| 13 August 2010
It took about a good two weeks to get Houston Alexander on the phone. The man never sits still.
Must be those deep Nebraska roots -- an every day reminder of where he's come from, and where he wants to go. One thing is for sure: swapping stories about the simple life during an hour-long conversation came as easy as a Tommie Fraizer touchdown run.
Within minutes, the story - which is currently running on Page 2 for ESPN.com - took shape quickly. But this story deserves more than 300 words on Houston moonlighting as a DJ in Omaha for nearly the last decade. Lost in translation was explaining how this single-father of seven donated one of his kidneys to his oldest daughter in 2000 and how he juggles family, fatherhood and being an ambassador for his community while also fighting.
The faith is there too.
That's the heart of the story. Here's the rest of the story.
By Houston Alexander as told to Wendell Maxey
I usually get up at 5:30 in the morning.
I’ve been getting up then for the last five years – it’s an internal clock. It’s crazy. I don’t care what time zone it is. It’s more military now than anything and everything is always schedule.
See, I’m 38 years old. I’m a mixture of old and new – a little bit of everything.
My first show, I had a lot of rappers and wannabe R & B singers and a collection of music I’ve had since 1985. I put a lot of that stuff on the air. That first show was crazy. The show has changed, because you can hear the difference in the artists and production. Then you have a lot of old school rappers trying to hang on to their status.
They are trying to hang on to their status while the other ones are pushing through.
I actually sat at a table with Big Daddy Kane a few years ago. Picture this: Mr.C’s on North 30th street in Omaha. It’s an old school Italian place. It’s been open for years. I’m at this table with Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick and Dana Dane - and all these guys were sharing all this information over the past years. They were talking about how Kool G Rap was one of the best rappers ever.
If there was one guy I could listen to over and over, it would have to be Scarface. You heard his progression as an artist from Geto Boys to his solo work now. He’s a great storyteller. Even though he’s an older guy, he could still out rap some of these guys trying right now. He’s steady progressing. Each album he’s done has gotten better.
As far as training, my mind has broadened. I’m going to camps all over the United States. Some of these camps are nothing – it’s just an octagon and some mats. That’s it. I’m going to go to one of Rashad Evans camps out in Denver. I’m just more open. You have to: everyone fight is different and everyone moves different. I’m trying to gain knowledge from everyone else.
I thought in the Kimbo fight – and with the game plan that we had – we were going to go in and show the people that we were going to show them a skilled fight. It’s not going to be a brawler’s fight. It was not going to be one of those fights where we’re going to be two monkeys beating our chests and going at each other. I said that in a couple interviews before the fight. Look, don’t expect me to go out there and start wailing on this guy. That’s the same way with Kimbo. I’m sure he had a game plan. We both had game plans. And I had an unpopular game plan with a lot of people, but I still felt I won the fight.
From the first to the third round – the second round was kind of shaky – whatever he did, I countered. I still feel that I won that fight. The third round, I was still trying to hold my composure. From the jump, we were supposed to kick this guy in his leg. But that mat is slick and I would slip or he would block it. It’s like glass walking on that thing, and then you try to kick. I had to switch up kicks. But if you are kicking, you are the aggressor, even if he is just standing there. I probably kicked him 12 or 13 times in the first round and he didn’t hit me once, but they gave it to him. How does that work out?
In the third round when I finally kicked him and knocked him down, but I thought he might be pretending he was hurt. We were so far into the round that I wanted to make sure he was hurt, and then I was going to go after him. He could have been playing possum, but that wasn’t our game plan. He tried to pound me, but he maybe hit me once on the ground. The one time he took me down was because I was out of position.
People thought he did some power move on me, but I do that when I break dance. People just don’t understand that. I’ve done moves break dancing and gotten hurt versus fighting. You might get hit in the face or get kneed, but that’s it.
Break dancing is hard. Fighting is easy to me.
If I had that fight over again, I would fight him the way I’ve always fought. That’s why I had to change it up. Because if you go into the third round, you want to have enough juice to last the entire fight. But you want to do something to your opponent immediately. And that’s what I’ve been doing over the past 10 years. Once you start learning different techniques and philosophies, then it can deter you from the animal you are supposed to be in the ring. Now I have to go back to being that animal.
I started off great and then they fed me to the wolves. It was one top guy after another. I came in and they didn’t give me anyone weak. Even at this level, I am still learning. I’ve been a pro for a long time, but they were smaller shows – I’ve fought guys where the show is 100 people and shows of 10,000. Even when I started in UFC, those people didn’t know I had over 200 fights. In the UFC when you fight every three months, you have to get mentally ready for it.
When I used to fight every week, I knew I had to go into battle once a week. So now, when you have to wait every three months, then you have to get motivated to get to that point. That is two interesting worlds to me. I’ve conquered the first world, and now I have to re-adjust and conquer this world. I’ve adjusted for what I need to do against a world wide scale of fighters.
I’m a true fighter. I’m not a faker. I’m a fighter. Whether it’s local or nationally, I’m a fighter. It’s in my blood.
When do I hang it up….when I don’t have enough speed, and when my body shuts down. I’m in better shape than anyone on the map. I guarantee that. My body hasn’t been beat up. I don’t have busted hands or a bad back. MMA has taken my physical abilities to the next level.
There was no fallout with the UFC. That was Dana White being Dana White. If anyone saw that fight, they would know it was a good fight: it was dramatic and everyone was up and out of their seats. It was a great fight. It lived up to the hype, even if we weren’t punching on each other like they wanted us to do. It was a good fight. It’s fine. If that’s the way they do business, that’s fine. But I’m not going to talk bad about Dana White or the organization that helped me out. That shows no class on my part. I lost the fight – that’s it. Move on. I’ve been doing this for too long.
A rematch with Kimbo? Of course that would interest me. If anyone would set that up, I would love to fight that guy again. But it would be a whole different demeanor.
As soon as we found out who we were fighting (Rameau Thierry) Sokoudjou and that he does fight internationally, I probably have 20 of his fights on DVD. I know when he lost and how he lost. I knew exactly what he was all about from the first day I found out I was going to fight him. I mentally researched it, because I like to see who is in front of me. That way when I get into the gym, I know what I need to be working on.
When I get to the gym, there is no time wasting. You can’t waste time. All I need is an hour. I do more in an hour in the gym then most guys do in a week. And I am dead serious. That includes punching and kicking. I don’t lift a lot of heavy weight. I lift enough to where a guy isn’t going to push me around. But if he does push me around, I’ll be the one to outlast him in the end.
I don’t care if people want to read about me or not, but when I’m in a national setting it brings attention to our area. And when it brings attention to our area, then you have kids walking around with no hope, then they see me. It’s wonderful. That’s why I haven’t left our neighborhood.
My family – they are called the ‘A-Team’- is the reason I fight. My main concern is getting my kids on the right track. I see so much going on with kids today and no one is doing the right thing.
Someone has to do the right thing.
photo: houston alexander/facebook
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