Fight Path: Kevin Nowaczyk builds back up after getting close to UFC dream on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’

Kevin Nowaczyk began his first – and really only – athletics passion while flipping through channels one day and landing on one of the first episodes of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

He had been athletic, doing well in most sports that had tried, including basketball and football. But they didn’t keep the interest of the cop’s son from Chicago who wanted to find something that was his own.

So it was an important experience for him to be chosen for “The Ultimate Fighter 16.” The experience just didn’t end as he would’ve wanted, with a lopsided loss in a fight that would’ve landed him in the house.

“If anything, I could’ve looked at it like, ‘F–k this sport, I’m out,’” Nowaczyk told MMAjunkie. “I was heartbroken, but it’s a crazy sport and sometimes it’s just not your day and you get knocked out.

“You know, they say it’s not how many times you get knocked down, but that you keep getting up.”

Nowaczyk rose from his “TUF” experience, dusted himself off and continued an MMA career that started when he was just 18 years old. With a victory at Hoosier Fight Club 18 on Nov. 9, the 24-year-old welterweight improved his record to 14-3, including 3-1 since his “TUF” loss.

He is an example of a fighter who wanted to be a fighter from the first moment he trained, not someone who turned an interest in working out into a career. He’s also someone who reached a level he once dreamed about, then dealt with the disappointment of it not going the way he would’ve hoped.

But unlike how some others might’ve reacted, he has retained his intensity. He continues his personal training profession while he trains himself for his next opportunity, which he hopes will continue a path that leads him back to a bigger stage.

“My body feels good, and my last training camp went really well, so I feel like things are going well for me,” he said.

Buildup to fighting

Nowaczyk grew up in an area of Chicago with plenty of parks and recreational opportunities, with space to play. His father was a police officer, and his mother stayed at home with him and his two sisters.

He was always athletic, but he lost interest quickly in the team sports that he tried.

“I did basketball for a year, and I was right there competing with the starters,” he said. “It was the same thing with football. People were surprised that I didn’t stick with it. I just didn’t love those things.”

He would soon find something that he loved. Once he came across the “TUF” episode, he was smitten.

“It was like love at first sight,” he said.

Before long, the then 16-year-old Nowaczyk found a boxing gym that was nearby and that he had never noticed. At first, he said, the coaches and other members of the gym saw him as another in a line of guys who came to start training but would soon flame out.

But he didn’t. He continued training hard, and the coaches saw enough in him that they even put him in a couple of neighborhood boxing matches. He liked it, but he always planned to do more than just boxing. That’s not where he wanted to stop.

“Every time I practiced or trained, I knew one day it would be (MMA),” he said. “That’s always what I had in mind for myself.”

Meeting his goal

From the time he started his first boxing sessions at age 16, it took Nowaczyk about two years before he found himself ready to become an MMA fighter.

By the time he finished his first amateur fight, though, he had the look of a much more experienced fighter.

“I ended up winning, and it was good because there were people at the event who had fought a lot before and they were asking me, ‘How many fights have you had?’ and, ‘Where have you fought before?’ ” Nowaczyk said. “They were surprised it was my first fight.”

Because of that skill, it didn’t take long for him to become a professional. He continued asking for tougher opponents, and soon to get the kinds of fights he wanted he had to turn pro.

He started his pro career in 2007 and won his first eight fights, with a mix of first-round finishes, third-round finishes and decisions. Soon, “TUF” came calling again.

Nowaczyk had previously tried out for the show and had been selected, but he turned down the opportunity in part, he said, because of a girlfriend at the time (he now calls it a “toxic relationship”). It was around the same time he suffered his first two losses, which he said were also because of challenges brought on by the relationship.

Then when “TUF” came calling again, he was ready. This time, in the fight with a spot in the house on the line, Dom Waters connected on a vicious uppercut and sent Nowaczyk home.

It was a challenge to return from that disappointment, but he went back to fighting for Hoosier Fight Club and kept winning, building to his current 14-3 record.

“I’ve always been a person who has had a chase-your-dream kind of attitude,” he said. “I waited until I found something that I loved, and I went after it.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.