CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - One Cedar Rapids native is set to make his mixed martial arts debut on Friday. Although this will mark his first caged bout, fighting is in his blood.

Twenty-one-year-old Blaine Stepanek has been training at Hard Drive Performance Center in Cedar Rapids for about as long as he can remember.

“I’ve been in the gym since I was probably about five or six years old. I got thrown into what we used to call ‘future sport.’ We used to do some MMA and kickboxing as kids,” he explained. “I always knew how to defend myself and I always knew I would circle back to fighting, I just didn’t know when.”

About two years ago he decided to stop playing college football and focus on MMA.

“For football, you can do as good as you can, but your team could still lose. I just like

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