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Shawn Tompkins responds to busted horse steroid user’s comments about a Gina Carano sex tape
By Zach Arnold | July 15, 2009
What a headline that is to write.
As everyone knows, Kit Cope (along with his buddies King Mo Lawal and Ariel Helwani) did a radio show together (audio here) in which he said that he had a sex tape of Gina Carano and that if Gina continued training at Xtreme couture that she would not be winning any time soon.
Enter Shawn Tompkins, the head trainer of Xtreme Couture, who gave a response to RawVegas.tv in regards to what Kit Cope said about him. As you might imagine, Cope is already backing off of what he said on the radio show.
Cope was suspended after an MMA fight for failing a drug test due to having traces of Boldenone in his urine sample. Boldenone is a famous horse steroid that is supposed to be only prescribed by veterans but is also a steroid used in bodybuilding circles.
Here is a transcript (that I did) of the RawVegas.tv interview between Dave Farra and Shawn Tompkins, right out of the goodness of my heart. Enjoy.
TRANSCRIPT
Dave Farra: “Standing next to a very angry Shawn Tompkins. This is the first time I’ve ever seen you actually angry.”
Shawn Tompkins: “I’m really not that angry. I’m a little frustrated that somebody like this is going to get some publicity off of my name.”
Dave Farra: “Let’s bring it back for those of you who don’t know the story. Kit Cope is a fighter, he’s a mostly kickboxer, he’s fought a few times in Mixed Martial Arts, but yesterday he took to a radio show and said a couple of things that you found to be very offensive. One of them, he says he has a sex tape of him and Gina Carano from when they were dating. She’s of course terrified at this coming out, these are all his words. And then he went on to say that Gina Carano is never going to win a fight if she continues to train at “Xtreme Fashion,” which is what he called Xtreme Couture and he said that you were not a good coach, he said that you could work somebody out but you can’t actually teach anyone technique. I think it kind of sums it up in a nutshell so let’s start first about what he said about Gina Carano.”
Shawn Tompkins: “You know, the Gina Carano thing with him, that doesn’t really bother me a lot, that’s none of my business, that’s between the two of them. The fact that he’s a kind of person that keeps bringing her up, as far as I’m concerned I think they broke up like three and a half years ago. I don’t even remember what girl I was with three and a half years ago, you know it’s just that’s just him trying to do his once-a-year thing getting some publicity, what happens between him and Gina has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with Xtreme Couture, that’s their problem you know.”
Dave Farra: “Yeah, but isn’t this the most insensitive time to bring something like that up? Gina Carano is arguably at the peak of her career, she’s absolutely the most popular female fighter in the world. She’s got a huge fight coming up and to even introduce something like that to the public’s attention, it just seemed disrespectful.”
Shawn Tompkins: “I know Gina Carano very well, this kind of stuff won’t bother her. She’s got one thing in mind and that’s going out and beating Cyborg. She’s training harder than she’s ever trained, she’s got great coaches here, I mean everybody saw her at the press conference in New York City and everybody’s commenting how she’s got a brand new body. You know, he can say what he wants but the bottom line is Kit Cope hasn’t seen Gina Carano in a training session in probably three years. She’s been here, I’ve seen her every day, she’s dedicated and she’ll do what she does. What does he know?” (Fightlinker has a different take on Gina’s current physical condition.)
Dave Farra: “So Kit Cope called Xtreme Couture “Xtreme Fashion,” meaning that it’s just cool to come here, it’s not actually a good place to train. Your response?”
Shawn Tompkins: “Well, I mean, I take that as a compliment, you know, the proof is in the pudding. I got guys here that are you know out of 28 fighters on that floor in about 2 minutes most of those guys are in the top 10. A lot of them are champions in the biggest organizations in the world. He can say what he wants but I got guys that will fight him any day, any time, but he’s not even good enough to get in those organizations let alone be in the Top 10.”
Dave Farra: “OK, without having to toot your own horn I’ll just go ahead and ask you, could you go through some of the guys that you consider to be top fighters in Team Tompkins right now and here at Xtreme Couture?”
Shawn Tompkins: “There’s Jay Hieron, Mark Hominick, Sam Stout, Chris Horodecki, Vitor Belfort, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, you know, I don’t even have enough breath to say them all you know and they’re great guys, they’re great people, they don’t represent themselves this way so if he’s such a great fighter, how come he represents himself like this?”
Dave Farra: “Shawn Tompkins trains some of the best guys in the world. One example that I like to use is Mark Coleman, who hadn’t had a win in the UFC in 12 years. He’s 44 years old, he comes out, he beats Stephan Bonnar and the first thing that he says as he’s walking through the tunnel covered in Stephan Bonnar’s blood is, “Thank you Shawn Tompkins for making this possible.” That’s says something.”
Shawn Tompkins: “It was a huge day for me, you know, I was such a fan of Coleman’s in the beginning like everybody else was. I’ve had the privilege of being able to be in the corner of two Hall of Famers, Randy Couture and Mark Coleman, so it’s a big night for me. I knew that all along and I put my dedication to a guy like Mark Coleman. I feel like I win with my fighters and I lose with my fighters, so it’s very important to me.”
Dave Farra: “You take a lot of pride in your training and so somebody’s saying they know nothing about technique. How do you respond to that?”
