Fight Path: WSOF 1's Tyson Steele went from oil fields to biotechnology to MMA

Tyson Steele is well aware of the fate that might have awaited him if he didn't find jiu-jitsu in his spare time and continue to an MMA career.

Steele's hometown of Carlyle, Saskatchewan, is filled with people who work in the oil industry. That brings plenty of jobs, like the one working on an oil rig that the Canadian fighter held for several years after he finished high school.

But they're not all the most appealing jobs. And Steele learned that firsthand.

"Let's just say it's dirty, wet, cold and physical labor," Steele told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I think because I did that, I realize how fortunate I am to be doing this now."

Not only doing, but succeeding. Steele has compiled a 9-1 record in his professional-only career and faces Gregor Gracie (7-2) in a welterweight match at World Series of Fighting 1 on Saturday in Las Vegas. Their fight is one of five that airs on NBC Sports Network.

While appearing on a card headlined by Andrei Arlovski vs. Devin Cole, Steele fights for the first time outside of Canada while hoping to expand his experience. He has won three straight following his only loss in September 2010, and eight of his nine wins have come in the first round.

Now a 26-year-old resident of Saskatoon, a city in central Saskatchewan where he first moved to pursue a biotechnology education, Steele splits his time between working for that city's water-treatment plant and pursuing his fighting career, which began in February 2008.

It allows him plenty of time to train and fight. So as he prepared to fly to Las Vegas earlier this week, he discussed his optimism for the fight and his belief that a victory could propel him further.

"I've wanted to (fight in the U.S.) for a while now, and this turned into a good opportunity," he said. "The MMA community in Canada is pretty small, so I'm looking at this as a good experience and a good chance for me."

Small town, oil town

Carlyle is a small town, with only 1,200 residents. The oil-production industry is a major part of the town, with many involved in it.

That includes Steele's father, who was a battery operator in the oil fields and moved on to become a safety coordinator for drilling rigs. Because it was such a small town, Steele and the other boys moved from sports season to sports season, transitioning from volleyball to hockey to track and field, depending on the time of year.

Steele certainly didn't see a future for himself in athletics. Like many in town, he saw a potential future in the oil industry.

"The work is close by, so you can work and then be home, but they're long hours and hard hours," he said. "I was mostly trying to save up to go to school."

That's why, after he finished high school, Steele spent two years working in those oil fields. He had bigger things in mind. Because there was so much activity around the oil industry and new companies emerging, Steele moved four-and-a-half hours away to Saskatoon to attend the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology and pursue a degree in biotechnology.

By 2009, he had finished his schooling and taken a job for a company in Saskatoon testing oil and water samples. It was a good career, but Steele already had the itch for another career, which began when he started taking jiu-jitsu classes back when he worked in the oil fields.

"I didn't get into it because I wanted to be a fighter or do any fighting," he said. "It's just kind of the way things happened."

Quick professional

Steele's friends first introduced him to jiu-jitsu in his hometown of Carlyle. There was a gym there that held jiu-jitsu lessons, so Steele got involved in his spare time.

When he moved to Saskatoon to pursue his education, he searched for a jiu-jitsu training location. The school he found there was more focused on MMA training and taught a variety of disciplines outside of what Steele had already learned.

It didn't take him long to get deeply involved. Within about six months of starting at the new school, Steele's instructors asked if him if he was interested in taking a fight. Still not knowing much about the fighting community, he said he would give it a try.

It was a quick success. He submitted his first opponent in the first round.

"It was like 52 seconds," he said. "Going into it, I just wanted to do it once and see what it was like, and it was such a fast fight, and I won, that I wanted to do it more."

He continued that streak and won his first six fights. Even more, he won all of them by rear-naked choke in the first round.

That was a significant streak he took into his seventh fight, against Curtis Demarce at Maximum Fighting Championship 26 in September 2010. He suffered his only loss, by a second-round submission, and it was a learning experience for him.

"It was about feeling how horrible losing is," Steele said. "I didn't want it to happen again."

It hasn't. Winning his past three fights, Steele set up his American debut with a chance to reach 10 victories. It's also a chance to impress a larger audience.

"I think this is basically a fight that could get me on the international radar," he said. "In Canada, you can learn who everyone is, and I think maybe people here have heard of me. So I think this is a chance to do more."

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