Props: Fight Magazine
Quoteworthy:
“NO – I have not lost my UFC contract. NO – I have not fired my coaching staff. NO – I am not going to step down and fight for smaller organizations. The loss last month was tough, but life goes on. People need to remember that I have only been fighting professionally for a year and a half. I have made great strides during that time, as well as faced some setbacks. My training will continue and we are looking at visiting some of the larger camps for additional training and strategy for my next fight. I have a lot to learn and am hoping to have everything straightened out before I enter the cage next time. So no worries, I am not going anywhere!”
UFC light heavyweight Houston Alexander addresses speculation that his status with the promotion is somehow in jeopardy after suffering three straight defeats. UFC President Dana White indicated before his most recent loss to Eric Schafer at UFC Fight Night 15 that the “Nebraskan Assassin” needed a win or would risk having to take fights in smaller organizations and win his way back into the Octagon for another opportunity to shine. It appears that the charismatic father of six will get at least once more chance to prove he belongs with the top mixed martial arts promotion in the world. Let’s hope for his sake he can make the most out of it.
49 Comments »
mister one or two hit wonder
lol, why would they dump him, for some reason he’s popular, and they pay him dirt!!
Lol I don’t care if they get rid of him or not, but one things for sure… his fights are always exciting and fast and let us see other fights on the card. That I cannot disagree with.
Very true. HOuston is the perfect gatekeeper for up an coming TUF g uys. He is popular and easy to finish. He will make a perfect opponent for this season’s winner at 205
You could also feed Houston some of the guys coming over from the WEC.
That’s a possibility…And Alexander should take his training seriously and go to some serious training camps. NOt just train in his own backyard with truck wheels and weights…
i would like to know what strides hes made because sadly i havent seen any. You would figure he would make them after the 1st loss, but its the same mistake he makes over and over!
maybe a bigger camp can fix his wack chin… er…
He has no skill plain and simple, if he does not ko you in his first couple of flurries then he gets choked out. His win over Jardine was a fluke, the Dean of Mean is so far above Houstons level that Im surprized he even had to fight him. I figure the Houston is probably the least skilled guy in the UFC today.
He’s been training professionally for 1 and a half years and has made great strides?? Don’t know about that one. And doing the math, that would mean that he wasn’t even training professionally for the jardine fight. Maybe he should just go back to doing whatever he was doing back then.
I think that the ONLY marketable fight that Houston Alexander has left is a fight with Kimbo Slice. How it would ever happen? Simple. Houston gets taken down and submitted in his next fight, gets cut from his UFC contract and scooped up by Elite to fight Kimbo. I know that I would watch, and I also know that everyone of you would watch as well!
I’d be in for that, it would be a good stand up fight and someone would surely get KO’D.
Jesse Holland (MMAmania): A lot of UFC fans don’t know you but you’ve been around the fight game for a long time.
Houston Alexander: I’ve been fighting for seven years straight. I probably have over 200 fights in my career. There’s a large fighting circuit that most people never see or get exposed to because they’re smaller promotions. Especially in the Midwest.
Jesse Holland (MMAmania): What would you say your winning percentage is in those fights?
Houston Alexander: I’d say 90%.
He always has a built in excuse. No surprise there. Nice snippet exposing him…
I really want to like the guy, but Jesse and OJR are right that he has lots of excuses. I was screaming at the TV during his last fight for him to close his friggin’ guard. Instead he gets passed, sub’ed and taps out. It doesn’t seem to be rocket science but his skills are very limited.
Exactly when a guy gets chocked out like that it really shows his inexperience. It takes someone with zero knowledge to let a guy lock that side choke on them. Another thing, if you can get up right away after tapping out, you didn’t struggle hard enough. say he had struggled a little harder, he would have made it to the next round.
I guess he was fighting the same guys that James Giboo was fighting. Someone also needs to remind him that aside form last moths tough loss, he lost two prior to that. Send this guy to Hook-N-Shoot or the soon to be defunct un-Elite XC.
good job jesse!!!!
C’mon Jesse. Don’t go using direct quotes to paint a different picture than the facts. He said he was fighting for 7 years and mathematically has over 180 wins. And he obviously did all this WITHOUT training since he just started 1 1/2 yrs ago. He was just goofing around before. You guys are all gonna feel really stupid around the corner. Next LHW champ. (Whoa! Deja vu. I think I have heard that last statement before.)
You want facts? Re-watch the Schafer fight.
From what I have seen of Houston, he appears a very limited and one-dimensional fighter.
He relies almost solely on the power of his striking, in the hope of catching the opponent off guard and getting a flash knockout.
