Daniel Barrera appears as one of the competing fighters in the Spike TV network’s mixed martial arts contest reality series The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra. He is 25 years old with an MMA record of 1 – 0, and originally hails from Rupert, ID. Barrera underwent most of his training in Radcliffe, a.k.a. Elizabethtown, KY. Barrera came into the world and was brought up on a farm in his hometown and state. While studying at Minico High School during the late 90s, he proved his athletic capability as a highly skilled wrestler, even making it to the state championships back in 1999.
After he graduated, he enlisted with the Air Force as well as starting out in the sport of boxing. Barrera achieved a 15-3-0 record, which included a loss against Andre Ward, who was an Olympic gold medalist back in 2004. When he was assigned to Fort Knox in Kentucky, the lack of a local boxing gym made him focus more on practicing hand-to-hand combat with his fellow soldiers, which sowed the seeds for his future MMA career path. He was honorably discharged in 2005 following a tour in Pakistan, and subsequently began balancing his time between working for the Rupert Fire Department and MMA training.
(Photo courtesy of UFC)