Muhsin Corbbrey: "Nobody Can Strike Like Me, Nobody Can Grapple Like Me”

Doubtless one of the most talented mixed martial artists not currently signed to a major organization, Muhsin Corbbrey is looking to make the jump from being the self-proclaimed “underground icon of mixed martial arts” to a full-fledged star in the sport.

A three-sport athlete in the world of martial arts, Corbbrey has not only fought in EliteXC and the WEC as a mixed martial artist, but also moonlights as both a professional boxer and a Muay Thai kick-boxer.

Additionally, on the ground, Corbbrey boasts both a black belt in Judo and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Lloyd Irvin.

Ready to make waves in the sport in the coming decade, Corbbrey is looking to make it back to a major organization inside 2011.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Muhsin about, among many other topics, his life as a mixed martial artist, his plans as a social activist, anthropology classes, his Islamic beliefs, and the “N-word.”

How is life for Muhsin Corbbrey these days?

It’s great, man. I’m just trying to progress and get back in the majors. We’re fighting for M-1 Global on April 22—my opponent just pulled out, so they’re looking for a new opponent for me.

Right after that we’re supposed to by going to Australia to fight for CFC in May. Hopefully after that, that should be enough to convince Dana White that I belong there and get back in the big show.

How confident are you going into your next few bouts?

If I fight to the level I know I can fight, there’s nobody out there with my skill set—nobody. I feel like I can beat anybody out there.

Nobody can strike like me, nobody can grapple like me—all I’ve got to do is put it all together in there.

I feel really confident; we’ve had a great camp, I’m in amazing shape, and I’ve got a great group of coaches helping me out.

Do you have any idea who you’ll be taking on in May in Australia?

I have no idea yet. Din Thomas—one of my best friends and training partners—is running my management team now and he just called me and told me that we’re looking at the end of May and they’re working for an opponent now.

What is your earliest memory of fighting?

I started training when I was eight years old, so I think my earliest memories are of me at the rec center trying to learn how to punch and hitting the old bag at the rec center.

Where you involved in a lot of other sports growing up?

I played high-school football and I played baseball—but really it was fighting. As a kid I wanted to be a ninja and that’s where it all started—I’ve been in love with martial arts since I was a kid.

What do you think made you gravitate towards the sport to begin with?

We grew up in pretty bad circumstances and my father put me into the rec center programs just so I could defend myself. Growing up in poverty, people are always trying to get theirs and they’re willing to take it from you to get it.

He wanted me to be able to protect myself—he kind of had the mixed martial arts mind-frame; he put me in boxing and he put me in Tae Kwon Do because he wanted me to be able to punch and kick and it just kind of radiated from there. I fell in love with it and kept growing with it as I grew, myself.

Did you ever think that you would be able to become a professional mixed martial artist?

I knew that I would be working in this business somehow. I didn’t know if I was going to be a ninja—assassinating people [laughs], but I knew that I would be something related to martial arts for the rest of my life.

When the UFC came along, that really sparked my attention and I wanted to do what those guys were doing. Royce Gracie—a little skinny, wirey guy beat up all the karate-guys, the Muay Thai guys and I had to figure out what he was doing.

What were your goals when you started out in the sport?

When I first started, it was still the backroom circuits—nothing too big. I think I fought for $100 in my first professional fight—and I fought a tough-fight, too; I fought an undefeated guy with two title belts.

It was really just to test yourself rather than, “I’m going to get a big payday from it.” Even today—unless your name is Urijah Faber, Chuck Liddell or one of the big-names in the sport—you’re not getting great paydays.

We do it more because we love the sport and we want to test ourselves and see what we can accomplish.

Was there anyone that you looked up to back then?

Din Thomas was a big role-model. My two biggest role-models in the sport are Din Thomas and “Mach” Sakurai—those two guys are who I, kind of, patterned myself after—as far as mixed martial arts goes.

Din has amazing skills as a stand-up boxer and the way he put his combinations together and integrated it right into his takedowns and then strong grappling skills—that’s who I wanted to be.

I’m an old Judo guy, so seeing “Mach” Sakurai throw wrestlers around back in the day made me happy, too.

