In the latest edition of Bloody Elbow’s Most Wanted I chatted with Ultimate Fighter alum and UFC veteran Cody ‘AK Kid’ McKenzie.

A colourful and outspoken character, McKenzie won over a lot of people with his performances in the TUF house, most of which featured a brutal modified guillotine choke. After the reality show he fought seven times in the UFC, including bouts versus Chad Mendes, Leonard Garcia, and Sam Stout. Since then McKenzie has fought in Canada, Russia, Sweden, and Italy.

To learn the backstory of how this series of articles came about, check out the first one I did; featuring Spencer ‘The King’ Fisher. In this edition, the readers of Bloody Elbow brought it with some fantastic questions see those here. And see the answers, below.

Tim Bissell: How does it feel to have the readers of Bloody Elbow pick you as one of the UFC veterans they are most interested in hearing from?

Cody McKenzie: I'm glad I'm still relevant (laugh). I'm glad people still want to know how I'm doing. I always felt that the people who do follow my career are loyal fans, they like me even though I'm not in the big show anymore. They still follow what I'm doing and I feel I get that respect because of how I am. I'll fight anybody on any given day, it doesn't really matter, I'm not here to get the perfect record or look perfect or anything like that. I'm just here to get better at martial arts.

Are you aware of the popularity of the "shit just got real" meme (question from -Badfish-)?

Laughs Yeah, I'm aware of it and when I first saw it I was kinda pissed off at it, now I just have a good laugh at it.

What was it like making that promo (-Badfish-)?

We didn't make it trying to be goofy. They asked me how I came out to a fight and I was like, ‘Well, I run at my opponent, I always touch the cage and then I run across and get in their face right away’, and they were like, ‘Oh, do that.’ (Laughs) Just by how they angled the camera and zoomed in on my goofy ass, it just turned out really funny.

When I first met Mayhem Miller he was so excited to meet me because of the GIF, he was like, 'Oh, you're a legend.' Laughs And I'm like, 'What?' and he's like, 'Your GIF.’

What do you think when you found out you were fighting Chad Mendes (question from Bong Hyun Kim)?

I was stoked. I was the one who asked for it. Sean Shelby and I were just going over some opponents and he said, “I've got a fight that nobody wants to take, it's on short notice”, and I was like, “Sure, no problem.” But that was definitely my worst outing ever, I don't even feel like I really performed. Sometimes you get caught, and he fucking caught me clean to the liver and it was my fault, but I don't really feel like I had a chance to show what I can do.

Did drawing a pint of blood to make weight before your fight in the 2014 BattleGrounds tournament mess you up at all (question from kemi.fuentesgeorge )?

I don't know, I shouldn't really have been fighting that fight. I just stepped off a fishing boat, I was out of shape anyways, so I can't really tell if it did anything or didn't. I fought a lot of fights out of shape just because I work jobs and I fight, and if a good opportunity comes up I'm gonna take it, whether I'm three months out with a training camp, or two days without training at all, so that fight - I just really didn't have time to train.

If I was in shape, I wouldn't have needed to do that to make 170, I fought at 145 many times, but that's what happens when you're not able to train all the time, real life gets in the way sometimes, when you don't have a trust fund and a bunch of money supporting you to become a good fighter.

Can you tell me a bit about the fight scene in Alaska, are you close with other fighters in the area (kemi.fuentesgeorge)?

Where I grew up, I just grew up in a fishing town. We had a really strong judo program and we had a lot of good grapplers, but there was no striking really, and I've done most of my training in Canada and in Washington and California and down here in the lower 48s. I still go up there and work, but I moved from there when I was 16 years old and that's when I started training Muay Thai in Canada. The scene up there is pretty wild west, I'm sure. I know they have some really good gyms in Anchorage. Anchorage Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; they have a bunch of really good grapplers out of there and I go and roll with them when I'm in town, but where I'm from, it's like 3,000 people, there ain’t no circuit.

Can you run down some of work you've done outside MMA?

