Some find the fighting game, others let the fighting game find them. Fernando Padilla has been surrounded by struggle for as long as he can remember. Even though it was something he knew he shouldn’t do, it always just felt right to him.

“Since I was very young, I was always in fights, on the street and at school,” Padilla said. “Fighting has always been there for me.”

For Padilla, however, it was never about self-preservation and certainly not about picking on others. Rather, from a young age, he was always interested in the thrill of competition. He loved it so much that he pursued it even without a sport.

“I always had that competitive edge. If a child pushed me, I pushed him back. If they hit me, I’ll hit you back,” he explained. “At parties for little kids, I was always the kid in the bouncy castle kicking someone else or wrestling with someone else.”

Practicing his karate for a while while the kids ate cake and ice cream, he got the job done, but he needed more. As a teenager, he stepped onto the mats of 10th Planet Chihuahua in Mexico and felt everything change for him.

“When I stepped onto the MMA mats back in Chihuahua at Fight Club Chihuahua/10th Planet Chihuahua, it was a completely different feeling,” he said. “The ability to do jiu-jitsu, hit the pockets, punch — that surrounded me with everything I liked and I just fell in love with the sport.”

Padilla will get his next chance at comfort this Saturday at UFC Tampa. He will face fellow featherweight Sean Woodson in the prelims. This portion of the card begins at 7:00 p.m. EST on ESPN+.

You can hear the full audio version of this interview in the latest edition of TTP. The interview begins below at 2:15.