Source: Ryan Owens - Herald Sports Writer

Dylan Clay has led quite the interesting life. He was kicked out of high school for a fight he didn't start. He spent time being home-schooled by his mother, Rafaela. He has bounced around between Durango and Hawaii since he passed his General Educational Development test (GED). He has tried plying his trade as a chef and a model.

Clay still spends quite a bit of time in Hawaii. But after trying a few different career paths, and after jumping into the sport on a whim, he likely has found his calling: mixed martial arts.

Clay captured his first title as a professional mixed martial artist June 4, when he submitted Brandon Wolff, a veteran of Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce bouts, to claim the X-1 welterweight (170 pounds) title.

"He squirmed out a little (from under me), and I started punching him and got him in a shoulder lock," Clay said recently in a phone interview from Hawaii.

It was the latest and biggest notch in the belt of the Durango native, pushing his record to a strong 8-2 and his stock even higher. So high, in fact, that his jujitsu sensei, Romolo Barros of Brazilian Freestyle Jujitsu, thinks it's about time he moves past fights in Hawaii and on to bigger and better companies.

"It's a good record that we can go to better events like Strikeforce, WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) or Dream in Japan, and some of these events he'd be fighting not just better and tougher opponents but also getting better pay," Barros said.

Getting to this point in his career mostly was based on perseverence with a dash of luck for the 30-year-old Clay. But the saga began when Clay was a sophomore at Durango High School in 1994, when he and friends Jeremy Pollock and Tom Goddard were headed home.

"There were several other kids from the high school following us home," Clay said. "There were three of us and probably eight of them.

"They had a bunch of weapons, these characters - bottles, sticks, I think. My friend picks up his skateboard and starts swinging at them."

It was at that point when Pollock and a member of the other group split off, and then Pollock handed Clay his pocket knife, which got the latter into a spot of trouble when authorities arrived.

"As an older, wiser individual, I look back on that day, and I was really stupid for even taking it," he said. "It wasn't open or anything."

Clay said DHS sent him packing for the rest of the year well before finding out the results of his date in court. While the school contended the fight happened on its property, Clay remembered it differently. The charges were dropped near the end of the school year.

"I even remember the judge's quote, 'Where the situation is where few are defending themselves against many, they are authorized to use force against force,'" Clay said.

Looking back, the pro fighter admits he had a bit of a wild streak in his younger days. A streak that now, ironically, has faded to the background.

"That was not my best memory," he said.

Oddly enough, one of the women in the group fighting with Clay and his friends, Christina Cummings, later became a friend of the burgeoning fighter.

"She had a kid with one of my really good friends," he said. "I'm really good friends with her now. That was a crazy time."

After spending some time getting home-schooled by his mother, Clay returned to DHS. But the stigma of expulsion created a vibe he got from the other students that made him feel unwelcome.

"I got my GED and moved out to Hawaii," he said.

Such a move could be considered strange or viewed as escapism by most outside observers. But Rafaela Clay says Dylan's globetrotting ways were a bit more inherent than avoidant.

"I think it (traveling) comes from genes," she said. "My (then) husband's (James Clay) work (for an oil company). He used to take the kids (Dylan and brother Walter) for expeditions in Alaska fishing for salmon and hiking there. He was that kind of person."

Clay's mother had a bit of globetrotting in her background as well.

In 1976, at age 31, Rafaela Clay immigrated to New York City from Puerto Rico, finding employment as a social worker, a line of work she continues today.

When Dylan first hit the shores of Hawaii, he enrolled in culinary school at Maui Community College, planning to start a career as a chef or something similar. A pair of circumstances kept him from achieving that goal so close to its fruition.

"I got married, and I got diabetes. There's no time for school; I gotta get work," Clay said with a chuckle.

And while his wife has since left, the diabetes remains. But rather than being a crutch, the aspiring MMA star views it as a distinct advantage.

"I don't think I would be as disciplined if I didn't have diabetes," he said. "The exercise part burns sugar, so I found myself exercising more and more and more. I wanted to keep my sugars level, so I developed my game better than people that wouldn't take it so seriously."

As far as precautions go, Clay always has glucose tablets on hand during fights but said he hasn't needed them so far, mostly because bouts last 15 minutes total, 25 for title fights.

"I just take precautions. I eat two tablespoons of honey before I go to the cage," he said.

An odd dichotomy for someone who now takes punches to the face on a regular basis, modeling came next, and it was something Clay insinuated he was tricked into, for lack of a better word.

"I was riding my bike down the street when these two characters, a woman and a man asked, 'Do you want to model?'" he said. "I said no. He kind of tricked me by saying, 'You don't want to make $50,000?' I tried it out for a little bit, but it was nothing too intense."

Much like modeling, Clay discovered his love for jujitsu almost by accident. He had a slight wrestling background from his elementary school days at St. Columba Catholic School, and he decided to put it to the test against friend Matt Lowder's roommate, a foreign exchange student from Japan.

"I sparred with him, and he choked me out," Clay said. "We sparred again, and he choked me out again. He started showing me basic things about jujitsu, and I started trying to study it everywhere."

That fledgling obsession with jujitsu led him to Barros and Brazilian Freestyle Jujitsu. It's a passion Clay obviously hasn't lost, winning six of eight fights by submission thanks in large part to his jujitsu base.

But it wasn't smooth sailing at first.

"He came in there, and I think that he trained with some of the guys and got submitted a few times," Barros said. "He loved the art of jujitsu."

Ten years later, and Barros said Clay could earn his black belt in the discipline, possibly by the end of the year. Not that Clay can't win fights standing up. He's won twice by knockout in his young career.

"He's a completely different fighter today," Barros said. "He went to Thailand for training camp over there. He's had his camp in muay thai a couple times."

And just like modeling and jujitsu before it, his fighting career happened almost by accident. Barros had a fighter pull out from one of his events at the last minute, then went to Clay, who splits his training between Hawaii and Durango Martial Arts, with the offer.

"He jumped right into it and did really good," Barros said. "He submitted the guy (Cruz Malaiakini) in the first event."

Clay kept winning. The Durangoan won his first six fights before losing to Eduardo Pamplona in February 2009.

"I did it and won. I did it again and won. I don't know why, but I just kept winning," Clay said.

Now, after claiming the X-1 title for a local company based in Hawaii, Barros thinks it's time to broaden the scope.

"I know everybody (in the fight game) here, and I don't see any worthy opponents to fight here (in Hawaii)," he said.

For his part, Clay said connections he's made after fighting this year in Brazil could help him make inroads into bigger companies like Strikeforce, WEC or leagues in Japan.

"Wally (Caravalho) the cutman, he's the cutman for Strikeforce, and he was the cutman for this event in Brazil," Clay said. "He told me he could get me into Strikeforce."

With bigger companies come bigger paychecks as well as the bigger spotlight. While not the exorbitant sums paid to top draws like Chuck Liddell or Georges St. Pierre, beginners in these companies can make four or five figures per fight.

Barros said Clay jumped around from apartment to apartment while in Hawaii, even spending some time living in the gym. Not that Barros thought it was a bad thing.

"I think he likes to live rough in a way. He's going through training every day, I think he thinks it's almost better not living too comfortable a life in a way," Barros said.

Until the offers come for fights with bigger companies, Clay is focused on defending his newly won title, likely in August or September.

Then, it could be off to who knows where to fight just about anyone.

At this rate, the sky could in fact be the limit for the 170-pounder. "They're coming up with all kinds of crazy offers," Clay said.

Now that he's found his niche, Clay surely is glad for the options, and likely wouldn't have it any other way.