Roger Huerta

(image by bry241173 via flickr)

Roger Huerta says he should be dead by now. But the 24-year-old isn't talking about his career as a professional fighter, he's thinking back to his years growing up.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Texas, Huerta's parents divorced when he was five. Huerta stayed with his mother, Lydia, until his teachers found bruises all over his body and he was sent to a foster home. Although a court then gave his father, Rogelio, custody, Huerta's mom had other ideas. She fled the country with her son to El Salvador – right in the middle of that country's violent civil war. Huerta's mother eventually sent him back to his father who had moved to San Juan de los Lagos, México – and become a violent drug addict. Roger, now only slightly more protected than a street kid, began selling chewing gum and rosaries to tourists in front of La Basilica de San Juan de los Lagos.

As he was entering his teens, Huerta and his father returned to Texas, settling in Dallas. With his father still battling drug addiction, Huerta began staying with friends and attending school daily for a free breakfast and lunch. Huerta recalls: "I loved school because I got to eat!" In 1998, at 15, he moved to Austin, Texas with the family of a friend where he became a star athlete in both football and wrestling at Crockett High. Afternoons, Huerta worked at places like Blockbuster Video and Taco Bell to earn "survival money." His English teacher, Ms. Jo Ramirez, became his college tutor, mentor and later his adopted mother.

In 2002, Huerta began wrestling at Augsburg College in Minneapolis but dropped out of school after his freshman year. By then he was already hooked on mixed martial arts, a combination of boxing, martial arts and wrestling. By 2006, Huerta had made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in front of nearly 18,000 spectators at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Just one year later, he had become a star. With a five-match winning streak, good looks and a strong Latino fan base, Huerta who often wears green, white and red trunks during fights, became the first MMA fighter to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Huerta, who says he neither drinks nor smokes, is now based in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he lives and trains with a tight-knit group of fellow MMA fighters. Nicknamed "El Matador" for his methodical style in the ring, Huerta insists his foray into mixed martial arts is not about taking out childhood frustrations on opponents: "I think it's just that I've found something I'm good at doing."