From Bouncey House Karate to UFC Tampa

Some find the fighting game, some have the fighting game find them. For Fernando Padilla, fighting has been around him since he could really remember. Even though it was something he knew he shouldn’t do, it always felt right to him.

“I’ve always had fights since I was really young, in the streets and at school,” Padilla said. “Combat has always been there for me.”

But for Padilla, it was never about self-preservation and certainly not about picking on others. Instead, even at a young age, it was always about the thrill of the competition for him. He loved it so much that even without a sport to chase it, he still chased it.

“I always had that competitive edge. If a kid pushed me, I pushed them back. If they hit me, I hit you back,” he explained. “At little kids’ parties, I was always the kid in the bounce house, kicking someone else or fought with another.”

While practicing his karate while the kids ate cake and ice cream got the job done for a while, he needed more. As a teenager, he stepped onto the mats at 10th Planet Chihuahua in Mexico and he could feel everything change for him.

“When I stepped on the MMA mats back in Chihuahua at Fight Club Chihuahua/10th Planet Chihuahua, I remember it was a completely different sensation,” he said. “Being able to do jiu jitsu, hit the bags, strike — it surrounded me with everything I liked and I just fell in love with the sport.”

Padilla gets the next chance to scratch that itch this Saturday at UFC Tampa. He will take on featherweight Sean Woodson in the preliminaries. That part of the map begins at 7pm EST on ESPN+.

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