One of the best things about the city of Baltimore is its diversity. If you walk a few blocks in any direction, you can go from the Inner Harbor on the Chesapeake Bay to eclectic neighborhoods such as Mount Vernon, Canton and Fells Point. One particularly well-known neighborhood within a neighborhood in Baltimore is Fells Point’s “Little Italy,” which has a couple of the city’s best restaurants. It’s this same work ethic that you find in any restaurant kitchen that drives Shogun Fights welterweight Maik Ferrante. He turned pro in 2015 as a middleweight after winning his lone amateur fight. He was knocked out in his debut, but it just drove him to work harder.

“I come from a blue-collar family, so I just started going to the gym twice a day and started putting the work in like that,” Ferrante, whose record sits at 3-1, told Combat Press. Ferrante grew up in Baltimore. He played football, ran track and wrestled in high school. He was supposed to wrestle in college, but an injury during a regional tournament derailed his hopes at a scholarship. Ferrante switched to training in jiu-jitsu.