Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has a past. For UFC fighters, there was the time that the thought of a professional MMA career first crossed their minds. There were instances when they had to overcome adversity in order to keep that dream alive. And finally, the moment where they took a leap of faith to turn that dream into a reality.
In late April, the latest installment of The Ultimate Fighter premiered. This season, the series pits two gyms, American Top Team and the Blackzilians, against one another. But beyond the lights and the cameras, the reality show also allows these talented welterweights to seize the moment and turn this opportunity into a bright future in the UFC.
A few weeks ago, Complex had an opportunity to sit down with two veterans in the sport, Rashad Evans and Tyron Woodley, along with two of the competitors in The Ultimate Fighter 21: ATT vs. Blackzilians, Carrington Banks and Sabah Homasi. Over the course of an hour, we chopped it up with the fighters about '90s hip-hop, their first fights, and the odd and sometimes embarrassing jobs they held before finding their home in MMA.
Interview by Jose Martinez (@ZayMarty).
What's the song that has to be on the playlist right before a fight?
Tyron Woodley: Man, I listen to everything. What's on my playlist when I'm fighting is not so much hip-hop. Sometimes, it's something more inspirational. I get a chance to think about what I'm fighting for, like, my family. It takes me to that state because a lot of times, it's a spiritual warfare for me. It might be some gospel or rap. I don't hit on a particular genre of music. I have been bumping that Kendrick Lamar "Alright" because when you think about what you have been through and you feel there's a guy behind you, it lets you know that everything is going to be alright.
Rashad Evans: Like Tyron, I get into everything. I like dancehall reggae, but I also like to listen to that old school hip-hop. KRS-One. Tupac. Biggie. All of that '90s rap. That's my thing. I've been feeling a lot of Meek Mill. Meek gets me ready. Also, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne.
Are you of the belief that rap isn't what it used to be?
Evans: Um, yeah, I would say that. Now, it's less about content. It's more about doing a hook and get a little dance to go with it. It doesn't have that same meaning behind it. I mean, rappers these days are just adapting to the game, making money any way they can and trying to stay relevant. But I think a big injustice is [being] done to the art form of rapping.
I'm talking about the content and substance. I'm talking about what they're rapping about, marrying concepts that you never thought of before, play on words, all that shit that Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne and Drake do well. I think it's more of a shift in the actual art form of the poetry of rap.
Woodley: It changes with the artist, too. You know, I recently broke out the Game's first album, Rick Ross's first album and Freeway's first album. I'm like, "Why would they put this many hot songs on one album?" They could've stretched it over 10 albums. You don't even want to skip a song. Like, Jeezy's first album.
One of the interesting tie-ins is that most of you had interesting jobs before pursuing an MMA career. What was yours, Carrington?
Carrington Banks: First, I was a personal trainer at a gym in group classes. Then, I started working at an insurance company and serving as a wrestling coach during those two years I wasn't fighting.
1.
What made you want to transition over to mixed martial arts?
Banks: I started digging deep inside, thinking about my life and what I wanted to accomplish. A chain of events happened that motivated and inspired me to just do something different with my life. Really, that was it. My wrestling team won Nationals that year. I got a lot of inspiration from the guys on my team. Just going through the year, watching them face adversity, rise up, compete and have the success they had inspired me to do the same thing. And I knew I still could. I started reading a lot of books, too, about the mind and spiritual things. I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It taught me about following your personal legend. Between the wrestling team, reading books and soul-searching, I just left to seek something different.
Rashad, I remember reading an interview where you said learned lessons that you would only learn in a hospital.
Evans: Yeah, a big part of my job was to put bodies into the morgue. I worked the night shift. After 5 p.m., the pathologist would leave and I would have to put bodies in and take them out of the morgue all the time. Sometimes, I would have to be there when they did a certain harvest. A harvest is when they take certain pieces out of the body and use them for living
...every once in a while, I walk by somewhere and I smell that smell of a morgue. And it will remind me of where I came from.
people. It was a hard job to get used to that aspect. You have a body that you put into a morgue. The body is nice and warm. The back is still warm, which is usually last to lose heat. And you put them in as a number. You know, but that person had a name and a family.
Now, you're just putting them in as just…a number and you just get so callous about it. It got to a point where I would just put them in, take them out, go eat lunch and not even think about it. It was always hard to…like, if there was a bad accident or someone died unexpectedly and the family had to view them, I would have to put that person in the viewing room, just open up the bag and let them see the person as they are because you can't touch the body since they need to have an autopsy and you have to preserve all of the evidence.
