He was hanging out with the wrong crowd and found himself regularly on the wrong side of the law.

If there was a fight that took place of a weekend, more often than not Baggott was in the middle of it.

Then he realised he couldn’t keep doing what he was doing.

On February 11 in Sydney, Baggott and kickboxing mate Toby Hutchinson had their first competitive fights.

Baggott won his, while Hutchinson narrowly went down on points.

The former Newman Senior Technical College student said it was the birth of sons Bronsen and Radric that provided the necessary reality check.

“Kids do that to everyone; it opens your eyes to a lot of things you never thought about beforehand,” he said.

“There’s more to life than trying to be a hero.”

While Baggott doesn’t have a crystal ball that tells him where he would be now if he didn’t “get out”, he conceded it wouldn’t be pretty.

“If I didn’t find this, I’d probably be on the drink all the time and hanging out with the wrong crowd,” he said.

“The people I used to hang out with didn’t have hobbies, they just had alcohol, drugs and partying.

“You get to a stage where you have to weigh up what you want to do with your life and the boys pushed me away from what I used to do.

“I want to make them proud where they can say “my dad did this” and for them to look up to me.”

Baggott said kickboxing provided an outlet where he could escape every day life in a safe environment.

“Kickboxing is a good way to channel all that energy that I used to have and it sorts out your diet and your whole outlook on everything.

“You don’t have any energy left to muck-up after you’ve done a two-hour training session.”

Baggott knows he will have tougher fights in coming weeks, months and years, but he’s looking forward to the challenge.

He’s not daunted by the prospect of being hit.

“I anticipated to get hit, but in all honesty I’m ready for both sides. Either win easy, or have a hard fight.”