Rashad Evans: “I was definitely on queer street there” during the UFC 114 main event with Rampage Jackson
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2010
Watch Rashad Evans: Rampage Jackson Blew It on RawVegas.tv
Full page-mode gets you the transcript of this Rashad Evans post-fight interview, along with a Frank Mir interview where he talks about why he isn’t WEC color commentator any more.
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Badr Hari’s “Mike Tyson moment” against Hesdy Gerges
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2010
Click the picture to watch the video!
At least he didn’t chew the guy’s ear off. However, what he did on Saturday night gave Alistair Overeem an avenue to make a joke that Badr Hari was booked for DREAM in July — giving MMA Twitterphiles a heart attack in the process.
The crowd heat at Amsterdam Arena for the Badr Hari vs. Hesdy Gerges match promoted by Simon Rutz’s It’s Showtime promotion was amazing. The Dutch crowds have always had great reputations for heat and this fight was no exception.
The lead television announcer for the fight set the stage this way:
“This is going to be an absolute war because, let me tell you, there is no love lost between these two men in the ring right now at all.
“In the black shorts with the red gloves, the bad boy, the Showtime Express, Badr Hari!”
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Nick Diaz: If the money was right, I would drop down in weight to fight Shinya Aoki… but not if DREAM uses a cage again
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2010
A very interesting interview from Nick Diaz, who beat Hayato Sakurai at Saitama Super Arena on Saturday — in a cage. And as Nick noted, the DREAM cage is ‘not safe’ and he makes sure to state the reasons why it’s not safe to fight in.
The big takeaway, besides the Aoki headline, is that Diaz hates fighting in a cage and hates the Unified rules. Money talks and BS walks, which is why I think we’ll see him in the UFC shortly. That said, what his heart is telling him is very different than what he may end up doing for upcoming fights.
Full transcript of quotes available in full-page mode.
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Chael Sonnen: I’m the only one in four years calling out Anderson Silva and “every 85-pounder and every 205-pounder and everybody else in the UFC’s a bunch of cowards”
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2010
Larry Pepe of Pro MMA Radio has brought the goods from this past weekend at the UFC Fan Expo. A tip of the cap to him.
You can read the transcription of quotes from this interview in full-page mode.
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Dana White: I thought Rampage Jackson looked good at UFC 114
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2010
Some quotes from an in-depth interview with Dana White on MMAFighting.com where he talked about the whole card in general.
I’m only quoting the beginning portion relating to the UFC 114 main event.
Are you surprised by the outcome of the fight?
“No. I… you know, I don’t think anybody’s shocked that this was Rashad’s game plan. It was the right game plan, you know, I thought he was going to use his speed, agility, and athleticism to you know move in, get in some quick shots, move out. I thought he was going to try to stay away, get the takedowns, whatever he could, and I thought that Rampage was going to come forward, you know, throwing leather and hoping to catch him and knock him out.”
Rampage Jackson said that he didn’t feel like himself out there. What did you think of his performance?
“I thought he looked good, you know, I thought he looked good. I didn’t think he looked, everybody was talking about how tired he was, I didn’t think he looked that exhausted. When he did catch Rashad in that third round he went after it and got him. Rashad just, you know, Rashad got out, man. Rashad looked strong tonight, he looked agile, he looked explosive, he was ready. I mean, all you had to do is watch the Countdown show and see the training that he was going through and you knew Rashad was going to be ready for this fight.”
- Kevin Iole: Rampage/Evans fails to live up to billing and would have been an acceptable mid-card match performance
- Gareth A. Davies (London Telegraph): Rashad showed perfect game plan, but the fight was a let down
Did the UFC 114 main event live up to the hype?
“Yeah, I think the fight… You know, obviously it was a huge hyped-up fight and I think that the fight went exactly the way I thought it was going to go. People were asking me who I thought was going to win, I said I have no idea but I bet this is the way it’s going to go and I explained it pretty much the way it happened.”
There seemed to be a very different feeling, a different buzz about this fight than other fights.
“No doubt about it. This was a huge weekend for MMA, you know. First of all, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever done more PR for a fight than I did this week. I’ve been working my ass off this week and you know with the launch of the video game, this huge fight this weekend, the Expo this weekend, there was just there was a lot of UFC going on this week and you know it translated. People were buzzing about it and people were into it.”
What’s next for Rampage? Is his heart still in fighting?
“Yeah. I think that this is what… listen, you know, there’s a lot of [expletive] on the Internet and people talk stuff. The grass is never greener on the other side and make no mistake about it, this is where Rampage makes his money. You know, this is where he makes a lot of money, so… I think he realizes, listen, it was a win-win for everybody. He made a great movie, something to be proud of and from what I hear, he killed it in this movie and did a great job, so you know and there’s no doubt that this movie’s going to be the big smash Summer hit. And he came in and got this fight, Rashad was the winner tonight, Rampage will jump back in line and start all over again.”