Is there anyone that you look up to now?

I still follow that same pattern; there are a lot of good guys out there, but I look at everybody in my division like meat; I look at them like they’re going to be my meal eventually, so I’m not going to look up to you, I’m just going to find a way to beat you [laughs].

Outside of the lightweight division—I guess—who do you look up to in the sport?

There are some great guys; BJ Penn is amazing—I enjoy watching him. Of course Jon Jones has such a wide variety of skills and he puts things together so well—it’s fun to watch him.

There are so many guys out there that I like to watch, but nobody in particular—I’m not really a big fan of any mixed martial arts you know?

I look up to their skills and I think they can do great things, but as far as being a big fan of any particular mixed martial artist? Nah—they’re people, just like me.

Are you a big fan of the sport, in general?

I’m a big fan of the sport; I never miss a chance to watch guys put the work in. I’m honoured to meet anybody that does what I do, because I know how hard and how difficult this life is.

I watch every promotion that there is out there—I love seeing the guys going at it.

You’re still competing as a professional boxer and a professional kick-boxer, too?

I am. My last fight was a Muay Thai match. I fought twice in Thailand and won by knockout in both fights. As far as boxing, we’re looking for fights right now.

What inspires you to be involved in the three different disciplines?

In order to really call yourself a mixed martial artist, I think you need to be strong standing, you need to be strong on the ground, and you need to be strong in-between—you need to have a good clinch game and good wrestling or Judo.

For me, in order to really call yourself a mixed martial artist, I think you should really dive head-first into all three. That’s what motivates me; I want to be the best mixed martial artist I can be, so I want to be great at everything.

Are you partial to one discipline over the other two?

Not really. I recently put the gi back on after eight years of playing Jiu-Jitsu without the gi, because I was really focused on mixed martial arts and being the best mixed martial artist I can be.

I got my purple belt in 2001, so pretty much everybody that I got ranked with as a purple belt has moved on and they’re black belts now—I figure I have to get the gi back on and eventually get my rank in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

I’ve been playing around a lot in the gi and I forgot how much I love it! There’s so much involved in every little intricacy of Jiu-Jitsu, so I really enjoy getting each technique down.

What would a black belt mean to you?

It would be an honour. Master Lloyd—to me—is putting out the best American Jiu-Jitsu players now and when I eventually get it, it’s going to be one of the greatest achievements of my life.

Do you have any intention on focusing on one discipline over the other in the future?

My goal—before I finish my career—is to get a professional title in boxing. In Muay Thai, the only fight that I lost was a title-fight and I lost the decision to a guy that had over 60 professional fights—I definitely want a title in Muay Thai and I want to get a few more titles in mixed martial arts. I want to get that UFC strap.

I thought, at least before, you have to fight exclusively with the UFC—is that still the case?

Yeah, if I sign with the UFC than they’re going to own me; I won’t be able to go anywhere else. While I have this break from a major contract, I’m trying to get as much in as possible.

Would you consider putting your UFC aspirations aside for the time-being to pursue your goals?

We’re getting to a point where there aren’t too many non-ZUFFA organizations; they just bought Strikeforce and from what I understand, the Japanese promotions aren’t doing too well—I have respect for all of them.

Dana White—when I was with WEC—was great; he’s an awesome, awesome guy. I’ve tried out for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ a few times and they always push me through but Spike TV, evidently, doesn’t want me on TV. It is what it is.

I would never turn down an offer to fight with the UFC, so I’ll fight with them, go as far as I can with them and then go back to pursuing my boxing career and my Muay Thai career.

You’ve tried out for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ four times. Why don’t you think you’ve been able to make it through?

The last time I tried out, I made it all the way to Vegas and got my medicals done but I just didn’t make that final cut. I know that I have the skills to be there—and maybe they think I’m a little too-skilled to be there—but if that’s the case, they need to go ahead and sign me to a contract, damn it [laughs]!

I’m not sure. I even put in a call and told them that I could make 145 if they need me to make 145—I didn’t go to the try-outs but they’re shuffling my name around now.

