AL was born in Lynnwood California and as he put it, spent most of his childhood on the streets doing what he had to do to survive.

Whereas many U.S. tough guys that later fought in NHB wrestled in high school or college, AL did not. He got his early experience in street fights.

AL 'The Bruiser' Harlow

When AL did get into fight training it was Muay Thai from a friend who had trained in Thailand and then some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. AL preferred to learn the guts of a style rather than spend years training in any one style. He found that because of his size and strength most of the locks were not easily applied on him. He practised the basic skills, applications and their counters over years of repetition.

A very powerful man, AL has pushed some heavy weights in his early fight days, but unfortunately he has had two major injuries that have restricted his training and fights. The first was a meat cleaver slash across his throat and one side of his neck measuring over eight inches long. This happened in a street fight. The second was a bench-pressing accident while doing a warm up set at 150kgs. AL was on his fourth rep when the bar slipped from his grip and ended across his Adams apple. The combination of these two injuries has left AL with scar tissue in his airway explaining his husky voice.

Prior to his accident AL was maxing 640lbs on the bench and in hard fight training before his accidents cut his fight career short.

His competitive career began in bare knuckle contests on the east coast around North Carolina with many any of AL's opponents being Marines after quick money fights. At San Pedro California 1999 he fought an early cage fight against a 6ft 6inch 360lb dockworker who was the super heavyweight champion. I just watched this fight on video along with AL and all the guys on course, and AL really done a number on his opponent.

Al describes the fight as we watch the video.

"My opponent comes out throwing a haymaker as I had expected and knew that if it hit me it could KO me. I ducked under the haymaker then cracked him in the face a couple of times then I backed up and let him come to me so that I could take his front leg with a low Thai kick.

I next went in for a double leg takedown but he turned at the last second attempting to guillotine me. Being a tall opponent he had the lift and the leverage for the guillotine but I lifted him up off the ground and rammed him into the cage where he dropped to the mat trying to put me in his guard. I went with him, sprawled back and popped my head out of the guillotine. From the guard I began the offence with a couple of set up palm strikes, one in each eye. I then seized his throat with a single hand C clamp and squeezed followed by some hand attention to his head. My opponent tapped in 29 seconds."

This was AL's first fight after his accident and he found breathing difficult with the damage to his airway.

His next fight was in Japan and it was a good fight that lasted five minutes. Unfortunately because of the severe damage to AL's throat and all the scar tissue and restriction of his breathing making his heart work harder he lost. AL's manager watching him desperately trying to suck in air thought that he might have a heart attack. AL then decided that he could not fight competitively with the high risks created by his previous accidents. In a game of chokes and strangles and high intensity you simply need to be able to breathe freely.

On the streets and in prison AL had had over 200 street fights and they were the real deal where anything goes, street weapons included.

He also knew many of the now well-known UFC fighters when they were starting out, in Huntingham Beach California; Tito Ortiz, David Tank Abbott, Sean and Justin McCully, Kimo.

About two years ago Al moved to Thailand as he was tired of American life and now works as a BG and cardio boxing trainer and is working on writing his autobiography.

AL says that some of the best fighters came from the worst environments and to fight you have to have a fighter's attitude to start with; you can't learn it. The biker gangs and prison fighters are tough boys and fight to no rules. You don't know when its going to come or where from or what. It's not like a karate tournament or a NHB fight, as anything and everything goes, gang attacks, knives and guns.

To make it out there AL says you have to be streetwise and know how to read the signs, feel the vibes and tension. He is a menacing hunk of a man at just 6ft and 140kg with a huge barrel chest.

His book will be titled "Welcome to the Jungle" and will cover his childhood, life on the street from age 11 and using heroin at age 12, run-ins with the law, introduction to drugs and life in institutions.

AL has had to kick drugs twice, once the easy way and once the hard way; he has been clear for twenty years and is now very much anti drugs.

He has done hard prison time where fighting is a must if you want to make it out alive and where fights were often a racial thing. AL says that you may wake up in the morning to the news that you are going to war and it doesn't matter even if you are going to be paroled that day or not, you must be in the fight.

There are a lot of politics too, and the shot callers are the ones running the yard as they have the most drugs. Fights have to be approved by them, as they don't want any screw-ups with their drug trade. Fights will see the yard shut down for a month and someone getting stabbed can completely shut the drug trade down. AL has seen a few prisoners get killed in such fights. Life is cheap with shanks and all kinds of home made weapons being the norm. "You could lose your life over nothing and you had better be prepared to fight to the death simply to survive" he says.

Al's book "Welcome to the Jungle" will be advertised in Fight Times so watch this space for release details. He is also working on a second book titled 'The History of American Prisons'.