Coming up on February 16, is the fourth installment of the Las Vegas grown promotion Superior Cage Combat. Since their inaugural event back in May of last year, SCC has become home to many up-and-coming professional fighters as well as many former UFC fighters. In the course of a year, SCC has become one of the best run Mid-tier professional fight leagues in the MMA circuit. From high-quality production value to great performances from fighters, SCC has definitely grown over the past year and looks like they will be around to stay.

After making his promotional debut at SCC 3, Dominique Robinson (17-4) will be making his return to Vegas this week at SCC 4. Robinson is a very accessible fighter, even in the leading up to his fight he took the time to give us his thoughts on his career thus far, his general life and the state of MMA as of late. Please take a moment to get to know the “Fallen Angel” and be sure to go check him out as he takes on Paulo Goncalves Silva (16-7) on February 16th.

Let’s start off with some basics and introduce yourself to our readers: fight record, hometown, gym affiliation, fighting style, etc

Sup guys? It’s ya Creole boy here, “Fallen Angel” Dominique Robinson, and yes I know it’s a girl’s name but with my culture it’s for men. Plus anything is sexy when applied to chocolate anyhow lol. I’m currently 17-4-2 in MMA and never did amateur; I started long before all that was around. My family is originally from New Orleans but I’m in East Oakland now. I train at Combat Sports Academy is Dublin, CA which is owned by Kirian Fitzgibbons, the U.S Muay Thai coach, as well as us having the Diaz Bro’s longtime coach Val Ignatove there, Jitz master Caio Terra, a sick strength & nutrition coach in Jessica FitzGibbons and MJ, and a slew of Muay Thai camps and great female fighters. The gym is also an affiliate of the Cesar Gracie Fight Team, and their main home for learning standup, so anyone who want to f**k with a REAL team that has it all hit me up, we’re always looking for new members. My fighting style is “Manga Muay Boran”, as I’m destructive with my Thai Boxing techniques and steal crazy ideas from Japanese anime as well…and yes, I DO try them in actual fights and sparring lol.

Now, for anybody that may not know, you started your MMA career by watching “How-to” DVDs, can you explain how exactly that came about?

Well, much to the misconception of most MMA fans, being at a great gym does not mean you get great training. I have worked with and around some of the top fighters in the top gyms that you can think of, but never had a personal trainer. Instead I learned from getting beat up every day, watching, basically living in the gym, and things here and there other fighters who were getting help would show me. One day I realized I was getting better just from watching fighters at the gym and fights on TV all the time so I started to invest in instructional DVDs from my favorite fighters to learn from while I utilized the sparring at places to “toughen up” so to speak. Combat Sports Academy is my first gym where I am actually trained and they put A LOT of time into me and have high hopes for me; from the trainers down to my teammates and I appreciate them all more than they know or I’m capable of showing.

Having spent some time on the Mexican fight circuit, can you talk about the difference between the US and the Mexico fight scene? Friendly fans, hostile territory, ect?

Mexico was actually GREAT! I fought down there for TJ Fight Nights, who had some of the same investors and people behind it as Cage of Fire, which came later, but both stopped due to a lot of organized crime related things. In Mexico I would just drive down there with my boys or cousin and fight and that was it. I remember they didn’t pay s**t, only like $200 but my cousin would bet in the crowd and we would actually come up that way. The thing about Mexico is, at first, being black, they weren’t fond of me, but then after my KO’s started racking up they loved and supported me by betting on me instead of against me lol, tons of buying us beer & alcohol ( but I don’t drink), and taking us to the strip clubs (so…nuff said). It was a good time and I hope to fight there more and that UFC gets there one day. Hispanics/Latinos is general support their own or just anyone in sports doing well…I wish black folk supported each other more in a racial sense.

Many fighters claim to be willing to fight “anybody, anywhere, anytime” but you actually live up to that having taken numerous fights on very short notice, even with injuries. Can you explain the mindset you have to get in to be willing to cram a full fight camp into a couple of weeks?

Well the first thing wrong here is, in actuality, there aren’t many FIGHTERS in fighting, but there are a lot of sportsmen in this and athletes. These guys don’t take this as serious as I do, trust me. They spend half their “training camps” getting in shape from being lazy f**ks and then the other half getting ready to fight. I’ve never needed a “fight camp”, I’m always in shape and only need to peak my condition and tailor some things for a fight. Most of these fights were not in my favor and I’m much smarter now but I had to get in where I fit in. Ramputi was a weight class up on 20hrs notice and I had a cracked ulna, Silva was two weight classes up on 2wks notice, Prater really didn’t even make-weight and was 2wks notice and my rib was broke, Ruedigur was 2wks notice, Lopez was 2dys notice. I’ve NEVER lost a fair fight in my four loses and most had more controversy than just short time, nor were my 2 draws really even draws…I’ve finished everyone save one person where I’ve had time to get ready. My mindset…I WANT this man…I want it.

I know you’re a single dad and very proud of the fact that you take care of your son. How hard is it to balance gym time and family time? Do you ever take your son to the gym with you? Does he quite understand what it is that you are doing?

Man, single dad, help my mom, help my Grandma, let my boy stay with me, solve everyone else’s problems, my pops, who was never in my life, suddenly appeared and is VERY sick, so that’s there and I really could go on man. My son is at the gym with me every day and, honestly, I question if I should even be doing this at all most time at night. I’m educated and, quite frankly, I don’t need this s**t, I just want it. I feel bad every day, as my son wakes up, goes to school, gets home, gym time, get home and eats, bed time…where is the US time in any of this? The on top of that I can’t get a sponsor for s**t, and I’m doing positive things out here, being a positive example for people, feeding homeless, donating s**t, and I’m NOWHERE near rich, and you wanna know why? Cuz it’s all about money man. Look who they sponsor! Guys on coke, roids, testosterone, slapping girls in clubs, hitting women, sexual assault, all that…they have no shame in what they need to do to line their pockets and most of them are liars and hypocrites…you measure the character of a man by what he does for someone who has nothing to give him in return right? So what is their character?

