Michael Wayne Pyle (born September 18, 1975) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He is a former WEC Welterweight Champion. Pyle is currently signed with the UFC. He holds notable victories over Jon Fitch, John Hathaway, Ricardo Almeida and Josh Neer. Mike Pyle grew up in Dresden, Tennessee. At age 17 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama. It was there that he began studying Taekwondo. One of the people he was training in Taekwondo with told him, "Man you gotta check out this cage fighter stuff they got going on. There's this guy who lays on the ground and breaks peoples arms ..." The cage fighting they were talking about was the UFC. The man they were talking about was Royce Gracie, the masterful practitioner of the martial arts discipline known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who won the tournaments at UFC 1, UFC 2 and UFC 4. Mike searched for any instructional videos for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu he could get his hands on and attended seminars put together by the Gracies whenever they were close enough for him to make the drive.