Benji Radach has just flown into Houston with Anacondas’ coach, Bas Rutten. The weather channel has been showing heavy snowfalls in Dallas and Austin, but it’s not snowing in Houston, although it is freezing.

The Anacondas are coming here to take on the Silverbacks and Benji confirms that Chris Horodecki arrived earlier. The rest of the team will be coming in later in the day. “We’re all flying in from different areas: Bas and I departed from LA; others are flying in from Vegas and Canada,” says Radach.

Normally Bas has anybody within a quarter-mile radius in stitches laughing with his good-natured humor, but Benji said Bas has been sick, so he’s trying to stay as far away from Radach as possible.

Although Benji was born in Longview, Washington, he grew up in Castlerock, Washington, where he took up a fighting art at an early age.

“I actually started in wrestling – my dad was a youth coach for elementary school, and my older brother was a wrestler, so I started at a really young age, running on the mats before I began to grapple. And then I continued with wrestling all the way through school, and later I did freestyle wrestling and made the national team for Washington State. Afterwards I got into boxing, kickboxing and then started MMA.”

Today, Benji has an impressive MMA record of 23-3, with his victories mainly coming via strikes. And although Radach hasn’t fought for two and a half years, he says striking is still his main weapon.

“I’m getting better at submissions, but I’m still focusing on striking. I live in Deerfield Beach, Florida, where I train with the American Top Team. They treat me well and I have a lot of teammates to work out with. I do most of my training there, but last time I flew out to Vegas I trained with Bas and the team for about a week and a half, so it was pretty good.”

Benji, are you with Jeff Monson?

“Yep.”

Do you train with him?

“Oh, yeah. We’re both originally from Washington and that’s where I met him. We all trained together there for years.”

You suffered a badly broken jaw against Chris Leben; has that healed up okay now?

“Yep; I’ve got a metal plate in there and screws – it’s solid now.”

Was the injury caused by a punch?

“It was a left hook at the end of the round. He just caught me with a shot, and I ended up on top, but blood started pouring out of my mouth, so they knew something was going on and the referee stopped the fight.”

Did you continue training in the time you were away from competition?

“Off and on. I had pretty bad injuries: neck surgery and an ACL replacement after the broken jaw. Then I had a staph infection after the ACL replacement. For about three months I fought staph infection; it was really intense with a catheter in my arm all the way to my heart. I had a nurse come to my house, twice a day, for three months.” 

How did you come to be with Bas Rutten?

“We’ve been friends for quite a while and he’s always kept me in his mind, I guess, and an opportunity came up… Actually, he asked me if I’d be on his team before the IFL had even started. But I had all these injuries so I couldn’t take advantage of that.

“Then I healed up and started getting into fairly good shape, a spot opened on his team, and I hopped on it.”

Who is your main training partner at American Top Team? 

“Denis Kang is one of my main training partners.”

Can you tell us about your recent encounter with the gunman please?

“Sure. What happened was Dennis Hallman was fighting in Portland, Oregon, and I was coaching and cornering him for that fight. Dennis had won his fight and we went out and kinda partied afterwards. The next morning we were on our way back home and stopped at this restaurant for breakfast: Dennis Hallman, myself, and a couple of girlfriends.

“This little girl came to our table and was frantically bawling, saying: ‘This guy’s got a gun, this guy’s got a gun.’ I looked to my left and sure enough the guy had a gun out, pointing it in the face of the girl on the cash register. He was looking to his left and we were to his right, clear across the restaurant. He had the gun at this girl’s face and he kept looking at the general manager, telling him to get back and for the girl on the register to hand over the money.

“The gunman wasn’t looking around his surroundings well enough, and I figured if I could get to him in time, and get my hands on that gun and his wrist, he’d be screwed. I rushed him and it worked out. I put him on his back and socked him in the face once and broke his upper jaw and took the gun from him. Then the cops came.

“I dropped one big hard punch because I was freaking out: It was a life or death situation in my mind. The whole thing’s on surveillance tape but the restaurant won’t give it to me. I’ve got to find a way to get that tape.”

You’ve been given a tough opponent in Ryan McGivern to make your return. Are you looking forward to the challenge?

“I’m really excited, actually. I’ve trained hard for it. I just hope everything comes together and that I peak at the right time, and that the fight goes well – that’s the main thing. I just want to have a great fight for my first one back.”

Do you think Ryan will want to stand and slug it out with you or will he want to take it to the ground?

“I’m kind of expecting both: I’m expecting him to make it a wrestling match for a while in order to try and tire me out; and then go to a standing war later. But in his past fights he’s wanted to swing, so I think that he possibly still might… I think that he still swings on his way in. I’m just going to be ready for a fight – whatever comes my way, and I believe that I’m ready, so I think that it’s going to be a great fight.”

Do you expect it to be hard backing up for your bout against Brian Foster in March?

“Yeah, it’s going to be another tough one right after this, but I think that it’s great. Before I came back to fighting, I was thinking maybe I should have some tune-up fights, but then the more I thought about it: You’re training hard every day, you’re ready to fight, so you may as well fight the best guys instead of fighting for smaller money against guys that are probably tough anyway. I’m excited and I like a challenge.”

That sounds like you, Benji.

“Yeah, dive in head first.”

Benji, is there anything you’d like to add?

“I’ve just got lots of family and friends to thank, and American Top Team. It’s been a real rough road for me and it’s time to shine, I think.”

Sponsors?

“Avant Labs and Light Force Greens.”