Desire, hard work, dedication to your trade, talented training partners and an unwavering faith in Providence are key ingredients in the recipe Thiago Alves (Pictures) credits with his success.

Add in a pinch of luck and a sprinkle of wisdom, and you may just be looking at a future UFC welterweight champion.

The luck, self-made or not, will be necessary to navigate the deep, shark-infested waters that make up the 170-pound division. The wisdom, well, that comes from his head trainer, Ricardo Liborio (Pictures), and the rest of his coaches at Florida's American Top Team.

Alves knows something about following a recipe. Growing up in Fortaleza, Brazil, he worked in his family's baking business and assumed he would one day take the reins of the enterprise. Enter Bruce Lee and Jean Claude Van Damme. After watching the martial arts movie mavens, Alves knew he had found his passion.

"I wanted to be like those guys, beat everybody up with one kick, bang, bang, bang," Alves said with a chuckle. "I thought it was nice. To be honest, that was my reason for training."

It was with a goal of becoming a K-1 champion that the man known as "Pitbull" set off on his quest for martial arts glory. In a country with such deep roots in the tradition of jiu-jitsu, striking seemed an odd choice.

"Everybody was doing jiu-jitsu, and I didn't want to be like everybody and I liked the muay Thai better," said the 24-year-old welterweight contender.

"Besides, I like punching people in the face!"

So how does a teenager with aspirations of kickboxing fame end up in the Octagon?

"My coach came to me and said, ‘Do you want to fight MMA?' and I said ‘Sure, why not?'"

In 2001, at a tender 17 years of age, Alves decided to test his considerable striking skills in a sport he had admired from afar. His opponent was current teammate and fellow UFC veteran Gleison Tibau (Pictures).

Alves, now 12-3-0, fondly remembers the first nine-and-a-half minutes of the scheduled 10-minute first round. His recollection understandably gets a little muddled thereafter.

"I was beating him bad for most of the first round and then out of nowhere he caught me in an armbar, and I was like ‘What the heck is this?' and I tapped out because it was hurting and I didn't know how to get out of it."

He was upset, but he could not deny the attraction he felt to the emerging sport. With a new dream in mind, Alves set off on a journey that would eventually lead him to south Florida, where a friend from Fortaleza who is also fighting at UFC 78, Marcus Aurelio, had set up camp at ATT.

Flash forward five years since "Pitbull" arrived, and you find a supremely confident young man who has nearly mastered the English language as easily as he has transitioned to his new sport. Alves converses and jokes as effortlessly as he lands the brutal low kicks that have become a signature move in many of his MMA bouts.

When complimented on his well-cultivated English, Alves is quick to say thank you while noting he didn't think it was that hard since he is still so young.

"A lot of television and movies, with Portuguese subtitles of course, that was how I learned so fast," Alves said.

Now if MMA were just as easy to pick up for a kid with a plethora of striking skills.

Since coming to Florida, Alves has digested a steady diet of jiu-jitsu, wrestling and conditioning to go along with his already polished standup ability. And as a whole, it has been a marked success according to those closest to him.

"Thiago is still just a baby in this sport," said Liborio, who awarded Alves his brown belt. "Believe me when I tell you the sky is the limit for this kid. I just know in my heart he will be a champion one day. He has the ability, the dedication and the work ethic to be the best."

Alves did have a brief hiccup in his recent string of victories in the UFC. After a December 2006 bout -- a knockout victory over Tony DeSouza (Pictures) -- Alves tested positive for a diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide. It is a banned substance that can help fighters cut water weight.

A remorseful yet perturbed Alves was forced to sit out eight months and fork over a significant amount of his purse after the Nevada State Athletic Commission handed down its ruling.

"I know what I did was wrong," declared Alves, "but I just did not agree that I should have to sit out and pay such a big fine when guys who do performance-enhancing steroids get smaller penalties.

"It is over now, I learned a lesson, and I am ready to fight now."

And fight he did. Alves dispatched a tough Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Pictures) by TKO at UFC 75 in September, his first fight since the suspension.

He will be facing another talented fighter this time out in experienced veteran Chris Lytle (Pictures) (24-14-5).

Lytle, 33, is best known for his stint on the comeback edition of "The Ultimate Fighter." He reached the show's final but lost to current welterweight champion Matt Serra (Pictures).

Lytle brings a wealth of experience into this bout, both as a professional boxer and as a mixed martial artist. He will not lie down for anyone, and Alves knows he has his hands full, but that does not assuage his confidence going into the scrap.

"I am going to knock Chris Lytle (Pictures) out," Alves boldly predicted. "That is no disrespect to Chris. He is a really, really good fighter, but I am just so sure I am going to win this fight."

"That is the plan anyway," Alves added hesitantly. "Every time I go out there, I want to be exciting and finish the fight."

Lytle has only been stopped one time in MMA, and that was on a cut. Alves has his work cut out for him if he is to fulfill his daring prediction.

He said there is no other alternative. He has become a hero of sorts in his homeland, especially in Fortaleza. Alves never dreamed he would be one of the guys people looked up to in the way he saw famous fighters when he was growing up.

"It's amazing when you go back and see all your family, all your friends -- it's kind of funny the way they see you," said a wonderstruck Alves. "I think the way they see us is the way I used to see those guys when I was fighting back in Brazil. Guys like Wanderlei and all those guys. It's like ‘Whoa!' so it's very motivating."

Along with the fame comes the trappings of success. Although still young in years, Alves cites a grounded childhood working in the family business as the reason he is able to keep things in perspective.

"You see, fighting, it is just like a recipe," said the son of a baker. "You put everything in -- hard work, training, eat right, you follow the directions -- and in the end you have success."