UFC featherweight Kyle Nelson has made no secret of where he stands on family court. After finishing a match in New Jersey, he used his post-bout interview to deliver a personal message.
Nelson said, “Griffin, I love you. Remember, kids need their fathers and 50/50 custody should be a standard.”
Now, appearing on the Present Father Show, Nelson confirmed what that conviction has cost him personally, saying his career as a professional figh ter has been directly used against him in custody proceedings.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Nelson said when asked directly. “They see it and they just think it’s extremely violent, barbaric.”
Nelson, born and raised in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada, has been competing in the UFC for eight years. He notes that photographs from his career circulate widely online and have not helped his case.
“There’s obviously lots of pictures of me online in matches, and whether maybe I’m bleeding, somebody else is bleeding, maybe I’m celebrating a victory. I used to have a really big beard, too. So sometimes I look a little bit crazy after winning a match.”
What troubles Nelson most is that those images have shaped perceptions without him having any say in the matter.
“So far in my experience, I have not had the opportunity to speak for myself really for anyone in the family court system to even get an idea of who I am,” he said.
Nelson trains six to seven days a week when preparing for a match and recently joined the Huntsville Fire Department. He has four children and says fatherhood carries more weight for him than anything he has accomplished inside the octagon.
“Being a dad is the greatest job in the world,” he said. “Yeah, it’s great to go out there and win matches in front of tens of thousands of people and all that stuff. But I don’t find as much meaning in that pursuit.”
He argues his martial arts training has made him more composed, not more confrontational.
“Through martial arts, I’ve learned a great amount of self-control,” he said. “I’m one of the most emotionally controlled people I know.”
Nelson continues to call for 50/50 custody to be the default starting point in family court and encourages fathers in similar situations to find their support systems and keep moving forward.
