Gay fighters are nothing new. The Spartans were so tough the form of Pankration they practiced allowed even biting and eye gouging in competition, and were encouraged to enter homsoexual relationships as a way to build military cohesiveness. Modern MMA has had several fighters who are known to be bisexual, and at least one, Shad Smith, who is entirely comfortable and public with his sexual preference.

Stil, it was still notable when it was learned that proepective TUF15 fighter Dakota Cochrane had starred in a number of gay pornographic videos. However, Cochrane, a 25-year-old father of two with a beautiful fiancee, has said firmly that he is straight, and that participation in gay pornography while in college was a mistake in the past.

While the statement initially seems absurd - the expression "you suck dick or you don't" sums it up - there is a long tradition of married, straight porn actors appearing in gay porn for the money. And that is what Cochrane says, he did it for the $80,000 he made as a broke college kid.

Cochrane made no effort to keep his past a secret, and told prospective management companies about his past, which resulted in no management, until a friend stepped in. Opponent's have dropped out of fights over it, and promoters have withdrawn offers.

"Every time I was down there, I hated it," Cochrane told UFC/2012/2/28/2831727/dakota-cochrane-discusses-controversial-past-as-he-prepares-to-chase" target="_blank">MMA Fighting.

"It's definitely a decision I regret. If I would have known what would happen I definitely wouldn't have done it. But I had money issues and I needed help. I went there to do pictures, and they started throwing pretty high numbers in front of me. I didn't really think. It was a big mistake."

On his audition tape for TUF, he included an introduction that mentioned all about his past. Everything,

"I think it's a little bit courageous for both of us," he said of the UFC's decision to include him on the show. "I could just hide in a hole and no one would know except for the people close to me. And to them, I was up front. I let them know right away so it wasn’t anything that could come back and bite them in the butt. I think maybe they respected that a little bit. I think some people judge against it, some people will be OK with it. Some people will want me to get my butt kicked, and hopefully others will respect what I'm trying to do."

Finally, when he admitted to his girlfriend Lacey Sechtem what he was doing, she asked him to stop, and the short-lived career was over.

"People can be shocked, and people can say whatever they need to say, and then we can move on."

"All I can ask. is that people respect that I've overcome something like that and tried to make a negative into a positive."

In other Cochrane news, where most MMA fighters come from a sports background in wrestling, BJJ, or Muay Thai, Cochrane was a college track star, who so excelled in MMA that he earned a knockout in his first, amateur fight, just six month after his first lesson.

With his past out and behind him, the sport can now turn to what is important - can the man fight in the big leagues of the UFC.

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