Alex   "The Professor"   Cheboub

Fighters Biography

Fight preparation?

I’m always trying to grind away flaws in my fight game; I know Jits is my strong point but never neglect time on the mat.

When and why did you start training for fighting?

I started Watching Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Jackie Chan smash their way through a thousand Hong Kong Villains, what kid wouldn’t want to fight? I started martial arts at a young age and never stopped progressing from one form to another. The first martial art I took up was Judo at the age of about 7. I didn’t really like it. I wanted to do something with punches and kicks. I only really got into martial arts a few years later when I was 14. I was a boarder at St Albans College in Pretoria, where I made friends with some Korean kids who told me about a Korean diplomat living across the road from the school. He was an 8th degree Taekwondo black belt and I approached him one day and asked if he would teach me. I found I had natural ability for technical kicks and, under his instruction, I won the SA championships. Unfortunately he had to leave SA and I was never able to find the same level of Taekwondo instruction again, which led me to other martial arts such as Sanshou, Lei Tai, boxing and MMA. I wanted to be a 100-percent effective fighter, so when I discovered MMA I jumped right in. There was no amateur circuit when I started, so my first pro fight was in 2008.

Do you think traditional martial arts have valuable applications in the modern world?

We live in a very violent culture. South Africans routinely go out on the weekends to get trashed and look for fights and that just never ends well. My Taekwondo coach was very traditional and I picked up a lot of the virtues of martial arts from him, not just the skills. I’m not saying everyone should be Zen masters, but if you look at the East where they have a traditional culture of respect and integrity there’s a much lower violent crime rate. Besides self-defence, the values taught by traditional martial arts have the potential for a lot of good.

Have you been involved in any other, more mainstream, sports?

I used to play rugby. I’ve been the same height since I was 14, which was useful back then. I started out as a lock, then a prop, then a flank. I stopped rugby after a particularly vicious match. The ref was totally ignoring the other team’s indiscretions, and one guy kept stomping on my knee. Then he hit me and I lost it. I kicked him in the chest and got sent off.

What ranks and titles have you held?

SA colours for Taekwondo, Sanshou and KuoshuLeitai SA champ, TKD 1999 2nd Place, TKD COSATA Southern All African games 1999. 2000-2006 Lei Tai SA Champ. 3rd Place On Water World Lei Tai Champs in Taiwan. 1st place World Lei Tai Champs in USA. Represented SA at the Sanshou Olympic qualifiers in Beijing 2007.

Favourite technique:

The ground is where I’m most comfortable.

Where does your accent come from?

I grew up here is SA but my family had a lot of foreign friends. I spent a lot of time around Canadians and all sorts, the accents rubbed off and never left.

Where does your fighting name, ‘Professor’ come from?

The guys at EFC gave it to me, probably because I sound educated, but it fits because I’m a teacher at the moment and I have a degree in microbiology and genetics. I always wanted to be a scientist but it was hard finding work in that field in SA. When I graduated I started working at a renewable energy company that was mismanaged. I really believed in the work and stayed on at half salary for a while, but when they wanted to cut it to no salary I had to leave. It was sad but interesting. I’d still like to get into conservation and bio-diversity in future though.