FiveKnuckles.com: How is confrontation in that atmosphere different than fighting in the cage?

Lyle Beerbohm: It's simple, there are no rules. When you're fighting in prison, you're fighting for your life. You're head butting, you're stomping, gouging eyes, biting... Basically whatever it takes. MMA is a sport and the fighters are protected to a certain level. Fighting in prison is fighting for your life, there's no two ways around that.

FiveKnuckles.com: Explain to our readers how you got mixed up in drugs?

Lyle Beerbohm: This part is a little confusing because I had a wonderful life. I had wonderful parents, two brothers, and two sisters that were all good to me. Anything that I ever wanted, I got. When I got out of high school, I started running with the wrong crowd. I started selling drugs which is an easy way to make money. It's the easy way out. I could make one deal and make a thousand dollars when I would have to go and work for two weeks straight to make that much. At that point in my life I was looking for a shortcut, but nothing in life comes easy. One thing led to another and the downward spiral began. I started using. I started smoking pot and drinking. Then I started doing some coke (cocaine). Then one night, many years into it, I tried meth and got addicted. It's not that I had a bad life at all, those things just came at me really fast and I was making bad decisions without understanding the consequences.

FiveKnuckles.com: Do you ever fear you'll have a relapse?

Lyle Beerbohm: In the beginning I did. When I got out of prison, I needed MMA. I traded one addiction for another. I didn't want to go back down that road so I took all the time and effort I was wasting on meth and put it into MMA. It's been 2 ½ years and I can honestly say that MMA has given me my brain back. It has put my head back on my shoulders. If I got hurt tomorrow, I wouldn't need MMA. It has given me my life back. It's put my 9-year-old daughter back in my life; my daughter has her daddy back. Of course, there are some days when I do think about it, but all I remember is the rough times and there's no way I'm going back to that.

FiveKnuckles.com: Most fighters train for a substantial period of time before they fight but you jumped in just after being released from prison. Did diving in head first help you develop quicker?

Lyle Beerbohm: My parents came and got me from prison and on the way home we stopped at the MMA gym in my hometown. We went in and I went straight to the head trainer and told him that I wanted to be a fighter. So does everybody right? That day they were grappling. I never grappled before, but I was...