I've had lots of jobs, I've roofed, I've fished, cut wood, I can't think of all the jobs I've done. I actually used to have a car washing business when I was really young.

I grew up around gill netters, gill netting for salmon, for red, sockeyes, all different kinds of salmon, and then I also seine for salmon, which is just a different type of fishing, and then last year, after the seine season, I went up to the Bering Sea and did king crab out there. That's the one everyone watches on The Deadliest Catch. It was good work, it was hard work, long hours, but I enjoyed it a lot. I really like fishing. A lot of people in the fight game try to insult me, saying 'Go back fishing, you're not a fighter,' and I just get a good laugh, because it's like, yeah I enjoy fishing, it's good hard work, I wasn't born with a silver spoon, I worked for a living, and nowadays some of these MMA fighters think that's a bad thing. It's kinda become a rich kids' sport where you need twelve coaches and a nutritionist, it's a different sport from when I got into it for sure, but to each their own.

Now I work at a weed grow [in Washington State]. I get to come and go as I please and I get to make my own hours, it's pretty nice. It's completely legal so it ain't no big deal to me at all. I've always been an advocate for weed, but I understand how that's controversial in the fight world, but most fighters in my opinion smoke. A lot more fighters I know smoke than don't smoke, to me it shouldn't even be a illegal on a drug test, it's fricking ridiculous that they kicked Nick Diaz out of fighting because of THC. It's a fucking joke when everyone's roiding up and fucking doing way worse shit than marijuana, but to each their own, I guess.

How do you feel about being known for the ‘Mckenzietine’ (kemi.fuentesgeorge)?

I mean, it's cool, I never really looked too much into it. I've never been one to say I invented the move. I know that people have been hitting that move long before I was in the UFC. I watched Nate Diaz hit it back in the day, before I ever hit it. I don't feel I'm something special because I guilotined a lot of people, it just happens to be the move that I hit a lot. I have a real basic stockpile and I do what works, and yeah, it seemed to work for me quite a bit.

Anything you would change about last UFC run (kemi.fuentesgeorge)?

No, no, I did it how I wanted to do it, you know? I never kissed any ass or played games or nothing, I did what I wanted to do, I may not have been the perfect role model or whatever, but I always went in there and fought with whoever on any given notice. I was definitely kind of used, I feel like I was a stepping stone in trying to build other guys up. I was always getting hit up on short notice, but anytime I had enough time to train for a fight I usually won. I don't really feel I got cut from the UFC because of my fighting skills, I kind of feel more like it had to do with my attitude and not really liking all the bullshit, and not wanting to play the game, the popularity contest.

How much did those shorts cost (question from CoolFootLuke)?

(Laughs) Like twelve bucks or something, I tell people I left the tag on there because I wanted to return them afterwards; because the UFC wasn't paying me shit at the time.

What’s the real story behind those?

I got my gear bag stolen and my fighting shorts were in there, so I just went next door and bought a cheap pair of shorts and there we are. I wrote 907, the area code for Alaska on them, and that's pretty much the whole story.

And what was the reaction from the UFC like back-stage (CoolFootLuke)?

No one said anything to me. It's actually funny because if you watch my first fight in the UFC ever, I wore the exact same shorts but black, but nobody said anything because I won, and I took the tag off, I even had pockets in them. (Laughs)

But I always dressed how they paid me. Dana and the Fertittas, they've ripped off fighters for a long time and I was getting paid shit. What I was getting paid in the UFC was shit money, in my opinion. I grew up commercial fishing where you can make a lot better money not getting your head beat in. In my next fight I'm getting paid more than the UFC ever paid me, so I hope that UFC fighters are standing up for themselves a little bit and getting some of the money they deserve because they are getting ripped off pretty hardcore and when I was in there, I felt that way. I felt like I was getting ripped off so I just kind of wore whatever I wanted and did what ever I wanted.

But I never really was a fan of the UFC once I got into the Ultimate Fighter show. It was a complete joke. I was twenty-two grand in debt when I got into The Ultimate Fighter house and I fought three guys in there, choked two guys out cold, and they paid me like, fuck, nothing, like 500 bucks. Thanks, fucking assholes.