They’re definitely looking for actors and personalities and I refuse—I’m a college-educated guy—I’m not going to be that loud, barking, ignorant black person that Spike TV tends to cast. I’m not talking trash about anybody that went on there—they did what they had to do to be on there, but I’m not going to be that guy.

If they want an intellectual black guy, I’m the guy for them.

How do you feel about your most recent mixed martial arts performance in Singapore?

I feel great about it—I dominated the guy everywhere; I beat him standing, when it went to the ground I secured mount and elbowed him until he gave up. I feel good about it. That’s the way I have to perform.

There will be no more decisions in my career—I’ve stopped my last three opponents—there will be no decisions; either I’m knocking someone out or I’m getting knocked out. That’s just how I’ve got to play it from now on.

Why is that?

First of all; I really don’t think that the judges and the referees in mixed martial arts know the sports. My last fight in the WEC, I had side-control and was going for a choke on my opponent and they stood me up [laughs]. After popping the guy’s arm out—I think he was out for 90 days—and pretty much winning the ground battle.

I lost in the clinch—in the Thai-clinch—he beat me there, but a lot of sports-writers had me winning my last WEC fight and I lost a decision. I’m not taking any more chances; I’m not leaving it up to the judges anymore.

In the mixed martial arts community, what is the general sentiment towards judging?

I don’t know too many people that are happy with the current state of judging in mixed martial arts. You can see it on all of the message-boards and fighters in general; we think it’s pretty horrible.

Even Dana White will say, “The judging isn’t controlled by me—don’t leave it up to them; go out there and finish the fight.” And that’s what we should be doing anyway; we shouldn’t be looking for decisions.

Can you think of any ways—off the top of your head—to improve judging in the sport?

I think the biggest thing is having fighters or former fighters become judges. I think you need to be knowledgeable of the sport to judge it.

Do you think that that could be a conflict of interest?

Well, I definitely don’t think Randy Couture should be judging his fighters [laughs]. If you’ve been out there and experienced it, then you know what it takes to win, you what the good positions are and the bad positions are, you know when someone is really hurt—then you can have a good eye for who really won a round.

It’s a lot different than boxing; in boxing, if I get knocked down—I lost that round. In MMA, if I get knocked down but shoot a double and pass guard and dominate you on the ground from that point out—did I lose that round?

I got hurt and I got knocked down, but I got the takedown and I won the ground battle—you need to understand what’s going on out there.

What do you feel is your greatest asset as a mixed martial artist?

I think that I’m much more well-rounded than 99 percent of the guys out there. You’ve got a lot of guys that come straight out of college wrestling or have Jiu-Jitsu backgrounds, but to me—and this is how I train my fighters—to me the most important thing is to be able to hit and be hit.

I don’t care how good your Jiu-Jitsu is, if you’ve got a guy who’s punching you in the face while he’s passing your guard—your Jiu-Jitsu changes; everything changes. Somebody that’s never been on the receiving end of a punch is not going to respond well to being punched.

The fact that I’ve been punching and have been punched since I was eight years old—striking is second-nature to me; it’s not something I have to think about. I think that gives me a major advantage.

If you could describe you fighting style in one word, what would that word be?

Beautiful.

Beautiful?

[Laughs] I said a long time ago that I want to be the “Sweet Pea” Whitaker of MMA. If you look at my Nick Diaz fight—I made him look pretty silly when he was punching at me. That’s my goal; I want to make guys miss and make them pay.

Do you feel that you’re still improving as a mixed martial artist?

Every day. We’ve got a new group of coaches working with me right now—they’re not changing me—but they’re adding so much to what we’re doing right now. Every day I’m getting better—every day. When you stop improving is when you should retire—that’s definitely when you should retire. Every day I feel like I’m learning something new so it’s great—I love it. I can’t wait for my next fight to display some of the new stuff that I’m doing.

When the time comes, do you think that you’ll have a tough time retiring?

My Muay Thai coach and I had a conversation about this; you should retire when you don’t enjoy it anymore and right now, I feel like I’ve got 10 more years—at least. I’m enjoying every second of it—I feel amazing, my body feels better than it’s ever felt. As long as I enjoy what I’m doing and I’m winning—I’m not being dominated. I’m not going to be one of those guys that goes out and keeps getting beat, thinking he still has it. I’m in college right now—learning new things every day. I won’t be that guy that tries to hold onto it too long but I think I have a lot more to prove in this sport.

