left and right in school."

While that fighting was seemingly random, there was luckily an older influence who put him on his current track. Jay Bullock, a friend who became his brother-in-law, got him started with the closest thing he had to organized training.

"He was probably about 10 years older than me and he wanted to teach me how to box," Knight said. "So he started showing me how to throw straight punches. Over the course of three or four months, that turned into MMA training. We started studying everything we had seen on TV, looking at an Eddie Bravo book and every other book we could find. I was just training in my backyard."

All of that training was without much more of a purpose than to defend himself more efficiently. That all changed one night with a by chance encounter by Bullock.

"Jay Bullock went out to a nightclub one night and they had a guy passing out flyers for a place called the Fight Club in Mobile, Alabama," Knight continued. "He came and said, 'Hey, man. You should come to this place and see if you can fight.' So, I did.

"We called him that Monday and said, 'Look, I'm 14 years old. Can I fight?' The guy tells me, 'I don't give a shit if you're 12, if your momma will sign for you, you can come down and fight.' I signed up that Monday, fought that Wednesday and got my first win. I've stuck with it ever since".

The unlikely story of a start in the sport leads him to the biggest stage in MMA. Additionally, he spoke to the podcast about how for the first time in his career, he'll feel like he's fighting in front of all of his people.

"I bought about 50 tickets myself; I have family and everything paying me back," Knight said. "So, 50 people from my hometown, just with me and on top of that there is probably another 20 or 30 more from my hometown that bought their own tickets. Then I've got fans from over in Texas that are also coming as well. This will be by far my biggest crowd."

Listen to the full episode of the Top Turtle Podcast here:

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