Chris Gutierrez was a teen-ager who was often in and out of trouble. He wasn't easy to deal with and he didn't have a lot of direction in his life.
"I was a pretty rough kid," he said, laughing.
His life changed in a flash, though, when he was on his home following soccer practice, though he didn't know it at the time. He and a few friends were being driven home by another kid's mother when they came to a red light. There was a new MMA gym that had opened on the corner, and it was brightly lit. Gutierrez couldn't help but stare at it.
He was dropped off at home, but couldn't stop thinking of the building. He turned around and walked back to the gym and slipped inside. That choice would prove to be fateful.
The coach, Rob Stucker, saw Gutierrez and asked if he'd had questions. Gutierrez, who was born in Greenville, Texas, to parents of Guatemalan and Colombian descent, was in awe of his surroundings.
"I was this little kid and I asked him what they did there," Gutierrez told keviniole.com on Thursday. "He told me that he taught kids to fight; MMA, submission grappling, etc. From that point, I was all in. He gave me a waiver to get signed. I went home and got it signed and I was back at practice every day."
And that brings him to Las Vegas, where on Saturday in the main event of UFC Vegas 83 at Apex on the UFC campus, Gutierrez will face Song Yadong in the main event of UFC 83. It's a massive opportunity for Gutierrez, who moved into the bantamweight division's Top 15 after defeating Alateng Heili in October.
He's 8-1-1 in his last 10, and while his stoppage of Frankie Edgar at UFC 281 last year in New York brought him his greatest notoriety, he's slowly pushed toward contention for several years.
He trains at Factory X, alongside Brandon Royval, who fights Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight title on Dec. 16 at T-Mobile Arena in the co-main event of UFC 296; as well as bantamweight contender Jonathan Martinez. Royval raved about Gutierrez and said his skillset has helped make him the fighter he's become. Gutierrez and Martinez have become highly proficient kickers and they've worked a great deal with Royval.
"Him and Jonathan are different animals when it comes to kicks," Royval said. "For me, I don't have to worry about anyone in the flyweight division because of the bantamweights I train with. I train with the best bantamweights in the world, and when I go with a Chris Gutierrez or a Jonathan, well, I know Pantoja is nothing compared to those guys."
It's not hard to find someone to talk good about Gutierrez, who has become a leader as well as a contender. Gutierrez, though, has next-to-no ego, which he proved at media day on Wednesday. Asked about fighting, Gutierrez conceded he was afraid before nearly every fight.
"I'm scared shitless, to be honest with you," Gutierrez said.
It was a curious admission for one of the world's best fighters, but he said it does no good to put on an image. Nearly everyone who fights for a living is afraid to some degree, and those who say they aren't are lying, he said. Gutierrez will fight in his first main event when he takes on Yadong, and admitted there will be more than a few butterflies when it's go time.
"Why did I admit [I'm scared]?" he asked rhetorically. "I'd have been lying if I said I was not. This is a dream for so many of us. We want to get to the UFC and we want to fight in the main event and we want to get ranked and we want to fight for the title. But you have to overcome that fear to be able to get in there and do your thing. If I said I was not, I'd be lying and making myself something I'm not. Overcoming [fear] is a part of the job."
Yadong is ranked seventh at bantamweight and Gutierrez is 15th, so Gutierrez jumped at the opportunity to take the fight. He said others turned the bout down before he accepted it.
Yadong is an elite striker, and Gutierrez admits he poses a series challenge. But he never thought of saying no or passing on the opportunity because of what the possibilities are with a win.
"I was offered the fight and I couldn't accept fast enough," he said. "Look where I am in the division and look where he is. How smart would it have been for me to decline that? Not very, to tell you the truth. And that's not how I was brought up in this sport. I'm not going to be tiptoeing around the best guys. I am not a guy that's going to duck and hide. That's not the way I was brought up and that's not the way I approach the game.
"Ultimately, I want to change my life and I can do that with a fight like this. It's an opportunity for me to grow and improve and to learn about myself in the process. So when I got the offer, I was like, 'Let's go! We're doing this!' "