What do you feel that you can accomplish?

I feel that I can make it to the highest level. As long as the situation is right and I get the opportunities that I think I deserve, than I think I can make it to the top—I have the potential and the skill-set to beat anyone in the sport.

Where would you rank yourself among the world’s lightweights?

I lost to Kurt Pellegrino by decision and Jim Miller beat me, so right now I’ve got a lot to prove before I can jump up there and say that I’m the baddest man on the planet—I just want to be thrown in there with those guys; let me do it. Throw me in there and see what I can accomplish. I believe, that with my skill-set, I can beat anybody. I’ve just got to seize the opportunity.

What would being in the UFC mean to you?

That’s the goal of everybody. For everybody in the sport, the UFC is what got us into it. We saw Royce and we saw those first couple UFCs and we said, “Wow! That’s it—I want to do that.” Being there is not enough—I’ve got to dominate there—but being there, of course, is the pinnacle. I want to get in there and see what I can do against those guys. It will be a great honour when I get that chance.

You own your own gym?

Champion Training Center in Savannah, Georgia and we have, probably, one of the best coaching staffs in the Southeast. We’ve got Norman Jones—who is a boxing champion with over 50 professional fights, we’ve got Kru Brian Robinson—who has fought all over the world, we’ve got me; I’ve won All-American NAGA Worlds, black belt in Judo, purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu, and of course I’ve fought in the WEC, EliteXC and we’ve got Zach Williams—who is a national champion wrestler. We’ve got a great coaching staff to develop some of the best fighters on the planet.

Is gym-ownership something that you’ve always been interested in?

The one thing about mixed martial arts is; guys aren’t making a million dollars a fight and if they are, it’s the top one or two that are making that money. Using our accomplishments and the things that we’ve done to create a successful business are really how mixed martial artists can make money. I’m kind of following in Master Lloyd’s foot-steps and build a great business.

Could you please tell me a bit about your relationship with Lloyd?

I’ll tell you how we met. I was doing pretty well on the grappling circuit and had won a couple tournaments and one of my friends got me in contact with Lloyd. Lloyd flew me up to train with him. I flew up and he was at the gate and he was in crutches. I was like, “I really wanted to train with this guy but I’m not going to be able to train with him, because he’s on crutches.” He asked me if I wanted to go to the school and train or go and get a bite to eat. We went back to the academy and it’s empty—just me and him—and he crutches himself to the back, changed into gi pants and a t-shirt and dominated me. I had just won a couple big, big, big tournaments and he beat me like I had never grappled before. I never experienced anything like it. After that dominating I became a believer.

You look up to him as a role-model?

Very much so. The fact that he pulled himself out of poverty and is one of the most successful businessmen out there is an inspiration to me; it shows me that I can do it and anybody can do it. He’s really, really helped me a lot. For my last few fights he’s flown me out to California to train with Brandon Vera, Dominick Cruz—all those guys—some of the best camps in California. Being at his camp is amazing; he’s got some of the best grapplers on the planet there. There’s nobody doing it the way Lloyd does it—it’s a whole different experience.

Could you please tell me a little bit about your life growing up?

Growing up was hard; it was me and my brother with a single dad who was trying to make it happen for us. He wasn’t employed a lot—he was trying to be an entrepreneur, himself—and we were poor; we lived in horrible neighbourhoods and moved around a lot. I think the only constant in my life has been boxing and martial arts and I think that’s why I gravitated towards it. It doesn’t matter how much money you have; it’s how much work you put in and how much you can produce to be noticed in the gym. It changed my life; it taught me how to set goals, how to continue through everything—it built me as a human. Growing up in that mess and being able to make it out of it—I’m still a long way from where I want to be—but we’ve definitely made it out of that poverty. It makes me want to reach out and help other people, because I know it can be done. A lot of my friends that grew up in the same circumstances don’t believe that it can be done. People that grew up in the type of poverty that I grew up in have no idea how to escape it. They don’t know that they can get a loan and go to college. It’s a trap and my goal is to help people progress and move forward—not just locally, but worldwide. We’ve got places like Palestine and Darfur where people don’t even have basic rights—I think it’s our duty as humans to help every human have basic human rights.

