« Greg Jackson talks about coaching Jon Jones and his expectations of Jake Shields in the UFC | Home | Will we see an interim title created for the UFC Light Heavyweight division? »
Jamie Varner on Kamal Shalorus kicking him in the nuts three times and facing Donald Cerrone in his next fight
By Zach Arnold | July 28, 2010
KENNY RICE: “It ends in a very controversial draw.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Yeah, that was tough. It was a tough pill to swallow but honestly, and I’m trying to be as positive about the whole situation as possible, you know… Did I see some flaws in the reffing and maybe some of the judging? Yeah. But you know I’m not going to take away from Kamal (Shalorus), he’s a tough dude. He’s by far the toughest guy I’ve ever fought. I mean he’s a world-class wrestler, so I mean there were a lot of moral victories in that fight you know, being able to get the low blows, take three of them, and still keep on fighting was huge. To stop half of his takedown attempts, I mean he shot on me twice, only took me down once, I mean this is a world-class wrestler. This guy was an Olympic ultimate Iranian national champion and to be able to stay in the pocket and throw bombs and fight through some of the adversity and the injuries.”
BAS RUTTEN: “The low kicks, also, man he attacked your legs pretty hard.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Yeah, I mean, I was lucky, man. He was throwing those kicks and I thought he was going to try to just throw punches and take me down. So the kicks caught me off-guard, but I made him pay for a couple of those kicks so he’s a little bit more scared to come in. If those would have been shin, I would have been done after five, six kicks. But they were all foot so I was lucky enough that I was able to just keep him off. I’d rather take the foot than the shin. I mean anybody that’s ever fought, ever taken a kick, you’d much rather take the foot than the shin.”
KENNY RICE: “Let’s look at the smack track numbers here. This is some smack tracking here. Shalorus 53 leg strikes attempted, 32 lands. And then Jamie, as you mentioned, you got 1 out of 2 of his takedown attempts. Only one point for those multiple strikes to the groin.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Three hits.”
KENNY RICE: “Do you wonder, should it have been stopped after the third time? Should have been the end of it”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yep.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Uh, I don’t know. See I don’t want to look at it like that.”
KENNY RICE: “When you a kick a guy three times in the crotch, you know, forget it.”
(snip)
JAMIE VARNER: “Well, that was his style for that fight. His whole game plan was to slow me down. I’m quick on my feet, I like to throw punches, I’m in-and-out, I was constantly moving. That’s the way you got to fight a guy who’s either trying to take your head off with punches or take your down. You got to be a moving target and that was my game plan going into it and his game plan was to slow me down. But I personally feel that… had those groin shots had not happened, could the fight have turned out a little bit differently? I want to say yes, but the judges that were reffing that fight, I mean… where are those guys coming from? I don’t… they saw the fight. I felt like I got the better of him. Any damaging blow that was thrown was one that I threw. You know, he didn’t land anything that hurt me. I think I got hit with like four or five punches total. His leg kicks were the most devastating weapon that he had and they weren’t doing anything to me. It would have been one been like the Urijah Faber/Jose Aldo where I was limping and just falling to my back, you know, I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t fight, but I was I mean I was moving, I was able to still tag him with some punches. But I don’t think it was malicious intent, but he definitely after the second time probably should have stopped.”
KENNY RICE: “(Cowboy) Cerrone coming up next for you. How’s this coming? You’re training now. You’re back in. You’re rested up. What’s this going to be like?”
JAMIE VARNER: “I’m excited, man. Everybody in their life has those question marks whether it be school, a girl, whatever. There’s always those question marks. What if you would have done something (different)? What if something would have ended up differently? Well, this is my opportunity to go back in time and change that question mark. And I’m looking forward to this fight. I don’t personally feel that Donald really deserves to fight me. I think this is one of those ‘business opportunities’ here. It’s a marquee match-up. It’s a you know a lot of people are going to want to see this and… I don’t know if it’s moving me in the right direction towards that world title, but knocking Cerrone out will feel really, really good. It’ll be awesome to beat him up… AGAIN. And then, you know, I don’t think they can really deny that I deserve a title shot after knocking out Cerrone.”
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |