Abdul Razak Alhassan has moved on from the past, but some anger still remains for him.
Alhassan returns to the Octagon on Wednesday when he faces Mounir Lazzez on the main card of UFC Fight Island 1. It will be his first appearance since his knockout win over Niko Price back in September 2018.
The reason for his long absence? The Ghanaian was accused of rape by two Texas women when he was working as a bouncer earlier that year. Alhassan was indicted in September 2018 and was only found not guilty earlier this year in March.
And for Alhassan, that was a huge release given what the last two years have been like for him.
“It’s forever changed because your name can never be the same,” Alhassan told MMA Junkie on Monday. “But for me, life is back to normal. The reason I say that is the past two years, life was not normal. The only thing pretty much I did was cry, sleep, look at my family. I’d cry in my sleep without even knowing I was crying.
“My family would wake me up saying I’m crying in my sleep, stressed, thinking about what’s going to happen in the future.”
Alhassan Hopes God Takes Revenge
The 34-year-old welterweight is in a better place now and even believes he is happier than he ever was before.
That said, he would be lying if he didn’t think about taking revenge on his accusers, especially as he was considering suicide at one point.
For now, he will leave things up to the higher power.
“When I was going through all this, I said to myself that death was good for me, that I was going through this embarrassment that I’m going (through),” Alhassan said. “I’m a good person. I’d never do what they said I did. It got to a point where I asked myself, ‘Why is God letting evil people like that live?’ Because if I didn’t do something like that to you, why?
“… I thought about revenge. If I tell you I didn’t, I’m lying. I thought about all the revenge in this world in that I can – for the pain they are putting me through. They are out there stripping, not caring what they’re doing to me, having lives, posting things on social media happy, throwing alcohol (back), while I’m home crying every day. I can’t even take care of my kids. So much anger. I have so much anger. I know it’s behind me now, but I really hope God takes some huge revenge on these girls. I really hope they get what they deserve.”
Razak is 4-1 with the UFC since debuting for the promotion in 2016 and holds a 10-1 professional record overall.