Scott Coker: Alistair Overeem was worth the wait. Hey, Gina Carano, call us!
By Zach Arnold | May 16, 2010
Comments from an MMAFighting.com interview he did after last night’s St. Louis event:
Thoughts on last night’s show and on Alistair Overeem being dominant
“Very happy and I think that the people that came here and the people that watched it on Showtime definitely got their money’s worth and you know I was really impressed with Alistair Overeem, who pretty much dominated Brett Rogers which I was surprised that he would be able to dominate in that fashion because Brett’s a guy that you know I was right here and we talked about this before, I was watching Fedor’s head bounce off the canvas going ‘Holy Cow, Brett’s going to knock out Fedor,’ and so for Alistair to show, he’s showed that he’s the guy to beat and I think he’s a guy that you know if Fedor beats Fabricio (Werdum) we’ll sit down with M-1 and we’ll have a serious conversation about that fight happening because I think the fans would want to see it.”
Was there a sigh of relief that Overeem looked at good as he did given that he hasn’t fought in Strikeforce in 2 1/2 years?
“I mean, the prodigal son has returned, right? And, you know we waited for him and I kept telling my guys and you know and everybody saying, look, we’re going to wait for Alistair because you know he is injured, he was injured last you know last year, and he can show you on his knuckles where he had the infection that he got in his knuckle from an injury during sparring, so we waited for him and a lot of people were skeptical, should we do an interim title, but I’m glad that he waited for him and for the American public to see him on Showtime or at the live event here tonight, I think that it’s pretty impressive, you know.”
If Fedor beats Fabricio Werdum on 6/26 in San Jose, will a fight between Overeem and Fedor happen?
“I feel that we’ll have a good shot to do it and I think that it’s a fight that should happen. And you know when you talk about Strikeforce we’ve always tried to bring the fights that people want to see and that’s a fight we will work really hard to try to put together. Can I guarantee it? Absolutely not. It’s a fight that we’ll sit down with M-1 after the next fight with Fedor and we’ll have that conversation with M-1.”
Has Fedor not fought for the Strikeforce Heavyweight title because you are afraid that he would win it and run off with the belt and go elsewhere?
“No, that is not true at all because this situation was the timing of it, right? We were going through with our little dance with M-1, let’s say, while we put this fight together and if the stars would have been [aligned] Alistair would have been fighting Fedor in April on the CBS show. That’s what really what we were shooting for but you know Fedor is with M-1, we had situations with M-1 that he had some hiccups, we’re trying to fix that all that, we fixed it, and this fight was already announced and tickets were on-sale and we’re already down the road so, you know it’s just about timing and now after June, the timing can be perfect for this fight to happen.”
Will Alistair Overeem fight for Strikeforce again in 2010?
“Yes, absolutely, 100%. And I can tell you the deal that I made with them was, you know, before when I first started we didn’t have a television deal, we were more of a regional promotion, we didn’t have Showtime, we didn’t have the 150 fighters on our roster that we did, no CBS deal, no sponsors, no international TV deal, it was a live-gate business and you know we shared him with DREAM and PRIDE actually before that but now we have a direct contract with Alistair and we had a long talk 3-4 months ago and they assured me that he would be here to fight in the Summer and that he would fight 2-3 times before he went back to Japan to fight before the end of the year, so he will be here and we’re looking forward to showing him to the public.”
Will Feijao fight King Mo for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight title?
“I don’t want to say yes, I don’t want to say no, but I definitely think it was a step in the right direction. But I think you know he’s got a little I’m sure a little thorn in his side with that Mike Kyle fight, right? I’m sure he’ll probably want to fix that first and then move forward if he can, but I think we’re going to have some good fights for him and I think King Mo, he definitely will move forward and his stock definitely rose but you know we have to sit down and talk to King Mo and we’ll see what happens.”
The Strikeforce Middleweight picture is in limbo. Where does Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza fit into the mix now after his win over Joey Villasenor? Have you talked to Jake Shields recently? What is his status with SF?
