Santiago Ponzinibbio traded in a home — four walls and a ceiling above his head — for mixed martial arts.
In the early years of his career, the current UFC welterweight was struggling to gain any headway in his home country of Argentina. Boxing has been popular for a long time in the South American republic, but when Ponzinibbio was coming up the knowledge of MMA was about nil.
“I started in my city and in my city the people had no idea what MMA was,” Ponzinibbio told MMA Fighting.
Ponzinibbio met people who trained in different disciplines, like boxing, kickboxing and wrestling, and sparred with them near his hometown of La Plata.