UFC Vegas 56: Alonzo Menifield Says Opponent Made Him Turn Gangster

Las Vegas, NV — You know when Bruce Banner says you don’t want to make him angry? Well, when it comes to UFC light heavyweight Alonzo Menifield, you don’t want to make him turn gangster.

It was a strange fight week for Menifeld. On top of cutting weight and mentally preparing for a fight, his opponent Askar Mozharov’s record changed right before his eyes. Several times. Mozharov started this week with a 25-7 record, and over a few days, his record changed to 21-11, then 19-12. It was 19-13 at the end of UFC Vegas 56, as Menifield finished him with a volley of nasty elbows.

Menifield didn’t enjoy the process of finding out that his opponent’s record kept changing.

“[It kept] fluctuating like a damn stock market,” Menifield told Cageside Press. “When it got to the point when I talked to you all yesterday, I noticed it was three times. Man, this is this guy’s a weirdo. He’s a chump. I mean, I had all kinds of bad thoughts for him. You know, in this game, you got to put respect on it. These fighters we meet, we fight, we put our lives on the line. This is a choice. And this is what we choose. So I don’t know if he’s playing games or making this like it’s some type of showcase for media, whatever. But like when you come in to fight in the octagon, it’s serious.”

Mozharov made Menifield’s inner gangster come out during the fight because he was talking to him.

“When I was fighting this guy, in the fight, he started talking. ‘I don’t feel that; that’s soft; what is this.’ And then he started talking to me in a way where he was disrespectful,” Menifield said. “So you know, the gangster came out — old school, you know? And I was like, ‘something, something, b*tch,’ and then right then and there, I was like, ‘okay, Alonzo, he’s trying to throw you off his grappling thing.’ So I was like, you know what, I’m going to grapple. I’m going to wrestle him more. And, yeah, that’s kind of why I was all, you know, crazy.”

Menifield continued, adding “I mean, honestly, I told myself, he thinks you’re a monkey. Seriously. I know, it’s kind of crazy, but he’s from Ukraine, and me knowing what I know, it’s a mindset. So I was like, you know what, I’m gonna stick to this wrestling, this grappling, and I’m gonna show him. Not only am I powerful and tough, and I can hit hard, but I’m intelligent. And that’s what I showed him.”

And that he did. Menifield brutalized him with elbows from the crucifix position. With the win, he’s now hoping to get on the UFC 277 card in Dallas if anyone falls off.

Watch the rest of Alonzo Menifield’s UFC Vegas 56 post-fight press scrum above. More coverage can be found below.