Any fighter that can elude that will pick him apart as he has a very limited MMA skillset.
He may have been able to get away with that in lesser organisations. But in the UFC, after a brief swansong, fighters are starting to figure him out now, hence the three consecutive losses.
Until he develops his skills more, he will continue to lose fights at this level, in my opinion.
He has absolutly NO ground game, and is too old start learning JJ to ever be a contender in the UFC
Houston Alexander vs Kimbo Slice would make for an interesting fight…. on YouTube
as much as i like the guy, it was ridicous how easy he let his guard be passed in his last fight. good luck to him tho.
No ground game, no stamina and his chin does appear to be a little suspect as well. The intimidation factor that he used to have against other fighters, just because of his bad ass look is now dead and buried. Maybe they can use him for Chucks next fight. It should not go to the ground unless Chuck gets a bit worried, and he does have a legitimate chance of knocking Chuck out. I really could not see a more interesting fight for him, but I do not see it happening.
The only good he can do with his striking is from the clinch only there can he use his power.. His punches from the outside when he tries to box has no power or precision at all and they’re also very slow and on top of that he has no defense, his boxing skills are horrible..
The guy talks like he is only 23 yrs old and has time to learn real MMA.
He needs to work on defending himself on the ground and getting the fight back on the feet and also with his takedown defense. I’m thinking some training at The Pit with Liddell and then some training at Extreme Couture.
I will still root for this guy.
Me too, but his preparation and excuses are dissapointing.
yea me too, i think he’s too proud of himself to see it the way it is..
I like having Alexander in the UFC. He has balls and fights good competition (unlike Kimbo); he gets the crowd going and always has that edge of your seat KO in his hands/knees.
After his recent losses on the ground though, you would have to think he is drilling sprawl, sweeps and guard overtime.
he sucks
Who is he going to fight? Is there someone with a UFC contract he can beat?
They need to keep him around. He is a good counter to watching Machida. Atleast in a Alexander fight you know its not going to decision.
Yeah but in fairness to Machida he isn’t getting knocked out in 12 seconds so…
I’m just really surprised how unprepared Houston was to escape the mount. I mean, he lost his last two fights almost exactly the same way. Most MMA guys and even the announcers seem to exalt the “buck” which I find to be one of the most ineffective escapes to the mount! Moreover, they do this incorrectly. They merely raise their hips, which does nothing but throw your opponent off balance for a second. There are a lot better escapes from the mount and I was VERY surprised that his team didnt go over some proper BJJ techniques with him to escape the mount.
he’s a one trick pony i have betted the last 3 times he would win i lost all three bets i like him but he needs some ground game and sub defense him vs tim boetsch would be great but i see alexander getting a jon jones instead or maybe he will fight ivan in dublin
Houston has too go.
Terrible fighter..any ground skills whatsoever neutralize him.
Look, he doesn’t need to go anywhere right now. He is a very likable fighter, and his last fight against Red he got over confident and wound up getting submitted. Schafer knew he had no ground game, so he took him to the ground. Apparently Houston didn’t hear his corner yelling that he only has like 4 seconds left, I’m sure if he heard that he wouldn’t have tapped, and probably would have knocked Schafer out in the 2nd round.
He just needs to prove himself again, and I think a fight with Chuck would be a great way to do that.
For the sake of his kids, I hope Houston “my entire game has a problem” Alexander joins another camp.
It’s funny how Rogan & Goldy claimed that Houston was “FOR REAL” after he KO’d Sakara! Hmmm… KO’ing Sakara legitimizes you as a fighter. Interesting.
Obvious case of speaking too soon.
this guy is a joke
alexander vs. slice
who takes it?
kimbo for sure HAHAHAHAHA
although he’s a joke also…
NO – I have not lost my UFC contract.
NO – I have not fired my coaching staff.
NO – I am not going to step down and fight for smaller organizations.
YES - I am a muscle power freak with bad technique.
YES - I am 0.5 dimensional.
YES - I have the most freakishly tall pointy head ever to grace sports.
The UFC can re-sign him around as a gatekeeper but the guy is what 36? He doesn’t have a long career ahead of him. Pay him $75,000 a year and hope he survives three more fights.
i see the logic in certain fans wishing for him never to fight in the ufc again. However that is based on the fact he has no ground game, which in itself may be ebough to back up the argument.
Although I feel he is an exciting fighter who is certainly one who can fill cards and almost guarantee an exciting finish either way!! I like the ufc keeping guys like this around as they always can make a dull card look a little better, even if its not at the top of mma!!
I would also love the ufc to re-sign tito, for very simliar reasons!! although it doesnt look like its ever gony happen.
He sucks.