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Abdul Razak Alhassan
Abdul Razak Alhassan - Photo credit: Sherdog

Abdul Razak Alhassan (6-0) makes his UFC debut later today against Irishman, Charlie Ward (2-1) at UFC Fight Night 99 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Razak has won all six of his professional MMA fights by way of KO or TKO and had previously fought for both Bellator MMA and Legacy Fighting Championship.

Originally from Ghana where he competed for the national judo team and from a family background of boxers and farmers, Razak emigrated to the USA nine years ago with aspirations to compete as a Olympic judoka. However, he swiftly made the transition to MMA under the graceful guidance of Steven Wright who, also coaches former UFC welterweight champion, Johnny Hendricks.

“I wanted to go to the Olympics from judo. That’s was what I was pursuing and going for. Then Steve said, ‘Hey, you’re very athletic. Do you want to come to my class, you know, try it for a little bit?’. At first I was like no, not really but he really talked me into it [smiling fondly]. Steve really knows how to talk people into stuff [laughing]. So, I let him talk me into it. I never imagined I was going to fight, you know. I was just doing it for fun.”

Standing across from Razak in the UFC octagon this evening will be Charlie Ward in the opening fight of the preliminaries. Undoubtedly, the thousands of Irish fans in attendance will be strongly supporting their home fighter and making the environment as uncomfortable as possible for the US based fighter. Interestingly, Ward trains out of SBG Ireland where newly crowned UFC lightweight and featherweight champion, Conor McGregor is coached by John Kavanagh.

Speaking ahead of his UFC debut tonight, Razak will not be underestimating Ward and is confident in his own abilities come the greatest moment of his MMA career to-date:

“I know he’s a very good fighter, he’s a very good grappler. He knows how to impose his will on others so, I know he’s very strong. I’m not taking anyone lightly, never have, never will. I like to stand, I like more standing but if it comes to the part that I have to use my judo then I’ll end up using it but mostly I like to use my kickboxing.”

For those that may or may not know, Razor’s coach, Steven Wright has an extensive background in kickboxing and Muay Thai, having trained in his younger years in both Thailand and the Netherlands with The Blackzilians very own Dutch kickboxing legend, Tyrone Spong. You can find out more Wright, his Warman Gym (where he trains the likes of Razak and Hendricks) via the video podcast that will be posted later today which, will also include a special feature on, GLORY Collision: Rico Verhoeven vs Badr Hari.