He expected lights, cheers and glory like the movie Rocky. Instead, he was just another number waiting to be called up. His opponent wasn’t Clubber Lang. Instead it was a 24-year-old grown man on the other side waiting for the bell to ring.He didn’t know what to expect after that. He had no one cheering him on; no one waiting at home for him. At 17, the teenage kid walked into the ring to fight for the first time in his life.Needless to say, he lost his first fight, but it would be one of the many obstacles he would have to overcome while pursuing a career as a professional mixed martial arts fighter.Now 21, Cal State Fullerton senior Steven Ciaccio calls it a “full circle” four years later.  He said that it’s all finally coming together. In preparation for his sixth and final fight on Saturday, his last as an amateur before turning professional, and with graduation approaching this May, Ciaccio sees all the hard work paying dividends.

“It’s really exciting, especially with graduation on its way coming up close,” said Ciaccio. “It’s cool for both my lives–fighting and school.”

Prior to his success, there were struggles. With just a suitcase and his truck, Ciaccio was kicked out of his house at the tender age of 17, bouncing from couch to couch.

Before diving into the sport of MMA, Ciaccio was a standout football player from Northwood High School in Irvine. He was the captain of the team and played fullback and linebacker. Heading into his senior year of high school, colleges like Washington State University were looking to recruit Ciaccio.

Football also kept Ciaccio and his father’s relationship close.

“My parents were divorced at an early age when I was in third grade. So I lived with my father primarily because he had the stable job and my mom was doing her own thing,” Ciaccio said. “My father loved football. That was like his big thing and I played football my entire life. I loved football.”

It wasn’t until Ciaccio was introduced to the sport of MMA that his passion and love began shifting away from football.

“When I was a freshman in high school I started seeing things like the UFC. I started watching fights. One day, this would be awesome. I’d rather do this. My junior year, I finally went to a fight. I saw a fight at the Anaheim Pond and I loved it,” he said.

Ciaccio loved it so much that he decided to begin training his junior year of high school where he began going to football practice during the day and training at Team Oyama in Irvine during the night.

The ensuing summer, with the anticipation of his senior season ahead, Ciaccio made a decision that shocked everyone around him.

“I decided that I wasn’t going to play my senior year in football and that I was going to try to become a professional fighter. So I made that decision and right before training camp I went to my high school, I told them I was just going to fight,” he said.

After six months of training, Ciaccio knew his love and passion had been lost in football and found in MMA.

“I’d go to football practice and I would just start hating it. And then I’d go to martial arts and I would just love it like, “oh my god, this is what I want to do,” he said.

Long time friend Christian Gregor, who played football with Ciaccio, was surprised by the decision.

“I was shocked because Steven always played football,” said Gregor.

No one took the decision harder than his father.

“As soon as I stopped playing football, this distance started to develop. Football was his first love and he loved watching me play. As soon as I quit football, he started to distance from me and that distance just kept growing and growing,” Ciaccio said.

He admits that small fights would break out into big fights. In his senior year of high school his father kicked him out of the house. In a span of four years, Ciaccio dealt with getting kicked out by his father three times.

He left his house and immediately got on the phone.

“So you get on the phone and you start calling friends and sleeping on couches and then I called my mom. I had no place to stay and my mom was traveling the world, actually I didn’t even really know,” he said.

As he traveled from from friend’s house to friend’s house, he maintained his grades, continued to train and prepare for his first fight.

However, his first fight didn’t go the way he expected it to.

“I lost. I was devastated. To that point, this was all I had,” Ciaccio said. After that fight, my mom was back in town finally and she was there and I remember sitting there after that fight and just being alone.”

The loneliness and heartache continued but his commitment and dedication kept him from quitting. But it wasn’t long before Ciaccio got his first taste of victory in his second fight.

“It was the first little bit of glory and positivity I had and kept me a little more optimistic.  I ended up graduating high school early. I wasn’t playing football so why be in high school,” Ciaccio said.

With no reason to be in school since football was out of the question, Ciaccio opted to graduate high school early and continue his training. He registered at Saddleback Community College the following semester and began working at Best Buy, all while continuing to hone his skills as a fighter.