What would you say is the focus of your social-activism?

Again, it’s just the fact that when I talk to my friends that are over in the middle of it and they see that women are losing their children daily; tanks are running over kids and killing them, kids are being sniped through their windows if their lights are on past a certain hour in places like the Gaza Strip—you want better. I have a son now and I look at him every day and it’s hard for me to be happy when I know another parent just lost their kid, you know? Until everybody realizes that we’re all humans—no matter where God put us—we’re all humans. The world is not going to be right until we figure that out and we start caring about everyone—that’s my goal. I know it’s a big goal—the whole world-peace thing—everyone says it, but until one or two or a group of people start thinking this way, nobody is ever going to change. We need to have people out there pushing for the rights of people—basic human rights.

What type of change would you like to see in the world?

Racism is something that was implanted, no matter what you are; white, black, Native-American, Japanese—we all have it deep in us and it’s something that’s been implanted in us to keep us separated. It’s really pointless. National Geographic just did the biggest DNA study ever and they proved that everybody has DNA from the Horn of Africa—now that’s not saying everybody’s African—it’s saying that everybody comes from the same place; we’re all the same people and the colour doesn’t matter, our nationality doesn’t matter—the only thing that matters is that we’re human and until we realize that we’re going to keep on killing each other. Until we realize that we’re all human, there’s going to continue to be death.

You say race is made up by humans?

100 per cent—we’re all human. We’ve all evolved in different ways because of where we are, but we’re all human; we’ve all got the same genetic structure. It’s definitely something that’s made up. I was just in an anthropology class and it was one of the most enlightening experiences ever—great, great class.

I’m actually also in anthropology class right now.

That’s a great class, man. You’re going to learn a lot.

You’re in university now?

I’m back in school for political science right now.

Have you always been interested in politics?

Recently I realized that in order to get things done, I’m going to have to know how the system is built. Right now my major is political science and I’ve got about a year and a half left and my minor is journalism. I’ll be going back for public administration after that and then when my fighting career is over I may go to law school—we’ll see. My goal isn’t to be a lawyer or a politician, but is to be able to bring people together and get things done.  

How do you plan on doing that?

Well, that’s still a work in progress. Lloyd turned me on to a guy named Earl Nightingale who wrote a book called ‘The Strangest Secret’ and we’ve got to set the goals first. If we set the goals and we have an unwaverable desire to get the goals accomplished then things will fall into place. I’ve got the goals and things are falling into place now; I’m meeting the right people to make some sort of progress.

What are some of your basic goals?

Well, very basically, I’m a big activist in Israel-Palestine relations and the things that are going over there are horrible—it’s terrible what’s happened to Palestine; Palestinians are being killed off and in another 50-100 years there won’t be any Palestinian land left; Gaza and West Bank have continually shrunk over the years and we’re allowing it to happen. We give Israel billions of dollars and arm them to kill the Palestinians. It’s not an Islam/Judaism issue; it’s a human rights issue and I think people need to open their eyes and see what’s going on over there. One of my main goals right now is to help fight for some sort of two-state solution where Palestinians can have rights and be human—because they’re not being treated like humans right now.

How thankful are you to live in the developed world—a place with equal rights and justice?

Well, you know, I would never trade my nationality for the world. We have things that nobody else will ever have, but at the same time; there are issues here at home, too—there are lots of issues. The fact that our prisons are filled with minorities; the fact that minorities are arrested at a much higher rate than anybody else tells me that something is wrong—there’s a lot of work that needs to be done here, too. The prison industrial complexes are big business and they’re filling them up as fast as they can and they’re making money because prisons are privatized now. They get money for every person that’s in the jail, so they want to make sure that they’re full. Nothing is perfect and the only way we can fix it is when people come together and make sure things are being fixed—I think that’s one of the biggest problems in America. Thomas Jefferson, a long time ago, said, “If we trade our essential liberties for a little bit of security, we deserve neither—we deserve neither liberties nor security.” And that’s what has happened. 9/11 scared us to death and we said, “Do what you need to do—sign that Patriot Act; do whatever you need to do get these terrorists and we signed away a lot of freedom. There’s work that needs to be done here, but there’s so much that I need to concentrate on little things—hopefully it will radiate outward from there.

