A renaissance man. A jack of all trades. An athletic factotum. As the old saying goes, Shamrock FC lightweight Derik Scott doesn’t like to put all of his eggs in one basket.

The 31-year-old Missouri-born fighter has immersed himself in athletic competitions for as long as he can remember. 

The son of gymnasts, his parents owned a gymnastics gym, containing a karate dojo inside. His love for gymnastics propelled him into more mainstream sports, as he journeyed through his youth. Growing up Scott competed in gymnastics, karate, football, baseball, soccer, and football.

“If there was a sport, I played it,” Scott told FloCombat. “I can remember my first diving trophy. The first ever diving competition I competed in, the trophy was bigger than I was. From a very young age, I was competing at a very high level in every sport that I could find.”

After tearing his Achilles tendon twice in high school, Scott put sports on hold, in order to recover from injury. Still trying to stay active in alternate ways, Scott fell in love with diving while spending time at a friend’s pool one day.

A simple enjoyment while hanging out with a friend turned into something much bigger. During his college days at Lindenwood University, Scott was a multi-time All American and even won a national title. 

Much like the other sports, Scott played in high school, life responsibilities caused him to back off of his diving regiment. Scott was going through law school (yes, he’s now a practicing lawyer, too) and needed to focus on his schoolings.

Still working with personal trainers on a regular basis, Scott turned to mixed martial arts as his new athletic outlet. Living in Texas at the time, Scott walked into a gym which would eventually be known as Fortis MMA.

“Fortis MMA [was] was a couple of blocks down the street from me,” Scott said. “Coach Sayif was like, ‘You need to this, this, and this, before I let you do anything.’ But he always let me practice with the pro team. He went to law school and kind of had an affinity for me. That’s led me to where I am now, where I’m testing myself. I did some jiu-jitsu tournaments and some unsanctioned kickboxing smokers.”

After making his pro MMA debut last year, Scott was presented an intriguing opportunity by NBC executives. 

“What’s cool is that I know all of these casting producers from the American Ninja Warrior casting process,” Scott said. “It’s the same casting producers who have put us on to multiple Guinness World Records. 

“Those producers reached out to me and said, ‘You’re a perfect candidate for a new show. It’s going to be the most intense athletic competition that has ever existed. Dwayne Johnson is the host.’”

Sixty-four challengers were initially selected by NBC for Dwayne Johnson’s “The Titan Games”--Scott was one of them. As the tournament progressed, Scott overcame numerous challenges in route to an appearance in the finals.

While he was not victorious in the final head-to-head matchup, “The Law” had an incredible showing--especially when considering obstacles that weren’t shown on camera.

“Once the competition started, it was only three weeks [in real time],” Scott said. “You’re going every other night in the beginning. Then once you go towards the finals, you go every night. You compete every single night, back-to-back-to-back.”

“I was still working full time out here in Santa Monica, driving out to where we were shooting the show (45-90 minute drive), sleeping one hour because we were shooting overnight and then competing. I wasn’t sleeping and it was one of the most physically difficult things I’ve ever done. It was mentally draining.”

While Scott will have his first fight in over a year this Friday night at Shamrock FC 318, he’s never left MMA, per se. His weekly training schedule involves MMA, staying constant regardless of the challenge he’s preparing for.

“I usually have anywhere from 4-7 MMA training sessions and 3-5 strength and conditioning sessions [per week],” Scott said. “My life is like that regardless of whether I have a fight or not. Just because that’s part of who I am. When my training is good, my life feels good, and things come together.”

Friday night, live on FloCombat, Scott will take on Antonio Atkins at Shamrock FC 318 in St. Louis. The entire event will air live and exclusively on FloCombat.

“He’s got a lot of first-round finishes both ways,” Scott said. “For me, my first six fights were first round finishes--quick, under two minutes. I’m not opposed to it going in that direction. It’s not something that’s foreign to me in terms of getting in, doing what I need to do, hitting some backflips, and moving on to the next thing.”