Three of the 22 mixed martial artists who competed at UFC Fight Night 49 on Saturday entered the octagon to Christian hip hop blaring.
Benson Henderson, whose fight headlined the event, walked out to “Awesome God” by R-Swift. Aaron Phillips used “Ooh Ahh” by Grits. And Neil Magny selected Lecrae’s song “No Regrets.”
Henderson and Phillips lost, but not Magny.
Magny doesn’t always use Christian hip hop as his entrance music. But when he does, he wins. This weekend, he exited the octagon with no regrets, defeating Alex Garcia by unanimous decision and extending his winning streak to four matches.
Years ago, Magny’s fight coach routinely played and gave away Lecrae CDs at workouts. They caught Magny’s ear.
He walked out to “Special” by Lecrae in his previous fight and beat Rodrigo Goiana de Lima by TKO. In his three prior matches, Magny had walked out to Drake’s song “Trophies” and twice to “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor. “Special” was the first Christian hip-hop song that he used as entrance music.
“Special” is a love song. Its first line is “she made me want to get down on a knee,” which is atypical of traditional pump-up tracks. However, Magny didn’t pick it to get pumped.
“Every time I go out and fight, it’s always about me trying to motivate someone else,” he told Rapzilla.
Magny simply wanted to encourage someone in the audience. The 26-year-old also explained that, as his Christian faith has grown over 2014, his desire to be more overt about it has grown as well. Products of this are “Special” and “No Regrets,” the latter of which Magny did choose because it pumps him up.
With my crew after the win! @dethrone pic.twitter.com/aDr8i692f3
— Neil Magny (@NeilMagny) August 24, 2014
Above is a post-fight photo of Magny (center). To the far right is Nate Marquardt, a mentor of Magny’s who’s on the same Elevation Fight Team in Denver. Rapzilla covered Marquardt when, in UFC Fight Night 43, he used “Come Alive” by 116 Clique as his entrance music.
While Magny was the only fighter who walked out to Christian hip hop and won on Saturday, he wasn’t the only one who used his platform to praise God.
Article photo courtesy of fansided.com
David Daniels is a writer for Rapzilla.com. He’s also been published at Bleacher Report, Christianity Today and The Daily Caller. Follow him on Twitter.