For Alton Prince, fighting has never just been about what happens inside the cage. Sometimes the actual fights happen long before the walkout. In his case, one of those battles nearly ended his life.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
What began as a typical night working security outside an Anchorage pub on July 20th last year quickly escalated into something far more serious. A confrontation escalated, a weapon was drawn, and within seconds, ‘Dreadz’ was left fighting for his life.
“I ended up with four rounds going through, four rounds total, seven new holes,” Prince said on the So We Asked show. “So three of them went through; one of them ricocheted and stuck.”
But what makes the story even more intense is what led to that moment, as well as the twist that followed.
According to Alton Prince, two men were wearing masks and refused to remove them when confronted by security. This led to some back-and-forth smack talk. So, he stepped in to gain some control over the situation.
“When I did that to disarm him, he just tucked it back in and turned on me,” he explained, “And [he] started putting rounds in me.”
Despite being shot several times, ‘Dreadz’ remained composed. While others around him broke down, he remained calm—almost eerily aware of everything going on in real time.
And that mentality didn’t fade once he recovered. If anything, it carried over when he returned to fighting. Because what happened next is where the plot takes a surprising turn. ‘Dreadz’ came back to go one-on-one against someone directly connected to that night.
“The last fight I had was actually against the uncle of the kid that shot me,” he revealed. “He ended up taking the upper hand. He got me. He got me.
“And it was, like you said, no animosity afterward. We talked about it, and it was good, and we just left it there.”
On paper, it seems impossible to separate emotions from this fight. Revenge, anger, and tension were all expected to play a role. But that’s not how it turned out. And that’s exactly what makes this story different.
It’s not just a survival story. It’s all about control—over emotions, situations, and outcomes that could have turned out very differently. Because for Alton Prince, returning to fighting wasn’t about settling old scores. It was about proving that, despite everything, he could still move forward—without bringing the past into the present.
It is worth noting that there’s another man who is trying to forget his past and move on, doing good with his present, and that man is none other than Cain Velasquez. After spending months inside a prison cell, the UFC legend is now out, and he recently detailed his major life adjustment in an emotional first message since his release.
Alton Prince’s tale matches MMA legend Cain Velasquez’s move forward
The idea of moving forward without carrying the past doesn’t just belong to Alton Prince; Cain Velasquez is also trying to live it in real time. However, unlike ‘Dreadz,’ whose battle was immediate and physical, the UFC legend is dealing with something quieter: A life that abruptly changed pace and then changed again.
And now he’s stuck in the middle, learning how to exist outside something that had already begun to define his routine.
“Hi everyone, now that it’s been a couple of weeks since my release,” Velasquez said in an Instagram post, “I’ve had some time to kind of get back into things, get back into a normal way of life, get used to just doing the normal things, being in the home with the family, being there for my kids.
“And I just wanted to thank everybody for their love and support. Your words of inspiration, of encouragement, constantly just lifted me up, myself and my family. So just thank you.”
Adjusting to daily life, including being at home with his children, required adjustment. Not because it was tough, but because it was new again. And that’s the part that most people don’t get to see.
“I’ll keep doing the work to get back to everyone,” he continued. “And just for myself now, just slowly get back out there. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with the pace of life that I was getting used to, to now all of a sudden, a new way of life, a new way of living, a new rhythm.
“So for myself, I just had to kind of get used to it, and I’ve been doing that. So again, just thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, and it’s good to be out.”
And that’s where his story quietly aligns with Alton Prince’s. Not in the events themselves, but in what comes afterward. Because they both address the same topic in different ways: how do you move forward without allowing what happened to determine every step?
Written by
Edited by
Yeswanth Praveen