John Alessio is a man on a mission. In the midst of a career renaissance and currently riding a four-fight win streak, Alessio is working towards one thing: getting back in the UFC, on the first card in his hometown of Vancouver.

And he's not alone. Over 2,000 people have joined the Facebook group "We want John 'the Natural' Alessio for UFC 115 Vancouver."

"It feels great, man," Alessio told Fiveknuckles.com. "To have such support. It's really helped me. It's made me want to be a better fighter for my fans."

The 30-year-old Alessio has been a pro since the age of 18. He doesn't come from a college wrestling background, and he was never a hot-headed street fighter. Alessio comes from a different pedigree: trick BMX riding. But then he watched a videotape of the UFC, and after a few months of training in a friend's garage, he was hooked, and hasn't been on a bike in years.

"[MMA] is the best one-on-one sport there is," said Alessio. "It's all you out there. I really just focused on this and made MMA my hobby."

MMA soon became more than a hobby. In 12 years, Alessio has amassed a solid 28-13 record and has been in the cage with such marquee fighters as Thiago Alves, Diego Sanchez, Paul Daley and Luigi Fioravanti. It was this last, the fight against Fioravanti, that might have been the most important fight of Alessio's career.

"I feel like I've really matured as a fighter and as a man, and it all started with the Luigi fight," he said.

Anchored in Las Vegas, Alessio divides his time between Xtreme Couture, TapouT Training Center, and Robert Drysdale Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Alessio has always been serious, but until he fought Fioravanti, he'd never really trained to his full potential. That changed in preparation for that fight, and the results speak for themselves: a third-round knockout of Fioravanti and two more first-round finishes. Alessio says he used to like to go out and party, but has no more problems focusing.

"Vegas is an easy town to get into trouble in, but it gets old pretty quickly," he said.

Alessio has been in Vegas for about three years. He said two weeks of training at Xtreme Couture with the man who shares his nickname was enough for him to pack his bags and move from southern California. The biggest advantage to training in an MMA hub like Las Vegas, says Alessio, is the training partners.

"It's an amazing group," he said. "There's lots of talent in the gym, and with people always coming into Vegas, there's a never-ending supply of training partners."

Although a young man, Alessio has over 40 professional fights, but thinks he has many good years left.

"In my last two fights I hardly got touched, so if the rest go like those did I'll fight til I'm 60," he joked.

Alessio is serious and realistic about the step up in competition he'd face should he get back to the UFC, but in true "Natural" ageless fashion, he wants to fight for another 15 years like his mentor, Randy Couture.

Alessio is also looking beyond the cage, too; besides planning to open a gym when he's retired, Alessio would also like to start an amateur MMA promotion. Alessio believes amateur competition strengthens the sport and produces more competent professionals, and points to the Vegas promotion Tuff-N-Uff...

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