To be a professional MMA fighter, especially at the UFC level, takes a very special type of person. The amount of perseverance and sheer toughness it requires is not for everyone.

That same kind of perseverance and strength can also carry over to life outside of the cage when hardships and challenges present themselves that regular people aren’t capable of overcoming.

The following UFC fighters were all able to beat the odds in some way and survive situations that the vast majority of people, especially non-fighters, would not.

5) Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira

The former interim UFC heavyweight champion and legend of the sport ‘Big Nog’ was run over by a truck when he was 11 and miraculously survived.

He was in the hospital for 11 months and told he would never walk again, but that didn’t stop him.

Known for being one of the toughest guys in the sport, Big Nog would go on to hold heavyweight titles in both PRIDE and the UFC before retiring in 2015.

4) Henry Cejudo

Top-ranked UFC flyweight and Olympic wrestler Henry Cejudo had a close call recently when he got caught up in the California wildfires that are currently wreaking havoc in Northern California.

He was at a charity golf event and awoke in his hotel room in Santa Rosa to find the hotel and surrounding area engulfed in flames.

He was forced to jump from his hotel window and ended up burning his foot but luckily escaped to safety after being picked up by a fire truck.

3) Matt Grice

UFC fighter and police officer Matt Grice suffered some devastating injuries after he was rear-ended at a red light by a distracted driver in 2013.

Grice was in critical condition and suffered a traumatic brain injury but miraculously recovered and ended up returning to his career as a police officer.

2) Frank Mir

Frank Mir, who was the UFC heavyweight champion at the time, was in a very serious motorcycle accident in 2004 that resulted in two breaks of his femur as well as tore all of the ligaments in his knee.

It was a lengthy recovery for Mir and took him a few fights to get back to his old self, but in epic fashion, he would go on to win UFC gold once again after knocking out Big Nog at UFC 92.

1) Matt Hughes

UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes suffered some very serious injuries after a near-fatal collision with a train in June of this year. But if there’s anybody who’s going to survive such a serious accident, it’s going to be Matt Hughes whose condition has been steadily improving ever since.

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He’s even back to rolling again as we can see in the video below.