To say nothing of the problems in the third-world—just here in North America—do you feel that a lot of the problems are so fundamental that they can’t be fixed?

Anything can be fixed—it just takes a shift in the way we think. Until we start thinking that all people are human, there won’t be any changes. Until we care about the people over there, there won’t be any changes. Some people have to step-up and do something small and if enough people care, then there will be changes.

What would progression mean to you?

Progression to me; is when we’re all living on the same terms and we all have rights—that’s what progression is to me. To me we’ve digressed. When things were simpler before—before the advent of all of the technology—times were a little bit better; it may have been a little harder to eat, but everyone cared for each other. I think as we grow, we get further and further away from basic human ideals; caring about one another—we’ve lost that and now it’s about, “How can we make more money? How can my corporation thrive?” We’ve actually gotten away from capitalism; now it’s corporatism, you know? Corporations have power because they create money—it’s kind of scary.

What is your outlook—politically?

I’m still trying to figure that out [laughs]. I think the two-party system is one of the worst things to ever happen to America; I think we basically have one party, because the Democrats and the Republicans are doing the same thing—nobody is really pushing for anything outside of the same politics. Obama has pretty much carried on everything that Bush did. I wouldn’t say I’m a Democrat or a Republican.

What’s more frustrating to you; how bad things have gotten or the fact that so few people actually seem to care?

The fact that people don’t care is what scares me to death. The fact that people can see human rights abuses happening—and they couldn’t care less—that scares me to death. We have it relatively good—everyone eats in America—but some other places in the world have it pretty bad, but we couldn’t care less.

What role would you like to see countries like Canada and the United States have in less-developed nations?

I think our role should be to ensure that good things are happening for everybody. Unfortunately, we only take an interest in things that could be lucrative for us. For instance; we’re all over Libya because Libya has very large, large oil reserves—they own a lot of oil—but the same things are happening in Africa, Palestine and we’ve completely turned a blind-eye to that. When it stops being about money and starts being about human rights, I think that is when things will change.

What do you think is the general perception of an American citizen outside of America?

Well, luckily for me—while I don’t make millions and millions of dollars—I get to travel all over the world; I’ve been to Japan, I’ve been to Southeast Asia, I’ve been to Singapore, Korea, Canada—I’ve been all over the place, and it kind of scares me that Americans aren’t perceived well in a lot of other places. People don’t think much of us—we think a lot of ourselves—but the rest of the world doesn’t care that much for us; in fact, a lot of Americans I’ve met were pretending to be Canadian [laughs], because people like you guys a little bit more. It kind of scares me that the world has this outlook. When I was in Southeast Asia, the only news that they got from America was Nancy Grace and then they got Fox News—so that’s their perception of the United States; they get Fox News and they think that’s how the entire United States thinks about the rest of the world.

That’s terrible [laughs]. It’s a hasty-generalization, but do you think that that perception is at all warranted?

[Laughs] There was a good documentary on CNN the other day about Muslims in America and them not being welcomed and when I see places that go through such lengths—arson, state-wide rallies to protest a mosque—these people have a right to worship, just like anybody else, yet they go through such lengths to stop it from happening—it scares me to death. I lived in Alabama for three years, so I know what parts of the United States are like, you know? There are some really backward, messed-up places here and to think that people are not willing to grant that constitutional right to someone else when they take advantage of it every day—it sickens me. 9/11 was a group of extremists—if you believe that’s how it really happened—it was a group of extremists that do not represent Islam; Islam is huge and they want to say everybody is like this—they’re basically calling every Muslim a terrorist and that’s what people are dealing with here. We don’t have the tolerance that our constitution says we should have.

Do you see things getting better for the Islamic community in North America?

