Houston Alexander

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Career
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Profile

Houston "The Assassin" Alexander (born March 22, 1972) is an American professional mixed martial artist fighting out of Omaha, Nebraska.

He stands 6 ft. tall and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.) for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Houston Alexander made his professional mixed martial arts debut on June 16, 2001 at Extreme Challenge 40 against Jason Medina. Alexander was defeated in his debut by Medina via submission (arm triangle choke) at 47 seconds of round 2.

Two weeks later, Alexander picked up his first victory when he defeated Jamie Webb at a Gladiators event in Des Moines, Iowa.

Over a span of three years, Alexander fought only the three times recording three finishes in those fights. His lack of activity continued into 2005 where he only fought the once, winning a decision over Demian Decorah.

After not fighting at all in 2006, Alexander stepped back into the ring in a one night, four man tournament at Extreme Challenge 76 on March 31st, 2007. In the opening round he faced future EliteXC competitor, Jon Murphy. Alexander finished Murphy via TKO just 56 seconds into the first round.

In the final, Alexander went to a No Contest with Todd Allee.

UFC Career

With a record of 6-1, Alexander got an unexpected call up to the UFC when he was slated to face the surging light heavyweight contender, Keith Jardine at UFC 71. In what many, possibly even Jardine, considered a squash match, Alexander surprised everyone with a devastating 48 second knock out. Jardine dropped Alexander early but Alexander bounced back to brutalize Jardine in the clinch with overhand rights. Jardine was dropped a number of times before the fight was mercifully stopped.

Alexander returned to UFC action at UFC 75 when he faced Italian stand up specialist, Alessio Sakara. Sakara attempted takedowns early but was unable to keep Alexander down. The two fighters clinched, and Alexander landed a brutal knee and some follow up ground and pound that forced the referee to stop the fight at 1:01 of the first round. The victory earned Alexander, "Knockout of the Night" honors.

Due to Alexander's undefeated and crowd pleasing start to his UFC career, he was thrown into co-main event status for UFC 78. His opponent was undefeated Brazilian and American Top Team product, Thiago Silva. Surprisingly, Alexander went for the takedown against the Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt. He was reversed quickly and his suspect ground game was brought to the fore as Silva quickly passed to mount and began landing punches at will. The fight was stopped a 3:25 into the first after a barrage of Silva punches sent Alexander in and out of consciousness.

At UFC Fight Night 13, Alexander was given the chance to bounce back against stand-up specialist, James Irvin. In a bout that tied for the quickest knockout in UFC history, Irvin landed a superman punch and some follow up ground and pound that called an end to the bout at just 8 seconds of the first round.

With a worrying two consecutive losses, Alexander was matched up against Eric Schafer at UFC Fight Night 15. With both fighter's deficiencies being the other fighter's strength the bout was not intended to be a long one. Alexander looked to be overpowering Schafer early with some hard knees that seemed to hurt him. Schafer recovered however and secured a takedown and began to go to town on Alexander's lacking ground game. After escaping a tight guillotine choke, Alexander was eventually submitted by an arm triangle choke setup from mount at 4:53 of round 1.

Alexander was expected to return at UFC 98 against IFL veteran Andre Gusmao in May of 2009. However, a broken hand forced his removal from the bout.