Without permission, he took his mom's car for a joyride and, while drunk, wound up swerving off the road and flipping the vehicle twice. That was also around the age when Peek's legal trouble began. "I got drunk for the first time when I was 12, tried marijuana for the first time when I was 14 and was dabbling in crystal meth by the time I was 15." "I went from being a good kid who had such a guilty conscience that I would tell on myself for stuff I did, to being just completely wild and uncontrollable," Peek added. "For kids, there is nothing at all to do in the area where I grew up," Peek said of a hometown with a population of fewer than 700 and where long stretches of farmland are broken up every few miles by a modest house or mom-and-pop stores like Releford's Cafe, Flatrock Grocery and Thornhill's Christmas Tree Farm. "I spent any extra money and time I ever had on him," Roden said.Ī promising athlete growing up, Peek eventually quit playing organized sports once he reached high school and by his early teens was well on his way to becoming a hellion. Once the young boy's quick smile became a troubled teenager's quick temper, the gossip circles around Sand Mountain's map-dot communities would whisper, "What a waste," when referring to the personable Peek.Īfter his parents split up when he was 4 years old, Peek and his mom moved in with his maternal grandfather, Bruce Roden, who admitted to spoiling the boy. "For all the things I've done, the things I've said, the choices made that I regret. "Thought I deserved to be 6 feet beneath the earth, Looking back on a life that once teetered on being directionless or lost completely, Peek admits that he identifies with the meaning behind the song.
The redemptive layers of Peek's story - from unruly teenager to disciplined athlete devoted to his faith and profession - are woven together like the lyrics of the Christian praise song "Mercy" by Elevation Worship, which begins with the declaration, "I'm living proof of what the mercy of God can do." Most other fighters reach a point where they've had enough, but for Trevor it's not a sport, it's life or death - so he'll have to be carried out before he ever quits." "Everybody who steps in the cage has the same stuff inside, it's just a matter of how much of it they have. "He's waving to the crowd on his way to the cage, and he may stop and shake hands or kiss babies, but then when they lock that cage door, he flips a switch from this sweet kid to something scary. Harris, who is part of Peek's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaching team, has helped train more than 80 fighters in his career. "The UFC folks love him and so do the fans because there's nobody else out there like Trevor," said Matt Harris, who owns Agoge Combatives gym in Rossville, where Peek trains. The fierce fighting form has also helped Peek gain a large fan following and a commitment from the UFC to feature him in future events. 25.Ī style that could be described as a Tasmanian devil of whirling fists coming from every angle not only led to a first-round knockout of Erick Gonzalez in that UFC debut but earned Peek a $50,000 bonus for being voted the fight of the night.
#Peek out professional
Working his way up through the lower ranks of professional fighting, he became the Chattanooga area's first Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor when he earned the call to be included on the Fight Night 220 card in Las Vegas on Feb.
The Pisgah, Alabama, native - who also has family in Lookout Valley - found both direction and an outlet for his anger inside the MMA octagon. There's a reason I'm not in the ground or in jail, and it wasn't until I finally gave it all to God that he showed me my purpose in life." I had a lot of anger inside of me, and I was in constant misery emotionally for years. "I thought I was either invincible or destined to die before I was 21, and I was going to find out which. "From drinking and drugs, to giving the cops a few chases on those backroads, to rehab and sitting in a jail cell, nothing and nobody could stop me. "I should be dead already," said the 28-year-old Peek. Instead, after years spent running from the law and the Lord, Peek's miraculous turnaround has set him on a path toward a promising future inside a 30-by-6 Mixed Martial Arts cage. Everyone who knew him best - from close family members to the sheriff's deputies in northeast Alabama's Jackson and DeKalb counties - was certain Trevor Peek was destined to spend his days inside a 35-square-foot jail cell.
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