Special Contribution: Houston Alexander “I Will Be Back”
By Jean Schwalenberg
PDG: So let’s talk about your last fight.
Houston: It was a bad day, a very bad day.
PDG: Did you have any problems going into the fight?
Houston: No, I actually didn’t follow the game plan we had going into the fight, and it was a bad day. There’s no other way to describe it.
PDG: What was your game plan?
Houston: Our game plan was to beat Thiago Silva to a pulp [laughs]. That was the game plan, but it got sideswiped.
PDG: Did you watch the fight afterwards?
Houston: I watched it, and I didn’t seem like the same person. So that’s how I know it was a bad day.
PDG: So, do you have any plans to change your training in the future, for the next time you fight a similar opponent?
Houston: The training regimen won’t change. I think that was what was different for this fight, because the first two fights weren’t like that, it is the sudden level of notoriety. I had to learn to manage my time, and deal with the media, and everything else that came with the increased hype.
PDG: You already seem like a busy guy with a lot to balance, being a single father (of six children), working as a D.J., training, and everything else.
Houston: And I do a pretty good job of doing all of that, minus all the extra media attention and the cameras in your face, which is one of the things we’re going to change. Any time you’re doing fifty interviews in a month that’s a lot of interviews. Before the fight, the actual interviews were taking away from my training but you cannot complain about the attention and the media is just doing its job.
PDG: So are you taking a little time off right now to recover and be with your family?
Houston: No, no time off at all, we got back in the gym the next day. Nothing changes; this is still my job and what I have to do, so I was right back in the gym the next day. A loss is a loss and there’s no excuse for it. I got right back in the gym the next day and we are working on correcting the problem. We know what we have to do.
PDG: You know Thiago said that you were the real winner, because you’re the one raising six kids by yourself, and you gave a kidney to your daughter.
Houston: I didn’t know that, but you know; we’re good friends. What happens in the ring stays in the ring and we were good friends before the fight happened and we’ll continue to be good friends after. If you’re a professional you should be able to separate things like that.
PDG: So, about your training, you are one of the most jacked guys in the UFC and we want to know how you do it. Do you have any special diet plan you follow?
Houston: There’s a nutrition company called 8-Ball Nutrition, a locally based nutrition company, but you can find their stuff worldwide. And with all the training that I do, you’ve got to put the nutrition back in your body. I just started using them back in April.
PDG: And before that?
Houston: I have a rule: I’m never going to diet. I eat a lot of chicken, a lot of pasta – just eating right.
PDG: No diet – that’s impressive. You have an amazingly muscular body.
Houston: Well, it helps to work out three to four times a day.
PDG: So tell me about your workouts.
Houston: The day starts about 5:30 in the morning; I get to the gym about 6. We do a lot of conditioning, loosing up, simple stuff in the morning like a lot of sparring, stretching, and endurance stuff. Then after about an hour and a half of light conditioning I’ll take the kids to school. Then I go back to the gym at about 10 and work out for another hour and a half, do some light lifting, sparring, techniques, a little bit of everything.
PDG: What’s “light” lifting for a guy your size?
Houston: Well, it varies. You don’t have to use a lot of weight. We do a lot of reps. I’ll take a twenty-five pound bar and do a lot of reps with it. It all depends; when I’m not fighting I’ll lift heavy.
PDG: So when you are fighting, do you do a lot of circuit training?
Houston: I do a lot of circuit training, a lot of dumbbells, a lot of pushups, sit-ups, general stuff. There’s no big secret, just a lot of pushups and sit-ups in different forms, a little bit of everything.
PDG: So do you have any unorthodox or fun training you do to break up the routine?
Houston: I throw tires up the hills – heavy diesel tires up the hills. A lot of people will throw them in parking lots but we like to throw them up hills. The bigger tires, the tractor tires, we flip. We do a lot of sprinting too, a lot of vertical jumping, and a lot of stuff to strengthen the legs. It’s actually a lot of basic stuff that anybody who’s training should be doing, besides throwing the tires, or hammering tires.
PDG: For a big fighter you have very accurate, but still powerful punches. Where did you learn boxing?
Houston: The coach I have is Mick Doyle. Mick Doyle is a world champion kick boxing and Muay Thai champion. He’s one of the best in the business.
PDG: Are you training Brazilian jiu-jitsu at all?
Houston: Actually I have been training jiu-jitsu with Bob Shermer, who’s one of the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world. Just for some reason during this bad, bad period I was in the ring I totally just spaced off all of what I’ve learned during those three months. It’s not like I don’t know any jiu-jitsu, because I actually do and I’m actually really good at it. But at that particular moment there was nothing, and I was not myself, so that’s why I was having a bad day, because I wasn’t my bad self. I’ve had harder fights in the gym then what I did in the ring that day.
PDG: So when your kids get out of school, do they do any training with you? Or do you play sports with them?
Houston: Sometimes I do a little training with them. Matter of fact they just started wrestling practice with me. A lot of the activities I do I try to do with those guys – whether it be football or whatever – but this year it just so happens they started wrestling this year so I’ll be grappling with those guys. They participate in Little League, and I’m actually a coach for that.
PDG: Have any of your kids expressed interest in wanting to follow in your footsteps and be an MMA fighter when they grow up?
Houston: Well, they like wrestling – the WWE – and I’m still trying to compete with that [laughs]. The Undertaker in particular is on a way higher level than dad right now.
I try to do a lot of things with these guys, because that’s more important than even losing a fight. The bottom line is, even when I have a bad day I still have to come home and take care of children. So even though I might have had a bad day in front of millions of people, I still get to come home to six kids that don’t care about that. I’m humble when I get home and pick up the shoes and clothes.
PDG: How much longer is your current UFC contract?
Houston: I have two fights left, and hopefully we’re going to win these next two and hopefully still be in contention for a title shot. Make no mistake – the overall goal is to win the belt.
PDG: Is there anyone in particular you want to fight on your way to the title?
Houston: I’m not real particular about whom I fight. Whoever they have me in the ring with next, whether he’s a top ten guy or the bottom of the list I’m ready to fight.
PDG: Anything else you’d like to say?
Houston: I always work hard, I’m a blue-collar type guy, and a no excuse type guy so if I lose, I lose, and if I win, I win; it’s all the same. Tell the fans I appreciate the support. My coaches – Mick Doyle, Willie Stuart, Curly Alexander, and Bob Shermer. And my family, friends, and the UFC fans. My sponsors – they know who they are.
