Elaine Zigler wanted her grandson to help people when he grew up, not beat them up.

Grandma wanted Paul Bradley, who she raised since he was five, to continue teaching young wrestlers as an assistant coach at the University of Buffalo. When Bradley wrestled for the Iowa Hawkeyes, she used to drive

30 miles just so she could pick up reception on her car radio to listen to his matches.

Now, Grandma Zigler cannot stomach watching one of her grandson’s Mixed Martial Arts matches. Wrestling was a tactical sport, but MMA is pure brutality, Zigler said.

“He tells me when they leave the cage, they are friends again,” Elaine Zigler said. “It’s impossible to believe. I can’t watch it. I can’t watch any of it, I just keep flipping the channels to the next station. It’s just too vulgar.”

Bradley, who trained at LionHeart Fitness in State College for the last year, struggled to gain the support of his family in the early stages of his career. But now that he’s earned an

11-1 record, they can’t argue with his success.

Bradley, 26, puts his record on the line in his fight tonight against Levi Avera (12-5) at 8 p.m. at the SpiritBank Event Center in Tulsa, Okla.

The Tama, Iowa native recently signed a contract with Strikeforce Fighting, second only to the UFC in terms of MMA fighting popularity. He signed a five-fight contract, starting with the fight against Avera. And he owes much, he said, to his grandmother and the small gym in State College.

A call that changed everything

Only about a year ago, Bradley was mowing lawns in Buffalo, N.Y., for 14 hours a day, barely earning enough money to make ends meet. He seriously contemplated giving up his dream of fighting for good during this “horrible, horrible time” in his life.

It turned around when Chad Dubin, manager of LionHeart Fighters, phoned him with an opportunity of a lifetime, a phone call that saved his fighting career.

“Chad gave me the opportunity to move down there and train full time, without having to worry about making a solid income,” Bradley said. “Before that, I was really trying to just survive. Chad took care of me.”

Bradley moved to State College to train three times a day, financially supported by Dubin.

A wrestler by trade, Bradley focused on improving his stand-up fighting ability before honing his skills with striking coach T.J. Turner at LionHeart’s facilities. Dubin also put him through crazy endurance workouts but never saw any quit in Bradley’s work ethic, probably a result of his Iowa wrestling background, he said.

“After spending some time with him, I realized he was the real deal, he just needed some consistency and support and a lot of the distractions in life taken away,” Dubin said. “There’s always a time for a breaking point in an athlete, but I never, ever saw him break. He’s just a mentally tough guy. When he gets into competition, someone’s really going to have to knock him out cold to beat him.”

So far, Bradley has been the guy knocking his opponent out.

Dante Rivera had a hometown advantage in a fight in Atlantic City, N.J., a year ago against Bradley. Bradley knocked out Rivera in about 35 seconds, prompting Bradley to jump up on the rope and celebrate with Rivera’s home crowd as Rivera remained on the ground.

As one of the top up-and-coming fighters in the nation, Bradley was selected to join the cast of the SpikeTV’s Ultimate Fighter 7 series. He was devastated when he was asked to leave the show after acquiring a skin infection.

Bradley usually doesn’t celebrate so excessively, he said, but because Rivera remained on the Ultimate Fighter series longer than he did, the emotion seeped out.

“I put so much work in [the Rivera fight], and it was over in 35 seconds,” Bradley said. “I almost felt like that wasn’t enough. I did all that work and that’s all I get? So I was trying to burn off a little bit of stream. It’s just a pure rush.”

That energy is common for Bradley. As a youngster, he says he likely had attention deficit disorder and couldn’t keep still. His mom, Jo, thought wrestling would take off his edginess, so she signed him up in third grade.

His parents went out of their way to support Bradley’s endeavors throughout grade school and into college, but Bradley gives special credit to Grandma Zigler.

“He has to win. He can’t stand to lose,” Grandma Zigler said. “He’s a born leader is what he is. He just has to be the best at what he does.”

Raising a fighter

Grandma Zigler has been along for the ride the whole way. She picked him up from karate when he was five years old, waiting in her car during the bone-chilling Iowa winter, waiting until her grandson walked out and watching as Bradley developed his fighting mentality.

Day after day, the two would drive back to her house and eat dinner (frequently Stir-Fry and a biscuit) before he went home. Instead of driving him the two miles back to his house, Bradley loaded his duffel bag into her trunk and then ran home to meet his grandma in his driveway to unload the bag.

“He just had to exercise and be training at all times,” Grandma Zigler said. “He just has to be the best there is.”

A girl sitting behind Grandma Zigler at a grade-school wrestling match once asked her if it was true that she would buy anything for Paul. Her response was, “Of course I would.”

Though she doesn’t have a lot of money, she’s been providing Bradley with anything he needs for his entire life.

As Paul’s father battled alcoholism during Bradley’s youth, Grandma was always there for Paul, especially for midnight phone calls, whether they were good or bad.

“The person who I’ve always been really, really close with is my grandmother,” Bradley said. “My childhood, I wouldn’t say it was terribly bad, but it was pretty rough.”

Grandma Zigler knew this, too.

“It takes a whole family, well, a whole town, to raise a child,” she said.

Beating the doubt

But convincing his grandma that his passion, fighting, could become his profession would be a tough obstacle to overcome. Last Christmas break, grandmother and grandson had a blowup. His father had lost his job, so Grandma Zigler wrote a letter to Paul, telling him his family needed his presence.

When Bradley arrived at the family gathering with his new girlfriend, Grandma Zigler lashed out at him, expressing her disapproval of him fighting.

He left on bad terms, but the two reconciled in May. The next time they saw each other, Grandma Zigler expressed remorse for her action.

It had killed Bradley to lose that relationship with his grandmother.

“I was very happy to hear that she was going to accept this and get over it, because she’s an old lady and there’s only probably so many years she’s probably going to live, so that was a great feeling,” Bradley said. “Now that I have, I wouldn’t say total support of my family, but I have everyone in my corner, it’s definitely less stressful.”

Bradley treats fighting as a business, as opposed to wrestling in college, which was a grind from day to day, he said. He will earn $3,000 to fight Avera, another $3,000 and any accompanying bonuses or sponsor opportunities if he wins.

The Iowan doesn’t have to worry about his family support now, but he’s always been motivated to prove he’s the real deal to his doubters.

At the University of Iowa, he failed to earn All-America recognition his senior season. That was his primary motivation for entering fighting, and it’s still a metaphysical presence within him.

Bradley has been training with some of the best fighters and boxers in Minneapolis for the last month in preparation for this fight, the biggest of his career thus far. He’s trained with MMA star Brock Lesnar, and Bradley’s coach at Minnesota’s MMA Academy, Greg Nelson, feels Bradley has outperformed Lesnar with his boxing skills.

Now it’s time to turn his training into success with Strikeforce.

“He earned the opportunity to be on this level,” Dubin said. “At least he can say, I went through an organization that had the best fighters in the world. He can say he tried. As an athlete, that’s really important, to see what all if that hard work can translate to some success. He’s earned that right to have the opportunity.”