But, I found myself thinking really, really deeply every single time, like, damn, I wonder if this person did what they really wanted to do in life. Their life is over and now they're just reduced to a number. It pushed me to do what I wanted to do in life. That's what drove me to see how far this fighting thing could go. It's something I will never forget because every once in a while, I walk by somewhere and I smell that smell of a morgue. And it will remind me of where I came from.
What about you, Tyron?
Woodley: Man, you can't ask me after that! [Laughter.] I was going to say landscaping. This man is putting bodies into the morgue. When I was in college, I was a landscaper. Other than that, coaching has been my life and my job. A lot of people like coaching college, but I would never do it again. There are too many NCAA bylaws, rules and politics. If you have a good athletic director, you can have a great program. I have been a part of universities that did not have a supportive administration and it was like fighting tooth and nail to try and get something done. For me, I think you can coach guys in martial arts and wrestling can be one aspect of it, but I have no desire to be an NCAA wrestling coach again. It was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever had.
I coached at Mizzou and SIUE (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville). So, you could probably figure out which one I didn't have a good experience. I was glad when that last season expired for me. I went from there to fighting, got my contract with Strikeforce and I didn't miss a beat.
In high school, you were on honor roll, competed on the wrestling team and played football. What made you choose wrestling over football?
Woodley: I didn't pick wrestling over football. My coaches picked that for me. I never wanted to wrestle in college. I always
All I wanted to do was hit. I didn't care about interceptions or touchdowns. I just wanted to hit somebody at all times.
wanted to play football. They thought I was too small, but I had a lot of heart. I used to get over 100 tackles a year. My nickname, T-Wood, came from football because I was so small but I used knock people's helmets off. All I wanted to do was hit. I didn't care about interceptions or touchdowns. I just wanted to hit somebody at all times. So, colleges were recruiting me for football and my coaches were like, "Well, I think he's going to wrestle." I was like, "How are you just going to say that I'm going to wrestle? I didn't tell you that." But, I ended up focusing all of my attention on wrestling and I went in that direction.
Growing up as a kid, in elementary and middle school, I was always getting in trouble. Always getting suspended. I got suspended for 90 days for fighting beginning my freshman year, so I missed Homecoming, and that's when I turned the page. I went on honor roll and had good grades after that. It was the changing point.
Homasi: I've been an athlete my whole life. I played football since I was four or five years old and that was the initial plan. I wanted to go play college ball, but I just messed up in high school so bad that I had to go to community college. I had no choice. A semester in, I was training to be a fighter, going to school full-time, working full-time and then training. I was going to school to become a PA (physician assistant) and eventually become a doctor. I was juggling all of that and living on my own. It was really hard. I was asking myself, "My parents want me to go become a doctor, but is that what I want?" Yeah, I'm going to be making good money years down the road, but am I going to be happy? The answer was no.
I couldn't see myself doing that, so I left school, continued working and that's when I took my training to another level. I found out American Top Team was down in Florida, so I just picked up my stuff and went down there. I started training full-time while juggling multiple jobs, like restaurants and stuff like that because when I had a fight coming up, I would take five, six weeks off. Obviously, I couldn't come back to that job and needed to find another one. I was tired off finding other jobs, so then…[Laughs.] My friend told me about this place in Fort Lauderdale. It's a strip club for women where…I'll admit, I was a male entertainer, you know, and that was the last job. [Laughter.]
2.
Woodley: That was the first job you should've said!
Evans: How long did you do it for?
Homasi: Almost two years. That's the thing, it's like it came to a point where the manager, the guy who runs it, is a huge MMA
I'll admit, I was a male entertainer.
fan. So, you gotta be in there by 8:30, but I don't have to be there until I'm done training. I get my training in all day and I don't have to show up until 10, 10:30 at night. I would work for three hours and sometimes walk out of there with over $1,000 or close to it. I can't complain.
Plus, I was still able to chase my dream which was the important thing. Without having that job, I wouldn't be fighting. I would've had to go back to school and find a job. I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. But I really gotta thank my customers because they come in and pay $50 an hour to sit at the fucking table for an hour, listen to them talk and I'm fully dressed.
Rashad, as someone who was in the The Ultimate Fighter and now playing the role as coach, what can you bring from your previous experience?
