Noted as one of the most determined fighters in the U.K., Paul "The Terminator" Taylor earned his nickname the hard way.

He fought through a series of wars early in his career, ignoring punishment and injury in his single-minded pursuit of victory.

"I don't like to lose," the Walsall banger said in a genuine understatement. "There's certain sports where it's half-acceptable to come second place, but a one-on-one competition, it's not acceptable to come second."

The former kickboxing world champion began his quest to take on and defeat the best opposition possible when he accepted the challenge of seasoned U.K. fighter Matt Ewin (Pictures) in his first MMA contest. The pair battled to a draw in front of a packed house at the inaugural Cage Rage event, and Taylor showed a glimpse of what was to come in his promising career.

"I'd done no ground work, no nothing," Taylor said. "I just went in and had a tear-up. The only thing that got me through that, and I'll be honest with you, was my heart. I just kept going and going. … It was just a case of, I wasn't prepared to stop."

After winning a tight decision over fellow UFC veteran Jess Liaudin (Pictures), Taylor laid waste to his next three opponents to earn a shot against Croatian super-striker Zelg Galesic (Pictures).

"I'm the only British fighter to have stopped him," Taylor noted. "The two Japanese guys have stopped him by submission; I'm the only one to have stopped him via TKO."

However, the Team Supreme fighter was forced to work very hard for the victory. An early turning kick from Galesic broke Taylor's left arm, leaving him in considerable pain for the remainder of the bout.

"I did a round and a half with a broken arm," Taylor said. "He did my left ulna; I had to have a plate put in after. That for me was my hardest fight, purely because of that injury."

Wary of Galesic's world-class standup, Taylor repeatedly took the fight to the floor and -- amazingly -- continued to punish the Croatian with his severely damaged limb. "I knew it was broke," he said. "Every time I hit him, I got pins and needles in it. It was really sore. I've never had an injury like that before. The bones passed each other -- I shortened my arm by about a centimeter. I just kept hitting him with it."

After repeatedly demonstrating an incredible pain threshold to supplement his undeniable skills, Taylor was spotted by the UFC and made his debut for the organization against Edilberto de Oliveira (Pictures) on the UFC 70 undercard. Determined to take home the win, Taylor fought steadily in the early stages of the bout until an accidental low blow unexpectedly gave him a new lease of energy.

"I was working at a pace that I knew I could keep up for three rounds quite comfortably, until he kicked me in the knackers at the beginning of the third round," the Midlands fighter explained with a laugh. "And I thought, ‘I'm having none of this,' and that's how I upped the gear and that's when I got the knockout."

Notorious for having some of the hardest kicks of any U.K. fighter, Taylor made a famous announcement before his UFC 75 war with Marcus Davis (Pictures): "Doesn't matter who stands in front, if I hit you, you're going down."

And that is exactly what happened when he put his foot on Davis' head and sent the former pro boxer crashing to the floor early in the first round.

"I probably threw that 800 times in the gym up towards that fight, working the right hand and then the right kick," Taylor said. "It works well against a southpaw. I hit him exactly where I wanted to hit him, across the neck and across the back of the head. I knew he'd got a hard head -- he'd never ever been put down in his life, so I was lucky to kick him in the neck. It's very hard to withstand a knockout kick to the neck because it just drops you straight away, turns your whole body off."

As "The Irish Hand Grenade" slumped to the mat, Taylor pounced, landing a series of vicious hammerfists on his fallen opponent.

"I think I woke him up by hitting him again," Taylor said. "Fair play, he had a really hard head. There's one thing that a lot of people are saying, that they should have stopped the fight because I hit him so many times, but at the end of the day, he did do really well to recover from that."

Incredibly, Taylor's iron-headed opponent managed to force his way back into the contest before landing a beautiful armbar to snatch victory.

"I had so many emotions going through my head when I was ground-and-pounding," Taylor said. "I thought, ‘This is it, this is it!' I put everything into it and then to go from that to have to carry on fighting blew my mind to be honest with you. It was a horrible feeling."

Perhaps not the most positive moment of his fighting career, Taylor insists that the learning experience has only served to make him feel more comfortable in the Octagon -- an environment that has seen some of the world's best fighters fall prey to the infamous UFC jitters.

Eyeing his third UFC appearance, this time against fellow Brit Paul Kelly, "The Terminator" has been working everyday on his groundwork. In particular he has been grappling with heavier, more experienced sparring partners to improve his game on the mat, and he will certainly need those skills in the face of the Liverpudlian's enthusiastic and well-practiced ground-and-pound assault.

It is hard to imagine anything but a complete war when the two teak-tough British men battle it out on the big show. The clash-of-styles encounter could be the fight of the night, as the winner prepares to be catapulted up the rankings of an already stacked welterweight division.