Back to the MMA Newsfeed

A victim of leukemia, Matt Bessette says 'every day was a struggle'

Bellator MMA veteran Matt Bessette was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of three, and battled through the disease for nearly eight years until he was cleared as cancer-free. Bessette discusses his childhood and how his battle with leukemia led to mixed martial arts.

If anyone's a natural born killer, it's Matt Bessette.

Bessette, a Bellator MMA veteran, chooses to fight now, but was forced to fight during his childhood. At only the age of three, Bessette developed a life-threatening case of leukemia, a white blood cell cancer most common in adults.

It was far from a typical childhood for him.