The last time Cagewriter caught Joe Stevenson in an airport was following UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio. Stevenson, a whiz with card tricks, duped my co-worker Dug Dugless and had him doing pushups on a dirty floor at the Columbus Airport Chili's. Karma came back to bite him!

Stevenson had a rough time at the Albuquerque airport in trying to get to Wednesday's workout day in Los Angeles for UFC 104. "Joe Daddy" was unable to leave New Mexico on his scheduled Tuesday night flight because of mechanical issues. Now it's one thing for a flight to have issues on the ground, but Stevenson's flight actually took off and had to make a a quick return to the airport.

"When we're landing, there were fire trucks, emergency rescue response vehicles," Stevenson said he thought one of the pilots had a heart attack. "[The pilot] comes out says 'there were sparks coming out of the engine, so we landed.'"

Stevenson said there was no announcement made during the flight until it returned to Albuquerque for fear that the passengers would get "freaked out." Stevenson thought he would have had to wait until Wednesday morning for a 6:40 a.m. flight but he was able to get in one final Tuesday night work out in New Mexico.

"The whole getting back on the airplane was a little creepy. The wife was like 'I wouldn't fly.' I'm like 'Yeah, well I gotta beat someone up so I gotta go.'"

Listen below as Stevenson talks about his airplane experience:

Stevenson faces Spencer Fisher tonight at UFC 104. This is the second fight working with trainer Greg Jackson. He spent eight weeks down in New Mexico prepping for the fight. Stevenson feels like this is second run at the title after losing 2008 fights to B.J. Penn and Kenny Florian. If it doesn't work out, he's fine with heading back in Victorville, California and becoming a full-time family man.