<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Alex Reid has declared on video that he&amp;#039;s a &amp;quot;crossdressing cagefighting monkey boy&amp;quot;. The fighter-turned-reality star spoke to Addicted MMA at an event and talked candidly about his ongoing battle with people&amp;#039;s perceptions of him since his highly-publicised split from ex Chantelle Houghton.      He said: &amp;quot;Forget about Alex Reid, the celebrity. I never wanted to be famous for being famous.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m happy to be celebrated for having accomplished something. I did my acting and I love my athletic career. A few things [Reid laughs] got in the way of the celebrity kingdom.  &amp;quot;It closed a lot of doors - and opened a lot, but it has been very difficult to be taken seriously as a professional athlete.  &amp;quot;Celebrity does open up doors in that respect of money, the problem being it&amp;#039;s such a distraction. There&amp;#039;s rubbish in the media all the time and it takes its toll. &amp;quot;I am equally responsible for that. I&amp;#039;ve made some poor decisions, that&amp;#039;s why I&amp;#039;ve decided to turn back to my roots - something I love, something I&amp;#039;m good at, something that&amp;#039;s honest and pure and that&amp;#039;s why I&amp;#039;m returning to fight three weeks today.&amp;quot;  Asked about his &amp;#039;interesting&amp;#039; year, he said: &amp;quot;Hah, interesting is a very diplomatic and PC word for you to use.&amp;quot;  Getting out his phone with a personalised cover dedicated to his baby daughter Dolly, he said: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been through a divorce, a few moves - that&amp;#039;s very stressful - a split, and there&amp;#039;s been some stress in my life, I can&amp;#039;t deny it, but one of the most amazing things that has happened is this little lady - my beautiful daughter. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m in the trenches. I&amp;#039;m getting a lot of incoming flack. There&amp;#039;s a lot of horrible things being said about me - and I&amp;#039;m quite outspoken, but the one thing is, it does stress me, but I&amp;#039;m strong. I&amp;#039;m a soldier. And I have to be a soldier for her and myself.   &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m determined to make her proud. There&amp;#039;s nothing purer than a warrior fighting in a cage. I&amp;#039;m 37 years young, it&amp;#039;s made me realise what&amp;#039;s important in my life.  &amp;quot;First and foremost, [Dolly&amp;#039;s] important. Secondly is my career and my credibility.  &amp;quot;Obviously, I love myself, and that&amp;#039;s a good thing, otherwise who else is going to love you? I&amp;#039;ve got a lot of support, and I&amp;#039;ve got a lot of hate.&amp;quot;  With regards to letting himself go previously, he said: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been out of shape, I&amp;#039;ve been soft, I talk in military terms being an ex-soldier. I feel like a civilian. &amp;quot;My celebritydom has made me very soft. When you can earn more money in a fight than in a photoshoot - I want to provide for my daughter now.  &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want to be in these newspapers and magazines anymore. It&amp;#039;s alright if they&amp;#039;re saying nice things. I get offered stories every single week but I don&amp;#039;t want to say horrible things about people.   &amp;quot;It kills me here [points to heart]. I might make a few quid, but how long does that last? I believe in myself and fighting gives me the opportunity.&amp;quot; On his upcoming fight, he said: &amp;quot;I feel like I&amp;#039;ve been in a rut. I&amp;#039;m scared. I&amp;#039;ve got more to lose fighting my next fight.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s stressful. I get Google alerts, but I&amp;#039;m resolutely strong. I have mind coaches, hypnosis, but when you&amp;#039;re getting bombarded by hate from the press and media it does affect you.   &amp;quot;When I go into the gym, I&amp;#039;m not Roxanne, I&amp;#039;m not Reidinator - all these things I get portrayed to be, no-one cares. The gym is a home from home. With all the crap I&amp;#039;m getting, all the punches I&amp;#039;m taking from the media, it&amp;#039;s a reassuring place.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been a pillar of the MMA community for years. The guys who know me here all support me. It&amp;#039;s a safe environment.&amp;quot; On the public perception of fighting, he said: &amp;quot;We need more athletes - not pumped-up, steroid doorman-looking tattooed thugs. You do get some fighters who talk eloquently.   &amp;quot;I am a dimwit - no, I&amp;#039;m not a dimwit. I&amp;#039;m the crossdressing cagefighter monkey boy - and you can understand it.  &amp;quot;But I am passionate about Mixed Martial Arts and can talk congruently about it. And you have to be quite intelligent to master a sport.  &amp;quot;I hope with my celebrity to be a pillar and a fighter for our corner. Yeah I&amp;#039;m getting a lot of flack, but that&amp;#039;s one of the things that keeps me going.   &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s scary out there. The crowd booing, cheering, especially at the moment. &amp;quot;In this country, it&amp;#039;s UFC, cage fighting and Alex Reid.&amp;quot; He tweeted earlier: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t like Mon nights, due 2 dreaded mags Tomo! Wonder wot lovely fabulous accusations someone has said r out now? Wen the goin gets Tuf?&amp;quot;  His ex Chantelle Houghton \u00E2\u20AC&#143;later wrote: &amp;quot;Makes me laugh how a certain person ran off and sold his story within hours of splitting, I stayed quiet for weeks until I had no option to put all the lies straight. I would never have said anything otherwise. But was pushed to the limit.&amp;quot; Buy tickets for Alex Reid&amp;#039;s fight here http://bit.ly/iKuapN Alex&amp;#039;s fight will be televised live on Channel 5 on December 1. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a437788/alex-reid-im-a-crossdressing-cagefighter-monkey-boy/>