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Moments of truth coming out of the UFC 114 event
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
“Moments away from the biggest fight in UFC history.” Stop it, Mike Goldberg. If the FCC opened up a Hall of Shameless for television personalities, Mike Goldberg would join Kevin Trudeau, Donald Barrett, Victor Davis Hanson, and Klee Irwin for “Most Hyperbolic television personality.”
Then, Joe Rogan kept saying that 9,000 people showed up at yesterday’s weigh-ins when most media reports claimed half the number at 4,500. Seriously?
Of course, every bit of anecdotal evidence suggests a monster buy rate. Jordan Breen:
Sidenote: lot of emailers saying they’ve called to order PPV, and their cable providers have remarked that they’re being swamped for UFC.
Dong Hyun Kim’s choke on Amir Sadollah using Amir’s own elbow was one of those moves you watch and you say, “How humiliating and torturous.” That would have been a forever-lasting image if Sadollah had been choked out that way in the fight. Why was Kim a +140 underdog going into this fight?
How can Diego Sanchez’s career be rescued?
Mike Tyson at an UFC event just begs for him to do a completely random run-in and say something goofy. Oh, if only he had been the special guest referee for Rampage vs. Rashad…
The conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with the scoring for the Antonio Rogerio Nogueira/Jason Brilz fight. Holy $&$! Jason Brilz and Mike Russow as trending topics on Twitter proves the enormous branding power of UFC. This would never happen in any other fight promotion.
Everyone started doing their best Steve Cofield impersonation by crapping on Mike Russow for being “a bad body” and then, a funny thing happened… Josh Gross:
For those of you saying the punch was weak or Duffee has no chin, take a perfect shot on the temple from a 253 pound man & see how you fair.
And Dana White’s response: “Holy [expletive] [expletive]!!!!!”
Joey Odessa picking Dan Miller to beat Michael Bisping — stupid pick or brilliant work to get fish to put money on a losing proposition? If it’s the latter, should Jordan Breen be bringing him onto his show?
Speaking of Jordan, am I going to have to endure more “grown men fight five round fights” talk?
Rampage is going to win this round and we’re gonna get a lame decision. This is why grown men fight five rounds.
You know what all five-round MMA fights would get you? What you got on the CBS card last April in Nashville, that’s what. I can accept arguments for the PRIDE-style time set-up with a 10 minute round and 5 each after because a 10- minute round changes the dynamics for submission artists who can take advantage of the longer time frame. But the idea of every fight under Unified rules being five rounds? No thanks.
Tomas Rios actually scored round three of Rampage vs. Rashad a 10-10 round. Dave Meltzer treatment says no 10-10 scores! Rashad Evans won the main event with two judges giving him a 30-27 score? Hey, what was that again about people who want judges ‘who know the sport’ being ‘fricking retarded’? Just checking.
Rashad Evans is going to get massacred by Mauricio Shogun in the upcoming UFC Light Heavyweight title fight.
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Your event thoughts — UFC 114 MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (5/29/2010)
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Jesse Forbes vs. Ryan Jensen
- Lightweights: Aaron Riley vs. Joe Brammer
- Light Heavyweights: Luiz Cane vs. Cyrille Diabate
- Lightweights: Melvin Guillard vs. Waylon Lowe
Spike TV preliminary matches
- Lightweights: Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon
- Welterweights: Amir Sadollah vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Main card
- Welterweights: Diego Sanchez vs. John Hathaway
- Light Heavyweights: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Jason Brilz
- Heavyweights: Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow
- Middleweights: Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller
- Light Heavyweights (#1 contender’s match): Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Rashad Evans
The odds for the main event are a pick ’em — -115 for both Rampage and Rashad.
Make your predictions and be willing to stand by them even if they don’t pan out after Saturday night.
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Urijah Faber: “From the sound of things, it sounds like they’re going to want me to go down to 35”
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
They, meaning the WEC/Zuffa. Transcript of the main portion of the video:
LARRY PEPE: “Urijah, of course, first question. How you feeling and how’s the leg?”
URIJAH FABER: “It’s much better, you know. It got real big for a little big and then it’s gotten a lot smaller. It’s smaller than it was before the fight. Working on building some muscle back there and kind of getting a game plan on when I’m going to fight again. not 100% sure when, but it’s going to be fairly soon.”
LARRY PEPE: “So you feel like you’re ready to get back to training and get back in the cage?”
URIJAH FABER: “Yeah, I’ve been doing something you know for (being) active the whole time. It’s just a matter of you know when I’m going to be 100% and it shouldn’t be too long.”
LARRY PEPE: “So, of course, the other big question is — 135? 145? Where do you want to be in this next time?”
URIJAH FABER: “Well… from the sound of things, it sounds like they’re going to want me to go down to 35s. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, go down and have some fights down there. So i’ll probably have a couple of fights down there, maybe go back up to 45s. We’re not real sure, yet.”
URIJAH FABER: LARRY PEPE: “So, do you think the time off, you said the leg got a little smaller, maybe you lost a little bit of that muscle you put, maybe that helps you make 135?”
URIJAH FABER: “Well, I mean, I’m a small 45-pounder. So, all though college I was 133 pounds. It wasn’t like a, you know, it’s been a hard cut from 45 so I’m probably a natural 35-pounder, it won’t be difficult for me. But I’d like to get the muscle back and still make 35s.”
