But then he went back to the Ranger Battalion for another tour where the demands of living at the tip of the spear presented Stelly with the same difficult decision that Army Staff Sergeant and Green Beret Tim Kennedy faced-be a soldier or be a fighter. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day to be successful at both. “I loved being a Ranger,” Stelly says. “But I enjoy training myself and the troops over at the MACP too. I’d love to have the same deal that Kennedy has now, but we’re in different units.”

Tim Kennedy recently signed a deal with the Army to fight full time and stay on active duty. Kennedy will travel the country training as a professional fighter while assigned to the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

This weekend Stelly will have his chance to show he deserves the same deal when he fights in Bellator’s middleweight tournament, where more than money is on the line.

“I want to represent the Army and show what we can do,” he says. “Soldiers might not train twice a day like pro fighters, but we’re just as hungry to win and have just as much heart as anybody. I definitely want to go out there, win the fight, and give a big victory yell. That’s my mission.”

Mission First.