UFC's Walt Harris and His Quest for Justice

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

UFC heavyweight contender Walt Harris faces Alistair Overeem in the main event of this weekend's UFC Fight Night. It's a fight that was originally supposed to take place this past December, until Harris was forced to pull out of the fight for the most difficult reason imaginable. Last year, Harris and his family were gripped by tragedy: the disappearance and homicide of his stepdaughter, Aniah. Tom Rinaldi discusses his in-depth reporting on Harris's career as a fighter, and his recent quest for justice. Then, legal analyst Ryan Smith provides an update on Zion Williamson's case, and explains why he's been asked to admit that his family accepted gifts and money from Nike, Adidas, and Duke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Walt the Big Ticket Harris, representing the great state of Alabama is in black.
0:04.0	Olinick is in red.
0:05.0	Oh my gosh, it's so powerful.
0:07.0	11 seconds in!
0:08.0	The big ticket coming up large!
0:12.0	There is a new heavyweight contender, in my humble opinion.
0:17.0	His name is Walt Harris.
0:31.7	That was UFC heavyweight contender Walt the big-ticket Harris, delivering one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history. On Saturday, Harris will take on Alistair Overreed in the main event of UFC's fight night.
0:41.0	It's an event that was originally supposed to happen back in December, but was postponed when Harris's
0:46.7	stepdaughter, Anaya, went missing. Today, the story of their unique bond and one father's
0:53.5	determination to return to the octagon.
0:56.8	I mean it times, it's Thursday, May 14th. This is ESPN Daily, presented by Marathon.
1:07.4	So Tom, for people who are not serious MMA fans, can you explain who Walt Harris is and what his status in the sport is?
1:16.4	He's a top 10 heavyweight in UFC, but Mina, his background is pretty fascinating.
1:23.5	Tom Rinaldi is a reporter for ESPN. He recently covered Harris' story for SE featured.
1:28.3	He was a really an excellent high school basketball player coming out of Alabama. He ultimately
1:35.8	went to Jacksonville State where he was a solid player. But in his mind, he really believed
1:43.5	that his future and his fate was going to be to make an
1:46.6	NBA roster. I saw myself at this age retiring from the NBA. I just felt like there was no way
1:54.3	I wasn't going to play in the NBA. He had two tryouts to try to make the NBA. And ultimately, that didn't happen as a guy who was sort of a six, four and a half tweener.
2:06.9	And ultimately, to try to feed his competitive Jones, he turned into fighting and into the world of MMA.
2:17.6	I dealt with a little bit of depression after basketball, because I had played since I was
	...

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