Evans: When you're coaching this competition, it's important to understand the fighter that you're working with. I think that's the key to having a good team. You gotta understand how to motivate your fighter when he's in week number four, tired of the bullshit and he has forgot why he's there because he just can't deal with the drama in the house or deal with some other issue that he may be having. Being able to have that experience is the difference in talking that person off the ledge, per se. Reminding them why they're doing it and be able to hit a couple key points that they can relate to. It happens every season. You have guys come in highly motivated to be on the show and they hit the ups and downs, and sometimes, there's no way of pulling them out of their downs. They can be the best fighter on the show, but it just mentally gets into their head and they don't perform the way they could. The circumstance of being on the show and having to fight on that stage is so different than what they're normally used to. They can't get into their rhythm. Being able to spot that in somebody is what I'm able to bring to the table.
But this season is different. These are guys I picked, so I already had a basic relationship with them, so I knew how to talk and motivate them. Just having the overall experience of the ebb and flow of the show is what I added to it.
What was it like stepping into the Octagon for the first time and feel like this is where you belong?
Banks: Man, when I stepped into the Octagon for the first time, I didn't have that feeling. Once I decided to take a fight, I realized that there's a difference between watching it and being in the situation. You're walking out and it's a different type of adrenaline rush. I've wrestled all my life. I've wrestled in the national finals, state finals and this was way more intense than any of that. You go out, everybody's cheering and it hit me when the guy is standing across the cage from me and they locked it. I was like, "Damn, this shit is real." [Laughter.] After I experienced the whole thing, it was done and I had time to think about it, the satisfaction and glory you get from it, it was cool and I knew it was something I wanted to continue to do.
Homasi: In the beginning, it was hard for me to fight in front of a crowd. But the feeling I have before a fight is something I will always have. I just feel alive walking to that cage. And getting in there is the next best thing. When I'm in there now, I want more people watching. I want to showcase my skills. I want to show everyone that this is my hard work. I've been fighting since I was in the fourth grade. So, when I saw MMA for the first time, I was like, "Holy shit, this is the coolest sport ever." I started training in a gym in Detroit and it took off from there.
Can you share what the fourth grade fight was over?
Homasi: My older brother was there. We were riding bikes and this kid spit on me. So, I got off my bike, pushed him off his bike and we got into a fight. My first fight, I didn't know shit. I was just an aggressive kid. Anyway, this kid is punching me in the face and I'm open-hand slapping him. [Laughter.] My brother was like, "What the fuck are you doing?!" My brother takes me home, puts on my dad's boxing gloves and breaks my nose. Just lays me out. He makes me go down to the street and fight the kid the very next day and I beat the living shit out of him.
3.
Rashad, how young were you when you got into your first fight?
Evans: I would have to say it was in first grade. This kid was the tough kid in his class and I was the tough kid in my class. And we met at the playground and got into it. I kinda bitched him up and punked him a little bit. We didn't get into anything physical, but he was obviously scared of me. He had other brothers in the fifth and sixth grade. Now, his brothers could beat up my oldest brother, so I had no wins there. One day, I'm walking home from school and they made us fight. His brother grabs me and said, "If you hit him one time, I'm going to beat the shit out of you." So, the kid kicked me in the stomach and I went down and started crying. I was there with all my brothers and sisters. They pick me up and we went home. Then, they told my mom what happened and she whooped all our asses. [Imitates his mom] "Rashad, you got your ass beat? Rashad, you better go fight his ass tomorrow!" And she beat everybody. [Imitates his mom] "And this is what you get for letting him get his ass beat."
Did either one of you [Sabah or Tyron] also get into a fight and then settle it the very next day? Because, this is apparently a trend.
Woodley: Man, I fought since pre-K. I was small for my grade, but I was tough. I was telling this story the other day. I was picking up my son from school and one of my friends from high school was there. I remember him. When you go to middle school, everyone comes from different elementary schools. I went to a school called Cool Valley and it was, like, the weakest school ever. We had all these other schools coming at us, so I remember this guy got in front of me and was like, "I'm gonna jump you in line." He was in sixth grade, maybe 150 pounds. I was 100 pounds but I still told him, "You can get in front of me, but I promise you that I'm gonna punch you in your face if you get in front of me." He looked at me because I was so little, but I always had that reputation that no matter how small I was, I'm willing to fight. I fought from the time I was in pre-K all the way to that time I got suspended for 90 days, but that was my last fight. I used to fight every week. Me and my friends used to fight each other, bare knuckle, but then we would be friends that same day. That was our entertainment, though.
