Charlie Valencia, right, mixes it up with Dominick Cruz.

Who says fighters aren’t big old softies?

Veteran bantamweight Charlie Valencia met his future wife, Cris, in the seventh grade and he used some classic Shakespeare to get her attention.

“We were in English class together studying ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Cris said. “He got on his knees because it was his turn to read. He did the, ‘Juliet, Oh Juliet,’ and that whole bit. He always used to get into trouble because he sat in front of me and he was always turning around, so they had to move his seat because he was always talking to me. Ever since then we’ve been friends.”

Charlie and Cris were close friends throughout junior high and high school, but they didn’t get together until college. They have been inseparable the past 17 years and married the past 10. Cris has been by Charlie’s side throughout his entire fighting career even when he was picking up $250 checks fighting on Indian reservations.

“In the beginning it was really hard,” Cris said of watching her husband fight. “But it’s his passion, so if you can’t beat him, join him. Now, I’m involved. I think I’m his worst critic, because I don’t lie to him. I tell him the truth. I tell him what I see and I tell him how I feel. He’s not going to get any sugar coating from me because I want him to be safe and protected.”

Valencia made a name for himself fighting in World Extreme Cagefightin, which highlighted fighters in the lighter weight classes. But now that the WEC has been absorbed into the Ultimate Fighting Championship, valencia will make his UFC debut at UFC 129 on Saturday at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada. Valencia’s fight against Ivan Menjivar will be streamed live at 3 p.m. on Facebook.

“To me, it’s a dream come true,” Valencia said. “It (the UFC featuring bantamweight fights on its cards) was always something I thought was going to happen, but I thought it was going to happen after I retired.”

Valencia grew up in Rosemead and went to Mark Keppel High in Monterey Park where he got involved in wrestling. It was a tough neighborhood and wrestling kept him away from the bad elements. His parents also always kept him in line. His father was a machinist for an aerospace company, who often worked double shifts to provide for his wife and four kids. Valencia’s mom stayed home to take care of the family.

“It was a rough time when we were growing up,” Valencia said. “I’m talking 90 or 95 percent of my friends growing up in high school are either dead or in jail. I was lucky that I loved sports so much that I never got involved in any of that stuff. Sports kept me out of trouble and I had a pretty good dad and a good upbringing. My parents were really good, hard-working Mexican parents. They kept us busy. My dad led with an iron fist, so if we messed up he was always checking us.”

Valencia has two older brothers and one younger brother, but he was the smallest of the bunch. There was a lot of testosterone in the house.

“I had to learn how to fight,” valencia said. “As soon as I got in the doors it was throwing blows with my brothers. I grew up like that. Now, we’re real good friends and we love each other. But when we were growing up we hated each other.”

Valencia took sixth in the state championships in his senior year. After high school, he went on to East Los Angeles College where he won a junior college state championship. He moved on to Fresno State where he had a successful career on the Bulldogs wrestling team.

“I started my family when I was in college, so it was time to pay the bills,” Valencia said. “I didn’t know anything else, so I had to start fighting.”

Valencia graduated from Fresno State in 1992. Right around that time an organization came out that promised to feature the best fighters in the world in no holds barred competition. What fighting discipline would reign supreme? Karate vs. Judo, Sumo vs. Tae Kwon Doe or Brazilian jiu-jitsu vs. boxing. That organization was the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Before we ever saw the UFC we were messing around with Judo gis in high school,” Valencia said. “We’d wrestle and throw each other. Then we started incorporating boxing gloves with it. So we were already kind of mimicking it back then. When the first UFC came out, we were like, ‘We’re kind of already doing this.’”

Valencia had many unsanctioned no holds barred and bareknuckle fights in the 1990s before his first official fight in 2000. He got paid $250 for that first fight.

“Those were the days when it was bareknuckle fights,” Valencia said. “That’s when head butts, elbows, knees, groin shots and everything was allowed. Those were on Indian reservations.”

By the end of 2006, Valencia was ready to retire from fighting. He had a couple of knee surgeries and eye surgery. He wa strying to fight professional, while holding down a full-time job to support his wife and three kids. Plus, he was having a hard time finding fights without management.

Valencia had suffered his first official loss to Urijah Faber in May 2006. The two fighters became good friends after the fight and Valencia turned to Faber, a former WEC featherweight champion, for advice about his career. Faber talked Valencia into coming up to his training camp in Sacramento to train. Faber’s manager got Valencia a fight against Antonio Banuelos for World Extreme Cagefighting. Valencia was a big underdog, but he scored a one-punch knockout in the first round. The fight aired on the “TapouT” reality show on versus and the WEC signed Valencia to a contract.

“That’s the story of my career,” said Valencia, who became a crowd favorite in the WEC. “I was lucky to make that one phone call to Urijah to motivate me.”

NOTES

Every fight on the UFC 129 card will be available to fans through Facebook, Spike TV and pay-per-view.

Here is the main card that will be shown live on pay-per-view at 6 p.m.: UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (21-2) vs. Jake Shields (26-4-1); UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (18-1) vs. Mark Hominick (20-8); Vladimir Matyushenko (25-5) vs. Jason Brilz (18-3-1); former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida (16-2) vs. five-time UFC champion Randy Couture (19-10); and former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson (12-2) vs. Mark Bocek (9-3).

Here are the prelims that will be shown live on Spike TV at 5 p.m.: Nate Diaz (13-6) vs. Rory MacDonald (10-1) and Jake Ellenberger (23-5) vs. Sean Pierson (11-4).

Here are the prelims that will be streamed live on Facebook at 3 p.m.: Yves Jabouin (15-6) vs. Pablo Garza (10-1); Claude Patrick (13-1) vs. Daniel Roberts (12-1); Ivan Menjivar (21-8) vs. Charlie Valencia (12-6); Jason MacDonald (24-14) vs. Ryan Jensen (15-7); and John Makdessi (8-0) vs. Kyle Watson (13-6-1). …

FIGHT OF THE WEEK

Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields

When: Saturday, 6 p.m.

Where: Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV: Pay-per-view

Outlook: St. Pierre (21-2) makes the sixth defense of his UFC welterweight title against Shields (26-4-1), a former EliteXC welterweight champion and Strikeforce middleweight champion, in the main event of UFC 129.

Prediction: Shields, who has held world titles in multiple organizations and in multiple weight classes, hasn’t lost since 2004 and brings a 15-fight winning streak into this match. Shields is an amazing grappler and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Cesar Gracie. St. Pierre is a complete mixed martial artist. He has fantastic striking and his takedowns are nearly impossible to stop. Shields will push St. Pierre like never before, but St. Pierre will pull out the victory.

Record in 2011 picks: 6-3-2

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