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From Fighting in a Strip Club to a UFC Title Shot: Anthony Smith's Wild Journey

Anthony Smith's MMA training began in a Subway. It's a confusing thought at first, because there's no Subway College or Subway Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Yep, it's the chain of sandwich restaurants. And you know what? Things got a lot less glamorous from there.

MMA requires hunger, and not the kind that stops with the intake of cold cuts. If fame, wealth, injury or exhaustion dulls that hunger, it is nigh impossible to continue to compete successfully or even safely.

But there's a loophole—a mental cheat code around this predicament. For some fighters, the hunger simply never goes away.