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Jacob Marks was 14 and living in the regional New South Wales town of Lake Cargelligo when he got his first bloodied nose.
"It was the first bloody nose I ever had and I was like 'Stuff this, I've got to learn how to defend myself'," Marks said.
The former Thai kickboxing professional, better known abroad than in Australia, now lives and trains others in Newcastle.
Marks has opened up about his life in a short film by University of Newcastle documentary filmmakers called A Life of Fighting.
With a stellar career that has taken him around the world, Marks's beginnings were humble.
Before featuring in televised bouts viewed by thousands and winning international titles, Marks was "the smallest kid" in a tough town who needed to stand up for himself.
"Where I'm from, Lake Cargelligo, the best fighter was the coolest kid, always got the girls," he said.
"That's just the culture out there. That was my motivation at the start."
Student filmmaker Jack Riley said he first heard Marks's story when he began training at Marks's gym in a Mayfield industrial park.
"We'd gotten to know each other and we'd had a lot of talks about martial arts and training and life in general," Riley said.
What Marks told Riley left the filmmaker in awe.
"It's inspirational what he's been through and what he's made of himself and what he's managed to create … and his outlook on life," he said.
Growing up in a tough environment
The centrepiece of Marks's 15th backyard birthday was a makeshift boxing ring fashioned from a length of garden hose, and alcohol.
"It was a tough environment," Marks said. "People out there like to play football, drink beer and fight each other. That's just the way it was."
At 15, Marks went looking for a trainer and walked into a tattoo parlour underneath a Muay Thai kickboxing gym.
His first trainer taught him about the discipline of martial arts, which extended to how he conducted himself in life outside the gym.
"It was the family I never had," Marks said. "It was the role models I needed, especially as a male, with my coach."
His trainer told him if Marks got into trouble at school, did not pass all his grades, skipped class or "if anything bad happened", then he was not allowed to train.
"I was so set on being good at this sport and learning how to fight, I was like 'That's never going to happen'," Marks said.
At 17 he won his first NSW professional title against a more experienced 32-year-old opponent.
On the road to success
From Wagga he won the NSW professional featherweight title, the Australian professional bantamweight title, and the Australian professional featherweight title.
"I got paid to go everywhere. I was always in the school papers, all the teachers loved me. Everything just flipped for me," Marks said.
His seven-year journey as a professional fighter culminated with an ISKA World Title in front of 8,000 people in Phnom Penh, and being named by a magazine as the number one fighter in his category for four years running.
It was this transformative effect of sport that attracted Riley to capturing Marks's story as part of university documentary film course.
"I think it's important to tell these stories because when he told me in person it resonated with me on a very deep level," he said.
"Once he found training and martial arts, it completely set his life on a different path.
"He learnt self-discipline, he learnt self-mastery, he learnt the value in long-term goals over short-term pleasure and indulgences."
Coming full circle with martial arts
Riley's story also tracks Marks's disillusionment with the sport and subsequent retirement, which led to a period of soul searching.
"I had this brain snap and I was like 'Why did I dedicate my whole life to learning how to beat people up?'" Marks said.
"I got disheartened with the sport and the people in the sport."
The story culminates with Marks in the present, teaching Muay Thai martial arts to the public.
These days he is energised by seeing other people transform their lives through sport, according to Riley.
"Jacob is a leader. He's someone that a lot of people look up to and he leads by example," he said.
"Through spending some time away from competitive fighting and travelling and exploring, he's realised that this is the thing that has helped him the most.
"And it's the way that he's going to give back to other people."
A Life of Fighting is a student documentary by Riley, Mitchell Clarke and Oliver Bate, produced at the University of Newcastle.
Topics: martial-arts, documentary, sport, human-interest, newcastle-2300, university-of-newcastle-2308