It’s got to and it definitely will. With all of this hate, people are going to start investigating and wondering, “What is Islam about?” What’s funny is; right now, the greatest number of people taking Shahada and becoming Muslim are white females—that’s not scary to me, but I think it’s an interesting fact that Caucasian females are the number one group of people taking Shahada and becoming Muslims. Once you learn about Islam, you’re going to realize that it’s not the hate-filled religion they’re trying to call it; it’s a religion just like Judaism or Christianity—almost all of the same concepts and the same beliefs, the same prophets, the same God; the same belief in one God—and we’ve got to learn how to love each other and not hate each other ... Singapore has a governmental agency that pushes for inter-faith meetings and they make sure everyone knows one another—it’s government-based all of the religious leaders in Singapore have to meet and talk monthly and I’ll tell you; I’ve never been to a place like Singapore before. You’ll look at a billboard, and they’re advertising to everybody. They all get along and everybody respects everybody; there are no problems there. I have friends in Singapore now and when they see some of the stuff that I post on Facebook about some of the hatred—they can’t believe it. Recently, an Islamic studies group was doing a fundraiser for battered women and homeless kids and an entire group of idiots got out and protested the event; they were screaming profanities the entire time—this is all on film, they showed it on CNN and everything. When my friends in Singapore saw that, they couldn’t believe it—they had no idea that that was what America was built on. They had no idea and it scares me that other countries look at us like that. America is supposed to be a conglomerate of religious beliefs and different ethnicities—a melting-pot of different people and it’s not. It’s not at all.

When did you find Islam?

I became a Muslim in 1999—almost 12 years ago.

What inspired that?

It was funny. My wife and I are married now but I dated my wife prior and we were broken-up for a time and I was trying to throw a mack-line on a girl that I didn’t know was Muslim. We went out for dinner and we talked a little bit about Islam. At the time I had come to a point when I was a complete atheist—I didn’t want to answer for a lot of the stupid stuff that I was doing. She said, “Take the Qur’an, read it and tell me what you think.”  I’m really an analytical guy; I read the Bible with a highlighter, trying to find contradictions and I thought I would do the same with the Qur’an and I couldn’t—it just made sense to me. Shorty thereafter I took Shahada and I’ve been practising ever since.

How important has your faith been to your life?

It’s changed me completely; before I took Shahada I was out doing a lot of stupid stuff—I was out at the bar, drinking, doing drugs, selling drugs; acting a complete fool—and it grounded me; it gave me a set of rules that are good for me. A lot people look at religion and think, “Man—that’s so hard. How can you deal with the rules?” It made my life easier; I don’t have the chance of getting pulled over and going to jail because I have an ounce in my car [laughs], you know? It completely changed my life and it re-motivated me to get back to what I love—which is martial arts. When you’re out there all the time doing stupid stuff and you go cold-turkey on it, you need something to occupy your time—of course I radiated back towards martial arts, because that had been the only constant in my life. To me, I’m like the underground icon of mixed martial arts; everyone that knows me knows that I’m one of the best guys out there—I just haven’t got that major record deal, yet [laughs].

Where do you think you would be without your faith?

I’m scared to even think about it—I’m scared to even think about it. It saved me.

So you had quit martial arts?

Yeah, I was just a complete knuckle-head. After I graduated high-school—I went to high-school in Alabama, which was probably one of the worst experiences of my life. I’m a black inner city kid in a town where all of the black kids live in the projects—it was pretty scary to me. The word “nigger” flew around like it was okay. There were Klan rallies not too far from where I lived—it was definitely an eye-opening experience in how some people really think. As soon as I graduated high-school I moved to Atlanta. The plan was to go to college but I ended up getting a restaurant job with a lot of fun kids and just, kind of, followed the group and I was doing a lot of ignorant things—when I took Shahada I changed that.

What does the “N-word” mean to you?

To me, it’s a disgusting word. Me and one of my best friends were having a talk about that word. Growing up black in America, we grow up thinking that that’s the cool thing to say. I’ve made the decision that I’m going to completely delete that word from my vocabulary—even in rap songs; I’ll say “ninja” instead of that word [laughs]. We had a good conversation and that is one word that has brought black people together. It’s really sad that dark-skinned people hate light-skinned people, light-skinned people hate dark-skinned people—it’s ridiculous. That one word—it doesn’t matter who you are—but that word brings people together. I think that’s the only positive aspect of the word, but to me, it’s a little ridiculous to call yourself that when it was a word that was used to beat you down for years—I’ve decided to delete it and get it out of my vocabulary.