Evans: My mom would hear about me getting into a fight and would be like, "Rashad, I heard you were showing your ass. Rashad, you can lie all you want, but your ass could end up in jail!" [Laughter.] Even when I told her that I was fighting MMA, she said, "Rashad, wait, you went to school for five years and you want to just fight? Rashad, your ass is gonna end up in jail."
4.
Woodley: My mom asked me [when I told her that I was going to try out MMA], "What are you doing? Are you going through a crisis? Why do you feel like you want to fight?" And I told her that I just wanted to try it out. I want to see if I'm good at it. All of my family were calling me to see if something was going on and to see why I wanted to fight.
I got six sisters. My mom had seven kids; six girls and me. I got one stepbrother who lives right here in Brooklyn. But anyway, my sisters are the fighters. They used to whoop me all the time, like a tournament bracket. [Laughter.] You had to work your way up the food chain. It is funny that I ended up the fighter because my sisters are notorious for fighting.
Evans: Me and my brother made our pro fight debut together. We fought on the same card together. And back then, there wasn't a blood test. We were just training for a fight and they said there's a fight this week, let's see if we can go get in. We just showed up and they just put me in the tournament because they needed someone else. I ended up fighting three guys that night.
So, how did your mom react to that? Because of all these other situations…
Evans: She knew I was good at it, but she was like, "Rashad, you want to be a fighter? You're out of control!" When I told her I was going to be on The Ultimate Fighter show, she told me, "Now Rashad, don't get your ass beat on national TV!" [Laughter.]
Tyron, what made you want to get into acting?
Woodley: There's only so long you can fight. I think it's smart for us to start planning our exit strategies for after fighting. I've done a couple TV shows, movies, commercials. I've done a little bit of everything. I did Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sons of Anarchy, Olympus Has Fallen and recently, the best one I have done is Straight Outta Compton. This is like Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society. I play T-Bone from Da Lench Mob. I don't know how they're going to cut it, but I'm in enough parts of the movie that I should be seen in the movie.
Ice Cube and Dr. Dre are producing the film. Did you meet them?
Woodley: Yeah. It was cool. I was sitting on set one day and this Escalade pulls up. Ice Cube gets out of the car and then, the whole set just goes crazy. So laid back, so relaxed, so cool. We're talking to Ice Cube and then, with no security, just one of his homeboys, Dr. Dre walks on set. This is a billion-dollar man. And I'm sitting on set with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Yella, all these guys from N.W.A. and that's when it sunk in. I'm a part of history right now. Everybody likes N.W.A. No matter what color you are, this is like like, the originators of the straight-up gangsta rap. It was a great experience.
I just remember that they wanted it to be so authentic. The director was so picky. He was like, "Your pants would be sagging, if this was 1990. Your hat wouldn't look like that. You wouldn't have a flat brim, you would be a bent brim." He was so particular about everything. Even certain parts of the movie that Universal didn't want to pick up, Ice Cube said, "This happened. This is a part of the movie. I'm going to put $250,000 of my own money to make sure that one, 10-second clip is shown in the movie." I'm like, these dudes aren't cutting corners.
If there was one song that you could listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Woodley: I'm a Freeway fan, so I like "Full Effect." I used to walk out to that in college.
Evans: I would say Wu-Tang Clan's "Triumph."
Banks: If I was on the spot, I would have to say "The Race" by Wiz.
Homasi: I would have to go with "Gangsta Paradise."
So, Sabah, what was the song you played when you were…entertaining? What was the go-to song?
Woodley: As long as it wasn't "The Thong Song." [Laughter.]
Homasi: It definitely wasn't. Shit, you're really asking me that? [Laughter.]
It was "Pony," wasn't it? [Laughter.]
Homasi: I would do "Pony," a slow song like The Weeknd, or something sexual.
Woodley: You know what I just thought about? DMX's first album. I remember wrestling in Fargo, N.D. in junior nationals and I was listening to DMX. I'm like, if these people could hear what I was listening to in my headphones. He was just cursing and praying and killing and going back to praying. It would have you literally thinking you could kill someone with your bare hands. [Laughter.] Eventually, I'm like, "I need to turn this off."