Let’s talk about your team for a minute. Last year you lost one of your colleagues due to violent acts down in Mexico. How did that affect you and your career/training? Have you become closer/further from any of your teammates?

All that made me do was, initially hate the MMA world more as NO ONE helped me get the word out, and that b**ch Loretta Hunt told my boy that she wouldn’t do it because “she didn’t know him”. Later though it made me love the true MMA fans and made me remember some of why I do this, as fans on FB and twitter and all these “little” MMA sites spread the news so far and so much that I literally had every major news station hitting me up for interviews about my boy’s death. To top that off, John Morgan jumped in and did a report on it and put it in a magazine, which I am grateful for. My boy dying at such a young age, right as he turned his life around it’s sad but, I grew up around this s**t, I’m more realistic to the world than most my man but…I think I’m done with this topic.

After defeating two former UFC fighters in back-to-back fights with Tachi Palace, you were promised a title shot but never got it. Can you talk about what happened with that and why you never got your shot?

Well I beat Gunderson to earn a title shot in December VS the winner of Camoes/Escudero. Camoes won but Ed Soares told them he wouldn’t fight me because we are “family” so they told me they would find me someone else in December. I took a fight before then and, unbeknownst to me, our contracts are different there now where we can’t fight elsewhere when, all the other times, we could as long as it wasn’t within 45days of their fights. I won my fight and then this whole debate went on as they cut me but each of the owners was saying they didn’t know and blaming other owners when, in reality, they were all in on it. So December is coming along and they try to get me to fight a friend of mine who isn’t even fighting anymore and said he wouldn’t fight me anyhow, for about half the money I was making at that. Realistically, they don’t want me with their belt so it is what it is I’m over it, I’m champ there till someone beats me.

It was also announced that you were signed to Maximum Fighting Championship in the beginning of the year, but were pulled from you debut fight. Is there any particular reason why that happened?

Well let’s get this correct right now…Dominique MJ Robinson has never pulled out of anything in my life, including a lady which is why I have a kid now. A friend of mine who was helping me with things overstepped his boundaries and told them I was in that fight and would do it and was signing the contract if they sent it all without talking to me. With that said, I was never really in MFC.

In your last fight, you faced your fourth former-UFC fighter and the result was a highly controversial majority draw. Being in attendance for that fight, it appeared that an elbow deemed illegal by referee Chris Tognoni resulted in a point deduction, without warning, and ultimately cost you the fight. What are your thoughts on that?

My thoughts?! Bulls**t on both parties ends. The ref, #1 where was my warning? #2 it was the side of the head. Steve Lopez, #1 it was the side of the head and he should have been man enough not to look for a way out of the fight. If you look at the SCC photos they clearly SHOW him holding the SIDE of his head as we both sit along the cage and I’m arguing with the ref. At the end of the fight he said he should have won. Look here…That guy never took a step forward in that fight unless it was to grab me and hold me, when we were on the ground he was gable gripping my lower back to just hold me, and I walked him down the entire fight and, with me being 100% defensive and counter punching, he was trained for that fight and HE was the one who got tired, and I never got to land CLEAN clean and he was still damaged. He’s a cool dude and as a fighter I guess he should feel he won but whatever, both of us are on our own separate paths now and I prefer it that way so I can give exciting fights to the fans.

Tell us about your upcoming fight at SCC 4. What do you know about your opponent?

He’s Brazilian, a 3x Muay Thai champ, Nogueria bro purple belt, likes to mack the ladies a lot, and is an Anderson Silva student. With that being said, it doesn’t really matter in the end…I do my thang, so my thang can be done.

Being a man who is truly about doing the best he can at all times and improving the sport of MMA, what’s your take on the recent failed drug tests that have come up lately with popular fighters King Mo, Cris Cyborg and, most recently, Nick Diaz?

Dumb, dumb, dumb, and in most cases liars…but who gives a s**t right? You obviously don’t have to be an upstanding citizen to get paid.

To wrap things up, is there anything you’d like to say to your fans and all those that support you and/or any naysayers that may be out there?

-I’d like to first thank my team Combat Sports Academy for all the time they put into me. I’d like to thank Tri (@goonsquad_hbic) for helping me out with my son and meals…anyone looking to book me for a fight get at her. I’d like to thank trinity (@missmauimac) for helping me with sponsorships so anyone who wants to sponsor me get at her, and any big make up companies out there or anyone looking to get makeup done get at her she is REALLY good and aspires to that the way I do MMA. My boy “Dr.Jekyll” James Chaney, who is just out his got damn mind pushing me in training all the time. MY good friend Duke who owns facialabuse.com and unless you’re a freaky like me stay off that damn site lol but he really advises me about a lot as a growing man and about business. Mots at cageradio.com for always hitting me up for interviews and my blogspot is on that site as well if you type in fallen angel. Hector at unbreakable mouthpieces, my boy and teammate dr.dan at mydrdan.com, and my newest acquisition Dr. Le Cara at sportsplusbayarea.com who  is taking care of my bumps n bruises by having hot…sexy…women massage me all day lol. I appreciate all these people for their individual reasons. Sponsors! Get at me! Ya boy could use some financial help out here s**t! Get at a REAL fighter!