How do you feel about the word being taken out of novels?

The word was definitely said, we can’t get rid of it, and we can’t act like it didn’t happen—that’s ridiculous. I think we need to move forward and be more intelligent with how we use it, as a people. There’s really no need for it, but we can’t just get rid of it like it never happened—because it did. Until people understand what happened in the past—their history—then we can make it out of the mental-block that we have today.

When I spoke with Antonio McKee, he said that there was an underlying racism against African American mixed martial artists. In your experience, how accurate is that statement?

I don’t know if it’s racism that’s kept me out of the loop—I’m not going to say that. What I’ll say is; everyone can work hard to attain their goals—even if they are at a disadvantage. If you work hard and have an undeniable desire to make it, you’ll make it. I think, as we’ve seen, black fighters are starting to climb the ladder and make waves in the sport. If you keep beating people, than they can’t deny you for too long.

How important is your family to you?

My family is the most important thing to me—everyday I look at my son and it makes me want to work harder and do better things. I hold him in my arms everyday and I tell him, “You’re a champion, right?” “Yes, I’m a champion.” “And you’re going to change the world right?” I say this over and over and over because he needs to understand it’s his duty—just like it’s my job, his mother’s job, your job, everybody’s job—to make a difference for somebody. If we all do that, I think the world will be a lot better. It kind of scares me—the direction that I see the world going—so I want to leave it as the best possible place for him. He’s going to be on this planet a lot longer than I am.

What does it mean for you to be able to supply a better quality of life for your son than you had coming?

It means everything and I’m still working hard to bring him better things, but I’ve had my struggles. There was a point when my wife was pregnant with our son and we were about to buy our first house, with our nice, big gym, and our gym landlord came to us with a lot of problems and a lot of issues and demanded a lot of money. We had to take all the money that we were going to use as a down-payment on this house and put it into our gym—almost 20,000 dollars—and it left us homeless because our lease was up. Luckily we had this giant gym. We moved into one of the rooms at the gym for about six months until we could get enough money to get a place. There was a time when me, my wife, and our unborn son were homeless. I could’ve closed the gym down, but I’ve seen what martial arts have done for people and I refuse to—I refuse to. We’re going to keep this gym open and now it’s paying me back—it’s taking care of me; we’re almost at 300 students now and we’re growing every day. Now we’re living really, really comfortably and we’re able to take trips to Thailand and my son is going to experience a life that was a lot better than my own. I’ve just got to keep working to make sure that he has the things I never had.

During those six months, how hungry were you?

[Laughs] If I got a fight then, somebody would’ve probably died. It gave me so much more motivation to go out and win.

[Laughs] It’s probably a good thing you didn’t have anything scheduled. What would you say if your son wanted to pursue a career in mixed martial arts?

Well, he’s already training. His name means “Victorious Warrior” in Arabic [laughs]. He doesn’t have to fight, but he’s going to train and learn the discipline that comes with martial arts. If he wants to fight, he can fight—I’ll help him and be in his corner but if he doesn’t, I’m not going to be mad at him either.

What do you think the future holds for you?

Well, we’re just going to keep fighting and moving up the ladder. I feel really strongly that this year is the year that you’ll see me in the UFC—I feel real strongly about that. I’ve just got to tear a couple heads of to get there.

How would you like to be remembered when it’s all said and done?

More than remembering me for any accomplishments as a mixed martial artist—I think I’ll be remembered as one of the guys that could do everything pretty well—but more than that, if they remember some of the stuff that I said; if they look in to what’s going on in the world because I said it, then I’ll be happy.

Is there anything that you’d like to say to your fans while you have this opportunity?

Just keep watching me, man. We’re doing big things and we’re moving forward; 2011 is my year and we’re going to dismantle some people on the way to my accomplishing my goals and I will not stop until me goals are reached—keep looking for me.