Shawn Tompkins: “Well, he can say what he wants but I have 28 of the best fighters in the world right now. As far as I’m concerned, he hasn’t fought in years and I don’t see him training anybody, so I don’t know where he gets this. I do remember this though… Wanderlei at the beginning of his camp against Rich Franklin, I was the one walking to the door where he’s the Muay Thai instructor and I was the one coaching the owner while he was watching, so that can tell you right there who’s the better coach you know and it’s not Kit Cope, let’s face it, you know, he’s doing what he always does once-a-year he jumps in front of a video camera, he gets excited, and he runs his mouth off.” (Kit Cope responds to the Wanderlei story here.)
Dave Farra: “Is it surprising to you that the sport is getting so big that now the trainers are going head to head a little bit and people are very interested in this, I mean, somebody who is I would say with Kit Cope one step removed from the sport, maybe that’s ignorant to stay that, but he seems like he’s one step removed because he’s not saying “I’m doing this or I’m doing this” but he’s pointing his finger at other people that are on the rise right now, but are you surprised that there’s this kind of attention on somebody’s statements on an Internet radio show?”
Shawn Tompkins: “What I’m surprised about is that an actual media group (Ariel Helwani) going to him to ask him about Gina Carano. That’s what I’m surprised about because if you’re in the media and you know anything about this sport you know that him and Gina have nothing to do with each other any more. You know they might be friends and pass by each other in a club sometime, he isn’t training her, they’re not training together so for them to go so low as to ask a guy like Kit Cope that’s their problem and they gave him the chance to make a name out of that.”
Dave Farra: “I’m going to pretend I’m Kit Cope for a second. Why would I want to offend Gina Carano and Randy Couture and everyone that trains at Xtreme Couture and you. Why? What’s the point?”
Shawn Tompkins: “And I thought about that, too, because I know Las Vegas and I come from a small town in Canada, 14,000 people, but since I’ve been out here I realize Las Vegas is a small city, everybody knows everybody, and in saying something about Xtreme Couture he just made a lot of great fighters angry and he better not want to see them or pass them on escalators or in hallways in casinos because I’m sure they’re not going to have things to say or do to him.”
Dave Farra: “So you’re saying that you’re going to push Kit Cope down an escalator if you see him?”
Shawn Tompkins: “I’m just saying on Friday when I saw him at the Expo and he was coming up when I was going down the other he was sure to quick to say hello and tell me how great I was.”
Dave Farra: “So you guys will never be friends again? Is this it?”
Shawn Tompkins: “Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. As far as I’m concerned after I go to bed tonight I don’t remember who he is any more.”
Dave Farra: “Wow, those are some pretty harsh words but I’ve got to say I like it, I like the fact that you’re standing up for your business, for yourself and for your fighters, I think that’s honorable.”
Shawn Tompkins: “That’s what the sport’s all about and that’s why guys trust in me and believe in me because I do the same to them. I’ve got their back and I know they’ve got mine and that’s a lot than Kit Cope will ever have.”
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ariel is a …. stirrer.
I like Ariel as a reporter its just too bad he acted like a 12 year old boy when Cope mentioned he had a tape. And from the bitter boyfriend department, I’m curious what was he doing on mma junkie radio in the 1st place; does he have a fight coming up or something else to promote?
I dunno why everyone’s acting like Ariel was so involved and immature, unless they got confused between Mo and Ariel.
[…] comments that ‘XTreme Fashion’ would cost her the fight. Here’s a transcript via Fight Opinion: Shawn Tompkins: “I know Gina Carano very well, this kind of stuff won’t bother her. She’s got […]
The Helwani-Cope conversation was disgusting, it was like listening to Beavis $ Butthead except not funny.
Cope sounds like a real wretch, so my main beef here is with Ariel Helwani. Shame on him.
As for Cope, I hope he gets his ass kicked soon.
Is Ariel trying to parlay his Versus spot into a TMZ gig?
Gotta love this Marcus Davis/Chris Lytle-like quote from Kit Cope on MMA Junkie:
“”That would be great. I’d love to push [Horodecki] around. It would be great. He’s wily enough to stand up with me, and that would be a great time. So far I haven’t found anybody that’s willing to do that.””
Hey, you know a surefire way to find people who are willing to stand up and trade strikes with you? Compete in kickboxing instead of mixed martial arts.
(quote from http://mmajunkie.com/news/15535/kit-cope-says-sex-tape-comments-just-a-joke-remains-steadfast-in-evaluation-of-shawn-tompkins.mma)
Cope is a douche but he nailed Carano so Im very envious of him.
Thompkins is getting a lot of press for his mouth and I find it funny that he thinks Cope is disrespectful when he went public with that Wanderlei thing (and we know Wandy has NEVER shown out of shape).
When it comes to MMA, I will go with a legend like Silva over the waterboy.
Seriously, Thompkins was a minor,minor league MMA fighter who is 0 and 4.
Those four losses were all by KO and all in the first round.
His credibility is zero until he wins a fight.
Maybe he could fight Tom Atencio and hope to win his first fight.
Cope might not be a great MMA fighter but he won a few Muay THai world titles so he has some skills in that martial art.
>just too bad he acted like a 12 year >old boy when Cope mentioned he had a >tape.
Youre either putting on an act or you are gay. EVERY guy at our gym drooled all over themselves when they heard the news, even the ones who dont hitnk shes that hot.