Issue 058
June 2012
Dan ‘The Handler’ Hornbuckle streaked across the MMA world’s radar screen with a whipcrack high kick KO of Akihiro Gono.
Gonzaga’s assault on Cro Cop’s dome was vicious and shocking, but lacked the grace and precision of the lanky native of Mahomet, Illinois. The stunned silence of the Japanese crowd was testimony to his seismic arrival. Hornbuckle was gracious enough to join us for a quick chat.
Where are you right now?
Sitting at home in Mahomet, Illinois.
That knockout kick was something else – tell us about it.
I paid Gono 20 bucks to put his hands down and let me kick him in his head.
What got you into fighting initially?
I’ve always been a competitor, but it was my buddy, Kyle Watson, who came into work one day with a black eye and his arm in a sling and he told me he competed in MMA. I wrestled since I was six years old – I never did the taekwondo or the karate or none of that stuff. It was just a matter of time until I said, ‘I still have competition left in my bones so let’s go get paid to punch somebody in their face.’
Can you see yourself taking the leap to that next level, the rarefied air of the UFC?
Eventually I’ll have to go to the UFC to take on the top contenders. Most of the best fighters are in the UFC and that’s who I see myself competing against; especially now, when I’m at the point that I’m so high on the ladder that I just have to keep on climbing. So yeah, we’ll be fighting in the UFC soon.
What kind of ethnic background are you from? You’re a Native American right?
Yeah, I’m a member of the Eastern Band Cherokee from Cherokee, North Carolina.
You’ve fought a lot in Japan. What was that like for you?
The very first time I fought over there the crowd silence was very unsettling. But they do scream and shout when you do something cool. They’re like, ‘cool, that’s what we pay money to see’, and then they go back to being quiet again.
Michael Schiavello called you the most underrated welterweight in the world. Would you agree with that assessment?
No, there are a lot more underrated fighters out there. There are people out there making comments but it really doesn’t prove a whole lot.
To make that jump to the next level how can you improve?
To make it at that next level I’m going to have to improve my stand-up. The elite top ten fighters’ all-around games are very strong. We plan on getting a boxing trainer to focus more on my hands with my long reach and height advantage. I feel a top-level boxer would excel in MMA. Obviously you’d have to teach them a sprawl but the hand speed and the angles that boxers take would be easier for them to nullify a takedown. You give them the four-ounce gloves – shit, man!
What would a dream match-up for you be down the line?
Whoa, let’s see. People are going to read this? I’m sure they will. I’d say a guy like Koscheck or Fitch, one of those two. What’s holding me back right now is that I need to get a few more fights in against top-level opposition. When I go into the UFC though, I just don’t want to be that little pebble that gets thrown in even though it makes a ripple. I want to be that boulder that goes ‘boom’.
What would you be doing if you weren’t fighting?
Well, right now I work 40 hours a week installing sprinkler fittings and I’ve got three daughters, so I’ve got my hands pretty full in ‘civilian life’ if you will. I tell you, it’s late nights and early mornings bro! [Laughs]
Dan Hornbuckle spoke with Barry Hanley
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