WEC: Meet Anthony Njokuani, the roadblock in front of The Polish Hammer
Published by Zach Arnold on December 3rd, 2009 in Current Events

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When WEC management announced that former IFL stand-out Chris Horodecki would be making his debut on December 19th in Las Vegas, everyone was wondering who the promotion would pit against him for his opponent. The name? Anthony “The Assassin” Njokuani.

Njokuani, who is 11-2 in active competition, is an impressive stand-up fighter. His background is kickboxing and Muay Thai. He trains at Saekson Janjira Muay Thai in Plano, Texas. It’s the same facility that MMA veteran Pete Spratt trains at. Njokuani has lots of different fighting experience — he’s fought in the World Combat League (the ill-fated Chuck Norris promotion that aired on Versus) and Art of War (the Dallas-based MMA promotion that ran a few big events at the same arena the Dallas Mavericks play basketball at). His two losses are to Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Ben Henderson. Those two men had a big war on October 10th that was a Fight of the Year candidate.

Njokuani’s background as far as getting into MMA is a very interesting story. It’s a background that is drawing a lot of media examination now.

“It was very overwhelming at first, but I got used to it and uh but you know I’m very happy that I’m actually here doing this,” explained Njokuani in a V e r s u s . c o m media interview. “This is like a great thing, a great thing that WEC’s doing for us, um… you know, I’m just very happy to be here.

Yeah, I was actually surprised because one minute I was fighting on the undercard and then now, bam, I’m co-main event for this next show and uh I mean this is like an awesome thing, I’m very blessed and I’m very happy that all this is going on with me right now and uh I couldn’t ask for anything else, you know, this is great.

The school that I was going to at first was uh it had like a lot of stuff going on, you can do hip hop dancing, you can do breakdancing, you can do uh kickboxing, American kickboxing. Uh, so I was doing uh some martial arts over there for my breakdancing so I was doing martial arts for my breakdancing and who knew that doing that would turn me into a fighter, so… um… I was a breakdancer, um, focused in martial arts only for my breakdancing and I was doing a little bit of kickboxing at the same place. Uh, the guy that was teaching the American kickboxing brought a Muay Thai teacher in, which is my teacher now, um and I was working with him for about a year or so, um… he put me in my first Muay Thai fight and from there he told me you know you don’t need to be doing anything else, I want you to be my fighter and I became his fighter and ever since then that’s what brought me into fighting was because of him and I do thank him for doing that.”

Njokuani has had two fights in the last year in WEC — first, against Bart Palaszewski in Chicago (on the same show headlined by Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki) and second, against former Elite XC fighter Muhsin Corbrrey. He won both fights by KO/TKO. Strangely, the glasses-wearing, choir-style babyface-looking Njokuani tried his best to hide his… lack of appreciation for Corbbrey.

“Uh, the fight with Muhsin Corbbrey, I understand the reason why it didn’t happen because I was fighting… uh… somebody that I wouldn’t say that wasn’t one of the top guys in WEC… so, because my original opponent that I was supposed to fight was the reason why I was going to be on the main card, um… that guy ended up pulling out so that’s the reason why I dropped down to uh the undercard but which is OK because it actually helps you and builds you so I’m happy that that happened because now, boom, I’m on the main card so I’m happy that actually happened and… whatever.”

The truth is that Njokuani will be making a major step up on the 19th against a prodigy like Horodecki. The Polish Hammer is not going to be intimidated by a fighter whose main weapon is the stand-up game. When you fight someone like a Chris Horodecki or a Joe or Dan Lauzon, you better be ready for those men to take you down to the ground and impose their will on you. To his credit, Njokuani understand what is coming his way.

“I’m more of a stand-up fighter, um, my background is Muay Thai kickboxing, um… now that I’m getting into jiu-jitsu religiously all the time you know I’m doing that 24/7, not 24/7 I was about to say that but I’m doing it all the time so yeah I’m going to be like I’m turning myself into a very well-rounded fighter, so. Now, I feel really comfortable. I feel that uh I can take my opponents down if I want to, but you know I’m always going to give the crowd what they want and it’s going to be a battle so that’s pretty much what I am, now I’m a battler so that’s what I’m going to do is I’m going to get the crowd what they want and give them a great show.

You know that’s the kind of fighter that I’m hoping to see out of Chris because a hungry fighter is going to make a better fight so and uh I’m a hungry fighter and I know for a fact that both of us is going to have a really good fight because it’s going to be two heads clashing and I know uh hopefully that we’re going to be Fight of the Night so I know for a fact that’s what we’re going to shoot for because we’re going to just come out there and explode.

From what I heard but the last fight that I saw that he was in he did take a guy down so you know I’m still going to be looking out for that you know a fighter said they’re going to do this, they never do it, they always switch it up and so I’m expecting for him to try to take me down.”

The Njokuani/Horodecki fight is one of two big Lightweight fights on the WEC show. The main event features Donald Cerrone, looking to rebound off of a controversial decision loss to Ben Henderson, as he takes on super-tough Ed “9mm” Ratcliff who is based out of San Diego. Njokuani knows plenty about both Henderson and Cerrone, since those are the two men who he has lost to in the past.

“Seeing what fighters like Ben Henderson and Cowboy, they’re actually making our Lightweight division look really good. Especially with the fights that the past fights with Kamal (Shalorus) and all these other guys so the Lightweight division is stacked now, they have some really really talented fighters. Great wrestlers, great strikers, so you know I’m looking forward to fighting whoever um they throw in front of me because I know whomever I’m fighting is going to be a really good fighter.”

If he had a choice to pick which opponent he would like to re-match with, Cerrone is the man.

“Always my first one, I mean, Cowboy’s… not taking anything away from Ben, Ben’s a great fighter, he’s a great wrestler, a great striker, but I always want to avenge because you always got to start first then go down so it will be my first loss with Cowboy, I’d like to avenge that one and then trickle down to my second loss.”

How does he see the outcome for his fight against the former IFL ace?

“My hand raised with another knockout. Third straight knockout.”

Before he worries about avenging his lost to the Cowboy, he better worry about what is in front of him on the 19th. Perhaps his confidence in winning is real, but Anthony Njokuani is about to get the biggest test of his professional career when he steps into the cage and faces the high-energy, relentless Chris Horodecki. This fight will not go to the scorecards.