On a Venator card the announcers mentioned that you had been spotted drinking in a hotel bar before the fight, is that true (-Badfish-)?

(Laughs) Yeah, a lot of people like to talk, they said 'I don't want to say anything, but...', they all want to say something, every time people have seen me drink before a fight, everybody likes to talk about it and make a big deal about it. I never quit drinking before a fight, I never quit any of my bad habits really. I don't really eat perfect, I know that, I just live my life. I'm busy, I've got other shit going on. I do love the martial arts, I love fighting, I dedicated a lot of my life to it, but I'm also not going to give up on my personal life either just to fight in a cage. I do what I do, and yeah I might not be the best, but I also beat up a lot of these guys who train for three months straight, take all their steroids and did all their push ups and sit ups.

Do you have a pre-fight drink of choice (-Badfish-)?

(Laughs) Geez, I switch it up a lot, usually when I'm fighting - truthfully - I do try and get a bit healthier and I try to drink red Merlot and I tell people, it's just like grape juice. What people don't understand is, when they see me drinking before a fight, it's not like I'm getting toasted. I'm having like a wine with my dinner, I'm not getting wasted like everybody tries to imagine, but I don't look at alcohol like it's such a terrible thing, it's not gonna sap my cardio or anything like that.

What about post-fight (-Badfish-)?

I'm a whiskey drinker, I like Canadian whiskey, pretty much any Canadian whiskies I like, and Sailor Jerry's if I'm really trying to get drunk.

Chael Sonnen mentioned that you once cut weight by getting extremely drunk, in order to dehydrate yourself, is this true (question from Kent_C)?

(Laughs) Yeah I may have used that technique a couple of times, I actually learned it from a Russian world champion wrestler. He said sometimes he'd get drunk and wake up dehydrated so that's how he started his cut. I don't do it every fight, but yeah I'll admit I've done it for a couple of fights (laughs) and I won those fights, too. I definitely don't recommend it for people. I doesn't feel good waking up with a hangover and having to cut more weight.

Was there a fight in the UFC you were desperate to have, but it never got made?

Yeah, there was a few of them. Donald Cerrone was one, he tried to talk shit on the bus once when we were on the way to some fights. I told him to talk to his daddy Dana to get a fight because, I mean, Donald gets whatever he wants, he always has in the fight game. Don't get me wrong, he has a lot of fights and a lot of wins, he's done really good, but guys like that, they play the game good. They always make a big deal about ‘He just fought a month ago', 'He just fought three weeks ago' and I'd be sitting there like, what the fuck? I wish I just fought three weeks ago, I've been sitting on the fucking couch waiting for a fight for fucking six months!

But I told him talk to his daddy and we'll get in there and fight, but he just kept saying he was out of my league, a lot of guys said that to me in the UFC when I offered them a fight, they'd say, ‘You're not at my level,’ and I'd say, ‘Yeah, that's what I tell people too when I don't want to fight them.’ I fought his training partner and whooped up on his training partner, so you'd think he'd want to get revenge on me, but he ducked me the whole time I was in the UFC.

Any final words to the fans and readers in the Bloody Elbow community?

I appreciate you guys still talking about me. I've always appreciated the fans that I do have, like I said before, people who like me - they seem to stick by me and people who don't like me, well they suck, so... who cares. (Laughs)

***

So there you have it, thank you to everyone who supplied questions. Keep an eye out on the Fanposts for more opportunities to do so.

Cody McKenzie’s next fight will be for Z Promotions in Medicine Hat, Alberta on October 28th, where he’ll be fighting Joe Riggs. Should be a lot of fun. That card is also scheduled to include UFC vets Johnathan Brookins, Vik Grujic, Roger Bowling, and Kendall Grove.

If there’s a UFC vet you want me to interview, let me know in the comments below or find me on twitter @timothybissell.

You can follow Cody McKenzie on twitter too @thecodymckenzie.