A Johnson City fighter is overcoming childhood bullying and excelling in the cage

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Like many kids in today's world, Jonathan Pearce was bullied.

"I don't really like to talk about it a lot," Pearce says. "I feel like everyone gets bullied someway or another and people try to use it to their advantage."

On the defensive, he joined the wrestling team as a freshman at Science Hill High School.

"[Jon] had some bullying when he was younger and early in high school," Casey Oxendine, one of his mixed martial arts coaches, says. "That got him into wrestling and into combat sports, fitness and so forth. I think it stuck with him."

"When I first started wrestling I was probably the smallest kid on the team," Pearce says. "I got beat by the girls for three years."

Now, Pearce has gone from the bullying victim to bullying his opponents inside the cage.

"Fighting is my outlet," he says with a smirk. "That's how I deal with it."

Pearce goes by the nickname "JSP" and has six professional wins to his name. Five of those wins came by a finish and four were by a technical knockout. Of his six wins, two came in Bellator, which is the second biggest fight promoter in the world.

"If you tell him no, if you tell him he can't win the match, it fires him up," Oxendine says. "He really takes it to another level."

Pearce says his end goals are simple. He wants to be a UFC champion and an inspiration to other kids who are victims of bullying.

"Be careful who you bully." Pearce says. "You don't know what they're capable of."

Pearce's next fight is this upcoming Saturday at the Strikefest event being held at the Appalachian Fairgrounds in Gray, Tennessee. That event starts at 6 p.m.