Before he switched to mixed martial arts, Lorenzo Hood was just your average 290-pound defensive lineman would could run a 4.5 flat. He played collegiate football and later in Canada’s arena league. He performed well enough at a regional NFL combine to "get a couple of people’s eyes," before an injury ended his football pursuit.
Now the 26-year-old Chicagoan has gone headfirst into the other thing that had been brewing in the back of his mind for a long time. Fighting. And like so many prizefighters today, he got his first taste of cage-fighting by accident.