For most 47-year-old's, the idea of beginning a professional sports career would be pretty laughable. When that sport happens to be MMA, with violent physical confrontation against men less than half your age the order of the day, it threatens to move from laughable to simply bizarre.

Unless your name is Herschel Walker.

Walker has always walked to the beat of his own drum, and in doing so has lead quite an extraordinary life. He is considered one of the greatest college football players of all time, and achieved enduring success in the National Football League where his career statistics still rank him at or near the top in several categories.

Walker was born in 1962, one of seven children in a poor southern family. Unable to afford conventional weights he developed a personal calisthenics routine as a teenager to keep fit - a routine that eventually led up to 2,000 push-ups, 3,000 sit-ups, 1500 pull-ups, and 1000 dips per day. Every day. 365 days a year. For 30 years. Think about that for a minute, and you begin to get an idea of the level of physical conditioning that Walker has maintained into his 40's.

Walker has kept an iron focus on the sort of simple, hard-working lifestyle that many people talk about, but very few are able to put into practice. Starting in college, when he felt pressed for time, he began to eat just a single meal every day, a basic dinner usually consisting of bread, soup, and salad, a routine he still continues. For more than twenty years he has followed a largely vegetarian diet devoid of red meat.

In today's environment of high-tech training routines, carefully calibrated diets, and brand-name supplements tailored to enhance muscle recovery and performance, such an attitude may seem overly simplistic. But maybe that's the way Walker likes it. Asked by the Academy of Achievement in Washington, D.C. about his unique personal training regimen, Walker said simply, "In the olden days, that's what people used to do."

It's a lifestyle that may not sound appealing to most, but for Walker, it has been deeply fulfilling. According to Walker, the path from his humble beginnings to athletic excellence has been an intensely personal experience that is not easy for others to understand.

"It takes a lot of hard work," Walker told Sherdog.com. "I'm talking mentally, physically, it takes a lot of hard work. You've just got to dedicate yourself. I think that's why I never let anyone read my poetry, I never let anyone see it. I don't think they could ever understand it. When I speak about this, people think I'm absolutely crazy. I don't drink, I've never tasted alcohol, I don't smoke, I never did any of that, but I can get so high off my belief and my will, that it's almost like you're invincible."

Although Walker is best known for his achievements in football, there is another physical pursuit which has been a passion of his for decades - the martial arts. Walker holds a fifth-degree black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do under Grandmaster Kim Kwan Kyun who served as chief instructor of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division and also team instructor for the R.O.K. (Republic of Korea) Army Marine Corps. It is probably not surprising that given Walker's background and desire to continue testing himself, he would eventually seek to try his hand at MMA though, despite his background in traditional martial arts, he is quick to point out his novice status in the sport.

"It's the ultimate test,"...