Despite the way he was portrayed during his run on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, which is to say, typical British asshole, it turns out that James McSweeney is actually a pretty cool dude in reality. But seriously, if you were to categorize McSweeney scientifically based solely on TUF 10, his name would’ve been Bispingus Douchebaggus. However, I first caught a glimpse of how well-spoken and down to earth McSweeney truly is during a recent interview he had with MiddleEasy, which I’ve posted above. In the video, he and Kit Cope break down everything from Jon Jones’ DUI to Nick Diaz’s suspension for weed, and he comes off sounding like a relatively enlightened individual in the process.
The reason I mention this is not only to try and prove that there are British MMA fighters out there who aren’t complete dicks, but to provide a little backstory that will prevent this news from catching you completely off guard. Because in the long list of MMA fighters who moonlight as vigilante, Bronson-esque heroes, McSweeney has just added his name.
Yesterday night, McSweeney was giving his family, who was visiting from England, a friendly tour of Las Vegas. As things are destined to do in Vegas, the night would inevitably end in them witnessing at least one person trying to stab another.
McSweeney recounted the story to MMAWeekly:
My family’s in town right now in Las Vegas, and they wanted to go down to old town Las Vegas last night, down on Fremont street, just check out the big TV screens and stuff down there. So they wanted to get some souvenirs so they went into one of the stores there, and as they walked I saw these two guys that looked like they were drunk, but they wasn’t really, they were just arguing. So the cashier went over to stop them from arguing cause the store was packed full of women and children, people there shopping.
As they started to break it up one of the guys made a dash for the cash, the box behind the counter, and grabbed a handful of cash out and then pulled a knife out on the lady in front of everybody.
I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, so I just went over and grabbed from the side by his shoulder and his lapel and took the knife from him and swept him to the floor and pinned him to the ground until security came and handcuffed him and took him off. No one got hurt, that was the main thing.
McSweeney credits the confidence that comes with knowing you can whoop most anyone’s ass for his act of bravery.
I knew I had the capabilities to stop it, so I tried to stop it. I mean if they pull a knife, you have to assume they have intentions to use it so that was my reaction, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
We train everyday so we can stop these sort of things and I’m always happy to help if I can.
It just goes to show that even the nicest guy can look like an asshole when he’s edited the right way. And no, I can’t believe I just wrote “nicest guy” and “James McSweeney” in the same sentence.
I didn’t? Whatever, I’m tapped out on this slow ass news day. Here’s a clip of some classic Bronson street justice from Death Wish 3. Good day to yous.