In March of 2020, UFC Denver middleweight Abdul Razak Alhassan was acquitted of sexual assault charges in a trial that saw two women accuse him of raping them following a night out at a Texas bar.
Despite being cleared of the accusations, acquitted by a jury, the experience has left him reeling, still struggling to trust the opposite sex four years later.
The allegations stemmed from a time Alhassan worked as a bouncer at the Varsity Tavern in Fort Worth; on a fateful 2018 evening, he provided a lift home to the women who would later allege her forced them into a sexual encounter. Cracks in the case begin to show at trial; one of the women had motive to lie, having been in a relationship at the time. Alhassan had insisted all along that the sex had been consensual, with the defense painting a picture of a woman trying to excuse her own infidelity by shifting the blame elsewhere.
In the “Me Too” era, public opinion was that anyone accused of sexual assault was unquestionably guilty. A jury found otherwise, and after a two-year layoff, Alhassan resumed his UFC career.
Alhassan opened up about the allegations, his trust issues, and using the ordeal to motivate him during the UFC Denver media day this week.
“I really don’t talk about this much, but there was a time in my life that some bad accusations happened to me. And I’m not going to lie, it f*cked me up mentally, I swear to god,” Alhassan stated, explaining that after the acquittal, he tried to find his old self. “All my fights, I tried to come back and tried to find that me. I couldn’t find it, no matter what I do. I’d be walking in there, and I’d f*cking feel ashamed. Because that’s the most evil, the most disgusting thing you can attach [to someone].”
“I’m a very prideful person, to even have something to attach to my name is very disgusting. I tried to forget about it, I tried work on it mentally. I’m sure a lot of people realize, after that happened to me, when I came back from that- I was knocking everybody out, winning 10-0, came back and stuff just went south.”
Alhassan lost three straight fights after returning to action in July 2020. He had started his career 10-1, but found himself on the brink of being cut by the UFC. A couple of wins has staved that off for the time being; he’s 2-2 since.
“In my head, I was thinking to myself ‘I’ll fix myself, I’ll fix it.’ But I swear to god it never, until- I will thank [Joe] Pyfer for that last fight. Of course I was injured for that last fight but hey, you’ve still got to make money. And I came in there, but after that fight, I feel like that guy made me find that f*cking demon in me, that f*cked everything up, and take care of myself.”
Joe Pyfer choked Abdul Razak Alhassan unconscious in October 2023. Alhassan has not fought since, though that will change Saturday night when he takes on Cody Brundage. The wreckage of those years of his life spent in a forced limbo, unable to fight while going through a lengthy trial process that ultimately found his accusers were not credible, now serves as motivation to fight Brundage.
“I’m going to cry, I’m going to do anything I have to do, but I’ll never give up, and this is that f*cking time,” Alhassan exclaimed. “I swear to god I cannot wait to put my hands on this motherf*cker. I swear all the anger I’m having, all the anger, I’m going to unleash it on this motherf*cker. I swear to god. The revenge I didn’t get on those evil motherf*ckers, the revenge that the lord didn’t allow me to get from that, those bitches, I swear I’m going to unleash it on this motherf*cker.”
Motivation not withstanding, there have been few positives from the ordeal for Alhassan it seems. His trust in women appears to be at an all-time low, and he now records nearly every encounter he has with the opposite sex.
“I record everything, I swear to god. I could walk into an elevator right now, and if a woman walks into that room with me, I turn my camera on right away,” Alhassan revealed. “If I open my phone, my audio right now, I swear I have so many audios on my phone. Because I’m scared, I’m scared of what’s going to happen. Someone’s going to do the same shit to me? I’m worried, I’m always looking at my back.”
While he makes exceptions for those women in his life that he truly trusts, “anybody else, I’m scared, I’m worried. It’s like, I have to second guess everything. And it f*cked me up. It f*cked me. I’ve been trying to heal, I’ve been trying to heal this and heal this. It’s been hard. But right now, this is the f*cking time.”
Alhassan is nothing if not a colorful figure, and those past allegations were far from the only topic he opened up about this week. The running beef between Abdul Razak Alhassan and Joaquin Buckley has not been squashed, as evidenced by the former trying to wear a “Buckley’s a bitch” shirt to the UFC Denver media day.
Promotion officials forced Alhassan to change his plans (and his shirt) in the end. “That’s messed up. I have the ‘Buckley’s a bitch’ shirt, and they told me not to wear it. What’s wrong with that? Still, if you’re watching it, you’re still a bitch.”
“I hate that motherf*cker,” Buckley added before correcting himself. “Hate is a strong word. I dislike him.”
Cody Brundage fared a little better with Alhassan, which might raise eyebrows, since he’s actually the man Abdul Razak Alhassan is fighting this Saturday. “I’m just going to go in there and whup his ass, that’s it. I have no thought of him,” said Alhassan, before promising that “I’m going to murder him in that ring, that’s what I’m going to do. I hope he comes and sniffs my crotch so I can elbow him in the face.”
The pair both train in Denver, but at different gyms, and have never crossed paths. “For somebody who has been training here for a long time, he’s also here, we’ve never seen each other. I don’t have anything against him, or his gym or anything like that, but we’re fighters, we’re about to fight, and I want to beat the sh*t [out of him]. I’m going to beat him and make an extra 50Gs too.”
Watch the full UFC Denver media day appearance by Abdul Razak Alhassan above.