The lack of guidance was evident in Ciaccio’s first semester when he failed two of his classes and received a W in another. He was unaware that he would be able to take the classes over again and any form of encouragement in his life to keep going to school was absent.

His father had different advice for him.

“I remember my dad telling me that I should just drop out and work at Best Buy for the rest of my life,” Ciaccio said.

Ciaccio refused to quit and eventually completed the requirements to transfer with an approximate 3.0 GPA.  There was a minor setback when CSUF initially accepted him in Fall 2010, but his records showed he didn’t pass the required math class.

Ciaccio’s mother was back in the picture and moved Ciaccio from Mission Viejo to University Village in Fullerton where she would take care of his rent for a year.

Ciaccio took the remaining required math class at Fullerton College and was readmitted to CSUF in Spring 2011.  Since being at CSUF, Ciaccio has made the Dean’s List each semester.

In addition to the new place he calls home and a new school, Ciaccio met Paul Edward.  Edward is a life coach who was referred to Ciaccio by his own uncle.

“He was one of my uncle’s best friends and he knew I had stuff going on with me that I can use help with. He brought us two together, and once we started working, he really helped me a lot, focusing and turning my life around,” Ciaccio said.

Edward, who is also Ciaccio’s manager,  gave Ciaccio what he needed for the first time–support and organization his life. Edward began helping Ciaccio pick classes, make action plans, look for better gyms to train in and ultimately helped Ciaccio take out all the toxic people in his life.

“That turned out really hard when it turned out that the people that were hurting me were actually my family. So I actually started to distance myself from my family because they were very unsupportive,” Ciaccio said.

Edwards has noticed the change and growth of Ciaccio over the last two years.

“Seeing all those voices get out of his head over the last two years has been a really awesome thing to see,” said Edward. “Now he gets to see and hear himself and listen to the people that are positive, supportive and encouraging,”

He said he hasn’t spoken to his mother since September after she refused to continue paying for his rent. Ciaccio said he has since invested in himself and used financial aid to take care of school and housing.

With Edward in the picture, Ciaccio took his fighting to the next level after leaving his old gym of three years and moved to CSW in Brea.

The move also helped him enter an amateur league, California Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Organization, where all fights are sanctioned. Ciaccio, also known as Stryker in the cage, is currently undefeated and has five wins with five knockouts.

The light-weight’s success also earned him an invite to train at Blackhouse, a gym where prominent fighters like Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers can be found training.

Ciaccio is making a name for himself after having no experience in MMA. Usually, a fighter enters the sport with at least one strong fighting style. Ciaccio learned it all simultaneously in a short amount of time.

“They’re amazed that he didn’t wrestle because his ground game is so strong. The people that know this business told me that they don’t think there’s anybody in his weight class that can beat him (as an) amateur or professional,” Edward said.

“As soon as I started CAMO, I started realizing that I can win. I can beat these guys. Once I started having people around me that wanted to see me do well, it was a lot easier to prove people right than it was to prove them wrong,” Ciaccio said.

In November, he traveled to Fresno, Calif. where he was headlining the main event.  He described the experience different from his first time in the ring.

“My last fight was totally different. I have best friends that traveled with me to Fresno. I had Paul. He came with me. I had people around me, positive and supporting me,” Ciaccio said.

It only took 27 seconds before the referee restrained Ciaccio from causing any more damage on his opponent after landing a head kick that had his opponent stunned.

“The way he was in the cage, the way he looked, I’ve never seen before on the football field.  You can see the excitement in his eyes,” Gregor said.

It was the “full circle” that Ciaccio mentioned. Sleeping on a different couch is no longer an option. Dealing with the negative people who brought him down is long gone. Graduating college and fighting in peace is what he’s finally doing.

“It’s cool to see him comfortable. I’ve helped him move and we’ve lost count. He’s just comfortable because we’re all there. His grades and ability to fight at such a high level is because he’s comfortable,” Gregor said.

Once he becomes pro, he will expect the lights, cheers and glamour that Rocky was once a part of. But instead, Ciaccio will be making a new name for himself in the cage as Stryker.