When World Series of Fighting (WSOF) strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar quit her job in 2010 to focus solely on mixed martial arts, she knew it probably wasn't the most sound financial decision.

At the time, Aguilar was four years into her professional career and was signed to Bellator MMA, which was scheduled to air on MTV2 the following year. The sport of MMA was doing well in general, but Aguilar's 115-pound division still seemed, as she recalls, stagnant. She believed that would eventually change, but in the meantime, she wasn't about to get rich fighting.

Aguilar's supervisor at the job she left at Home Depot, where she set up installations and handled invoices for the flooring department, asked her to reconsider. She was doing well with the company, he told her, as evident by a recent promotion. He knew she sent money home to her mother in addition to taking care of herself. Was giving up that security to pursue greatness in what Aguilar herself described as a "stagnant" division the right move?

Considering the way Aguilar has lived her entire life, her supervisor, who Aguilar still calls a friend, should have known he wasn't about to talk her off the ledge. Aguilar doesn't just jump off cliffs of uncertainty -- she dives headfirst.

"When I decided to quit, he said, 'You know, you're making good money. You're doing so well here. I know you take care of your mother. I just don't want to see you make the wrong choices,'" Aguilar told ESPN.com. "All I could tell him was, 'I've set a goal to be the best in the world in five years.' I gave myself five years. If it didn't happen, then at least I would have lived it and nobody could take that experience."

It didn't take Aguilar, 32, five years to become the best in the world. Today, she is widely considered the sport's top female strawweight. She will look to defend her title against Kalindra Faria at WSOF 15 on Nov. 15, which takes place at USF Sun Dome in Tampa and airs on NBC Sports Network.

Aguilar (18-4) has never been one to live her life by traditional, safe practices. In some ways, perhaps that's linked to her understanding that tomorrow is never a guarantee. At age 6, Aguilar lost her father. Four years later, her older brother died in a car accident.

From a young age, Aguilar acquired a strong work ethic. She worked at a Houston blood bank during her high school years and managed to graduate one year early to help her family financially.

She kept the lab specialist job until age 22, at which point she drastically switched gears, put aside previous aspirations of a career in medicine, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

That move was the first of many for Aguilar, who bounced from Los Angeles to Portland, temporarily back to Houston and eventually to South Florida. Along the way, she held jobs ranging from a correctional officer in Oregon to a nanny for former Miami Dolphins linebacker Jason Taylor.

Some wander out of being lost, but Aguilar says she did so out of choice. Much of her youth had been dedicated to helping pay bills -- which, she says, does not mean her childhood was bad. But it might have contributed to her strong need to chase dreams and, in her words, "be different."

"I didn't have too much of a life in high school, but it wasn't that bad," Aguilar said. "It wasn't bad at all. I just watched my mom throughout the years; she had to take two or three jobs and it just became a normal thing to me.

"When I was moving around, I thought about going back to school a couple times, and you obviously think sometimes, 'What's my future look like?' But I was so young. I knew I could do anything I wanted and I could always survive. There are always jobs everywhere. That's not a problem. I always took care of what I needed to take care of."

Ultimately, Aguilar stuck in Florida. It's no coincidence that she found MMA in Florida.

A lifelong gym rat, Aguilar was late one day to an aerobics class and blindly signed up for the class behind it, which happened to be Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She fell in love with it and competed in her first grappling tournament one month later.

In early 2006, Aguilar agreed to her first MMA fight on short notice. She was so unfamiliar with the sport, she was uncomfortable at first when the matchmaker at Absolute Fighting Championships, a regional promotion, told her she would be paid for the fight. Her experience up to that point was that she would pay an entry fee to compete. Her first thought was that she had wandered into something less than legitimate.

She lost the bout to Lisa Ellis via rear-naked choke, but despite the outcome, a new dream was born. It's eventually brought her to a No. 1 115-pound ranking and a multi-fight WSOF contract (she has two fights left), which paid her a disclosed purse of $35,000 for her last fight in June.

Not much for looking ahead, Aguilar finds herself doing so now, as the female side of MMA has evolved drastically in recent years.

The industry-leading UFC added Aguilar's division this year, featured it on the current season of "The Ultimate Fighter," and will crown its first champion of the division in December. Bellator, after releasing all its female fighters last year, is back to promoting women under new president Scott Coker.

And WSOF president Ray Sefo believes Aguilar is capable of carrying the torch for the promotion's female rosters. The company currently has less than 10 women under contract, but Sefo expects that to change drastically in 2015, as WSOF adds depth and amateur bouts to its events.

"I think Jessica has a great personality for us," Sefo said. "She's a great fit to be a spokesperson for female fighters, and she also speaks Spanish. She has a huge following in the Spanish-speaking community.

"Obviously, as a promoter, it's our responsibility to make sure she stays busy. The talent pool worldwide is huge. I mean, I've got emails from female fighters in Romania, Holland, France and Poland. So there are women around the world who are willing to step up and come to the U.S. and challenge her."

In a way, it's amazing what a difference 20 pounds can make. While Aguilar, despite being ranked No. 1, is still waiting for her division to become big enough for her to be recognized in a bigger way, Ronda Rousey, the UFC's 135-pound champion, is considered one of the biggest stars in the sport.

Aguilar says that recognition is coming for her, as well -- until then, she's satisfied knowing she achieved the goal she set for herself years ago. She's the best in the world.

"Of course, all the accolades will be rewarding, but for me, I started from nothing. Literally, I was a normal person who stepped into a gym, took a few classes and eventually made my dreams come true. I had never trained any combat sports before that.

"I'm proud of myself and I know I'm the best. I'm sure the day will come when people applaud me like they do Ronda Rousey. Nobody believed women would be so big in the sport, and seeing the growth, what the UFC is doing, what WSOF is doing -- it's pretty cool."