The UFC is in Chris (Lights Out) Lytle's backyard but the 36-year-old welterweight has a lot more than fighting on his mind.
His day job involves saving lives. And away from the fire hall, Lytle keeps busy with his wife and four kids aged seven to 15.
On one sample day leading up to Saturday's rematch with Matt (The Terror) Serra at UFC 119, Lytle shepherded three of his kids to the dentist and the other to school prior to going to the gym to train.
And that was a day off.
Lytle (39-17-4) has no immediate plans to trim his busy schedule. He has been fighting since 1998, joining the Indianapolis fire department in 2001.
"I really love the job and I enjoy it," he said of being a firefighter. "So it'd be hard for me to ever decide to not do that job.
"You get in there, it's kind of like a brotherhood with the people I work with. I can't see leaving that to fight. I figure why give either one of those up? I decided I have to give up other aspects of my life. Right now this is pretty much my life -- I train, I work and I spend time with my kids. And that's pretty much all I do. I don't really have other hobbies or other things. I mean, there's of things I like to do, just not tons of things I have time to do.
"Eventually I'll be done fighting and I'll just be a firefighter and I'll have time to pursue other interests but right now this is what I want to do."
Lytle took the week of the fight off but otherwise juggled his two jobs in the leadup to the UFC's debut in his hometown of Indianapolis.
It's been 11 fights and almost four years since Lytle lost to Serra in the final of Season 4 of "The Ultimate Fighter." That season featured UFC fighters making a comeback and Serra's win earned him a title shot against Canadian Georges St-Pierre.
Serra improbably won at UFC 69, losing his title to GSP in a rematch at UFC 83.
Lytle says the Serra loss was seminal to his career, saying it "changed the way I looked at fighting and the way I fight."
Coupled with a loss to former champion Matt Hughes immediately after Serra, Lytle decided "that I'm never, ever going to go in and try and be conservative and win a decision. I'm just going to go out there and try and finish every fight.
"It might not happen, some guys are really tough, but I'm going to try to finish every fight. I'm not going to go in there, work on just outpointing the guy -- which is what I did last time I fought (Serra). I just did not want to lose that fight and I fought to not lose."
Lytle reckons both fighters approached the bout that way, making for a less than entertaining spectacle.
"That leaves a bad taste in our mouth, because I haven't fought like that since."
Since the Serra loss, Lytle is 7-4 (6-4 in the UFC) and in five of those wins finished off his opponent without the judges being involved.
He has won three in a row, his last two by submission.
Amazingly, Lytle has won bonus cheques in seven of the 10 UFC fights since the Serra loss, winning fight of the night four times, submission of the night twice and knockout of the night once.
"Not too bad," he said happily. "I can't complain."
Loved by the UFC for his never-say-die attitude, Lytle has become one of the organization's poster boys for leaving it all in the cage.
"He'd rather win a war than win any other way," said Canadian welterweight T.J. Grant. "He's a tough guy."
UFC 119 represents Lytle's 20th UFC fight in an Octagon career that dates back to UFC 28 in November 2000. He was 10-9 going into the Serra rematch.
Despite suffering cuts that have cost him in some fights, Lytle says so far his body has survived his hard-nosed fighting style.
"I heal pretty fast but as I'm getting older I know it's taking a lot more toll on me."
But he's a gym rat, saying he doesn't feel good if he's not back in the gym within a week of fighting. "I just don't feel right if I don't stay active."
Still he has pushed back on his training camp, noticing that he kept getting injured. He decided two-a-day sessions were killing his body, so he has dialled it down a notch.
A former pro boxer -- he went 13-1-1 from 2002 to 2005 and was ranked as high as No. 35 in the WBC rankings -- Lytle is also a talented jiu-jitsu fighter.
He holds a sports management degree from Indiana University and worked as a personal trainer prior to fighting.
In contrast to Lytle, Serra has fought just four times since taking a split decision over Lytle on Nov. 11, 2006. Since the two GSP fights, he lost to Hughes and beat Frank Trigg -- with injuries and business and family demands keeping him away from the cage.
Lytle says he has remained friends with Serra since the TV show, saying the two often exchange texts after fights.
"To be honest with you, I want him to win all his fights besides this next one," he said with a laugh.
