When a young Blake Harrison slammed his brother while pretending to be Matt Hughes, he never could’ve known he’d ride a crazy wave all the way to asking questions at UFC press conferences.
Renowned for his amusing portrayal of loveable halfwit Neil Sutherland in The Inbetweeners, the British actor has garnered a reputation as one of the best in the business. But while his desire to perform still burns bright, Harrison has a love of MMA he just can’t kick.
Alongside his dear friend, Stu Whiffen, the Londoner hosts the MMA Fan Show, in which he passionately discusses the latest news from the sport, with his own blend of comedy, exhibited through wacky ideas like putting Michael Venom Page under interrogation ahead of his move to the UFC.
But his journey towards becoming a well-respected MMA analyst started long before he ever sat down in front of a mic.
Speaking to MMA TV Live, Harrison reminisced: “I remember the UFC being on Bravo back in the day. For a very long time, if there was ever an opportunity for me or my brother to walk up behind the other one, grab them in a body lock and shout ‘Matt Hughes,’ and slam them to the ground, we would do it. That’s what we thought was fun.
“I wasn’t a hardcore fan at the time. I’d dip a toe in for Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz. But then there was a series of The Ultimate Fighter with Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones, and that got me super hooked. The timing worked great because that’s when Conor McGregor started his rise, and I got really into it and started watching it every week. It became an obsession.
“For the last six years, my podcast of choice has always been MMA like Ariel Helwani, MMA Fighting or Severe MMA with Sean Sheehan. I’d be listening to them on the train or while I was working out. Then, I did Stu Whiffen’s music podcast, and we somehow stumbled onto MMA and spoke for over an hour and realised that neither of us had a friend that enjoyed MMA as much as we did, and in each other, we saw a kindred spirit.
“It was the pandemic at this time, so there wasn’t much work on for me, and because he knows a lot about podcasts, we thought, ‘Let’s give this a go’. Two years later, we have an amazing studio, and we’ve interviewed UFC champions. It’s been phenomenal. We’re not journalists; we’re just fans who absolutely love the sport.”
Since the inception of the show, Harrison and Whiffen have developed a dedicated fan base of listeners who adore the enthusiasm and knowledge the pair bring to the table. From interviewing Alexander Volkanovski to giving Michael Bisping a platform to tell the horror story in which an intruder invaded his house in a scene akin to a horror movie, the podcast always delivers and has consequently earned Harrison a seat among the most revered MMA content creators on the planet, resulting in the beloved actor getting an opportunity to ask questions at the UFC London press conferences.
Looking back on the experience, Harrison admitted: “I was a bit nervous, which is weird because I’ve been on stage before in front of hundreds of people, and I did Soccer Aid where there’s 80,000 people watching you play football, and I’ve never been very good at football. But it was nerve-wracking because there’s an element of wanting to prove to everybody around you that you know what you’re talking about and you belong, and equally, you want to pay your dues and not get special treatment because you’re an actor off the telly.
“The MMA world is an eclectic mix of people, some of whom are journalists and have been following the sport for a long time, and they’ve put in the time, and they’re doing it the right way, and there are other people within the MMA space, who are thinking, ‘What’s the click bait story of the day’ a lot of the time it’s something that can be quite offensive and backwards compared to where it should be in today’s society, and they will run with that because it will get clicks, and I think less about those people in terms of how they are going about their job. So, Stu and I want to do this the right way. We don’t want to be salacious, so the experience was nerve-wracking because I wanted to ask the right question, but I thought it went quite well.
“I got a big cheer from the crowd when I mentioned to Leon Edwards that the O2 Arena was going to be behind him. That, to me, was about being truthful because the last time he was in London, he was being booed while fighting Gunnar Nelson, who’s from Iceland, all because Leon had a beef with Darren Till at the time. I think those questions about mindset and the place the fighters are at when they're going into the biggest event of their life mean something. I asked, ‘What’s it like going back to the place where you were booed and now, everyone is shouting Headshot, Dead’? It was a fun thing to do.”
Having proven himself in the acting field and the MMA podcast game, Harrison is undeniably a multi-talented man. But what would happen if his two worlds collided and Neil Sutherland had to set foot in the UFC cage to battle it out with the greatest fighters on the planet?
The 38-year-old laughed: “Obviously, I’ve got a soft spot for Neil. I don’t want to see him get smashed up, even though he absolutely would. I think Neil would have to cut a lot of weight and be a lot taller and rangier than his opponents. So, I’d like to see him against a short and stocky guy. Maybe he could cut down to bantamweight and fight Ricky Simon. I’ve interviewed Ricky, and he’s a lovely guy. Just to clarify, that’s Neil fighting him, not me. A short wrestler like Merab Dvalishvili would be good, too. Neil would have to stay away and keep him at range with his long limbs. But to confirm again, that’s a fictional character fighting Merab, not me.”
Blessed with palpable charisma, an unrelenting affinity for MMA and a level of chemistry with his co-presenter that money simply just can’t buy, Harrison’s podcast has become an outlet not just for the host to discuss the sport he holds so close to his heart, but also serves as a piece of content that his fans can listen to as a method of switching off from everyday life and thus immerse themselves in an enjoyable chat, similar to what you could have with your mates down the pub.
