The mixed martial artist Khai Wu is a “late bloomer” by his own admission, but he’s always done things a bit differently and it’s led to a journey full of discovery as well as setbacks.

Wu grew up between California and Taiwan, where his parents are from. As a small and unconfident kid, he was bullied at school. He was also un-athletic and uncoordinated – he dribbled a basketball with two hands.

His dad wanted his kids to go to Ivy League schools and become doctors or lawyers – three of his children went into the medical field. But while Wu tried hard at school, academic learning wasn’t for him and his grades weren’t great.

Instead, his brother-in-law brought him to try jiu-jitsu at the age of nine, and over time martial arts changed his life.

Wu had his first amateur MMA fight at the age of 21. He stood across the cage from an opponent who looked bigger and stronger than him and thought: “What am I doing here?”

As the bell rang, Wu circled his opponent, too terrified to attack. After more than a minute, something took over – Wu threw a flurry of punches and won by TKO (technical knockout).

As the victory sunk in over the following days, he realised that he was never in competition with anyone else – that his biggest problems came from within, and that he could learn to deal with them and be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

And he saw that comparisons with other people did not lead to contentment or happiness, “that everybody is on their own journey”.

“I’m like the black sheep [of the family],” the now 28-year-old told Al Jazeera, tongue in cheek. “I ended up being a pro fighter.”

While he’s since gained prominence in unexpected ways – training Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, giving a TED talk, and going viral for the way he defused a racially charged situation – Wu hopes he can soon make more headlines with his fighting.

Read the full article published by Al Jazeera English here.