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UFC’s Ian Heinisch is relishing transformation from inmate to inspiration

Before he’d ever stepped foot in the UFC’s Octagon, Ian Heinisch was being courted by Hollywood. Heinisch was fighting Lucas Rota in LFA a little less than two years ago, and AXS TV did a special on him detailing in quick the extraordinary life that he had led. Among the many things in Heinisch’s rearview mirror were such sordid fascinations as these: Drugs. Muling. Life on the lam. Shivs. Rikers Island. Redemption.

You know, the kind of things Hollywood spills its Château Lafite Rothschild over.

“It was a main event and I went out there and finished the guy in the first round, and right after that fight I was contacted by CAA, the Creative Artists Agency,” Heinisch says.