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Talk Radio (UFC 114): How much has the unnecessary racial remarks damaged the impact of UFC’s first main event with two Black fighters?
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
Any time you deal with a topic as sensitive as this, there’s always a mine trap or a firework you step on. I thought the Sherdog radio round-table on Friday handled this subject about as well as they possibly could and do so in an honest fashion.
I’ve give you a sample of some of the conversation, but full-page mode will get you all the quotes. Trust me, this is well worth your time reading. It took me a while to type this out, so give it a read and respond in the comments section as to what you think about the topic matter at hand.
Does Rashad Evans even know what he’s talking about?
JORDAN BREEN: “One of the major things in building up the card has recently been the Ali/Frazier I type of race baiting that’s gone on. Tomas, anything to take away from it? Do you think that it actually offers anything greater or is that simply the hook that had to be used this time around because it is a sort of conspicuous difference the fact that we do have two prominent Black fighters in a main event which is very a-typical for MMA at this point in time?”
TOMAS RIOS: “Race-baiting never adds anything because most professional athletes don’t even know what race-baiting really is. I mean, you have Rashad Evans one day calls Rampage an ‘Uncle Tom’ and then the next day calls him a ‘Sambo’ which pretty much shows you how much he knows what he’s talking about. It’s just a really unfortunate thing. Any time race-baiting comes up in sports or in any context, it’s unfortunate. It takes away from it. Barring that, though, the hype for this show has been very well executed.”
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Talk Radio (UFC 114): Which main eventer is hurt more by a loss and who’s a better match-up for Shogun?
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
From Friday’s Sherdog radio show, two interesting questions with two different answers.
As for which fighter would get hurt more by a loss, it’s clearly Rashad Evans. I would guess that he would contemplate a move down to Middleweight (185 pounds) if Rampage Jackson overpowers him and blows him out of the water tonight.
As for which fighter is a better match for Mauricio Shogun, it’s clearly Rampage. Better chance in the stand-up game and more powerful on the ground, which would result in making Shogun work harder and expend more energy.
Go to full-page mode to view quotes and opinions on these two questions.
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UFC 114: Sportsbook guy Joey Odessa says Rashad Evans will win all three rounds against Rampage Jackson and Dan Miller will beat Michael Bisping
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
He never fails to raise eyebrows and was on his game during this radio interview on Friday with Jordan Breen.
“The two plays that I like the most, I really like (Dan) Miller and I think that contrary to the entire world I think this is going to be an easy night for Rashad Evans and the reason I think it’s going to be an easy night for Rashad is I think Greg Jackson has Rashad at a good place, he came back, he beat Thiago Silva, and you know that was kind of his test, that was his litmus test right there. They put him to the test with Silva and he bounced back well and he’s mature and I think if he doesn’t let his ego get the best of him or even if the crowd noise, if he fights a smart fight I think he could win all three rounds against Rampage (Jackson). I think Rampage might have to knock him out to beat him.”
Click on full-page mode to view what Joey Odessa thinks is the best parlay play for UFC 114, along with his thoughts on other fighters including why he thinks Dan Miller will beat Michael Bisping.
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UFC 114: Fans on Rampage’s side and talking heads are starting to pick Rampage to win
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2010
For MMA writers brave enough to make predictions earlier in the week instead of waiting at the last-minute, the feeling was that Rashad Evans would beat Quinton Jackson by decision. Now that the time has come for writers to put their asses on the line, it seems like “the safe pick” is now Jackson by KO. (I don’t know why MMA writer fight predictions have a lot of meaning.)
In this discussion between Kevin Iole & Steve Cofield of Yahoo Sports, they give their explanations on why they think Rampage will win the UFC 114 main event and why the fans hate Rashad Evans so much.
Transcript can be viewed in full-page mode.
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Dana White: Both Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans should be proud for making history, and what they’ve said isn’t anything worse than what you’ve heard before
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2010
I’m not sure if calling another fighter an ‘Uncle Tom’ in 2010 is exactly racial progress, but clearly UFC President Dana White (in this interview with MMAFighting.com) really had little bad to say about the way things are playing out for Saturday night’s fight. When you see the dollar signs and hear the cash register cha-chinging, well, money talks and BS walks.
Josh Gross on Sports Illustrated says that Dana White missed the mark on whether or not he should have jumped aboard the racial language bandwagon to sell a PPV:
(Dana) White, obviously, is not accountable for words he didn’t say. But he is responsible for the use of those words in pay-per-view advertisements that seem to run every 10 minutes on television, none of which seems necessary. Imagine the NFL hyping a Sunday night matchup between Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens by pushing the “black-on-black crime” line McNabb said about his former teammate in 2005. It would never happen, and you know why. It’s inappropriate and out of place.
On television, Josh is right — the NFL would get heavily criticized for promoting such an event in that fashion. However, don’t think that the players themselves are above-the-fray in terms of using that language on and off the field.
Transcript of quotes from his interview with MMAFighting.com can be seen in full-page mode.
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