“I would say Jacare is definitely right up in there mix, I mean, you know, let’s see how Robbie Lawler does with Babalu and you know let’s see what happens but Jacare is definitely you know developing into one of the best MMA fighters in the world. His ground skills are, you know, undeniable but you know I see some good stand-up out of him and I see some good wrestling and I see some good double-leg, single-leg takedowns from this guy so you know he’s developing into a real MMA fighter and you know he’s definitely going to be in mix.
And with Jake, you know everybody was basically here this week so we’ll pick it up again with his management next week. I personally have not talked to him (since April 17th), but my guys have.”
Did Jake Shields mugging the camera with Dana White bother you? Wasn’t that inappropriate by him?
“You know, here’s the thing. Everybody asks me that. I just think it’s silly. It’s really silly.”
“That’s something you have to ask Jake. I mean, to me, fighters sometimes do some things and you don’t know what the motivations are, but you know what, my job is put on these fights and we’re going to put these fights and I feel very lucky to have Showtime as a partner backing us and allow us to put the best fights and look at the fight card tonight, I thought it was amazing and I feel good that we got a good show under our belt.”
What is Andrei Arlovski’s future after he lost to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva on Saturday night in St. Louis?
“He’ll be back. He’s not going to end like that, I know he’ll back, but, you know I think it’s really going to be up to him. I think at some point he’s going to have to look in the mirror and like Alistair said, he lost three fights in a row, and then really took an internal look at his whole personal life, his training, his friends, you know, everything, and you know because he ahd three losses in a row when he kind of took that step back to evaluate and I think that, you know, with Andrei he’s going to have to do that.”
Will we see Roger Gracie back in Strikeforce in 2010?
“Absolutely. You know we’re not going to see him over the Summer because he’s going to be fighting in the Abu Dhabi championships and I think June-July is busy for him but you’ll see him back and I’m proud of the guy, I think that he did a good job and Kevin Randleman’s no joke and for him to get him down, submit him, is impressive.”
Why is Jan Finney and not Erin Toughill facing Cyborg on 6/26 in San Jose?
“Erin Toughill wanted to take some time off and come back in late July-August and we told her that’s fine and so we’ll see Erin Toughill probably in Strikeforce in July or August and then we’ll offer her to Cyborg if Cyborg beats Jan Finney, we’ll offer her to Cyborg before the end of the year.”
“I mean, we haven’t talked to Gina and I think she’s still doing her movie thing. So, we will be reaching out. Gina, we miss you, and give us a call.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his own words: Upset about how much Zuffa got for selling 10% of UFC and how the company treats their fighters
By Zach Arnold | May 16, 2010
Doing this transcription was a challenge, which is why I’m embedding the video so you can listen to the audio while reading the transcript of quotes here. If I didn’t get the accuracy 100%, you can match up what I wrote with what the audio indicates.
I’ll tell you my impression of the interview after you read the quotes.
Rampage would have liked to have been with Machida on The Ultimate Fighter
“Well, I would have been prefer like to get The Ultimate Fighter against Machida. To fix the problem back in the day from square one, you know what I’m saying, to X Rashad out because he don’t got the damn belt but Machida’s English is not so good so I just felt I had to fight Rashad, he all cocky and he think he did something good because he’s on The Ultimate Fighter but like dude you just got knocked the hell out, you’re on Ultimate Fighter by default because the dude that knocked you out don’t speak English, bro, don’t be coming here acting like that, you know what I’m saying? This is the type of thing I’m dealing with, it’s just annoying actually. But you know, all that been said, I trained when it’s said and done, I feel like fighting Rashad is taking a step backwards but I think it’s worked out and everything, I think this will be a nice warm-up fight for Shogun, you know what I’m saying.
“Everybody knows I took time off, you know it would be stupid to go right into like a big title fight with Shogun. So this will be a good test for me, a good warm-up fight and if I lose to Rashad, then I don’t even deserve to get my belt back.”
Facing Shogun the first time in PRIDE
“Hey, the fight with Shogun, it wasn’t me. I wasn’t, I was already injured, you know what I’m saying? I didn’t want to make that be known before the fight, tell everybody ‘oh I’m injured,’ fighters always do that. You know what I’m saying, we get asked, ‘How you doing?” and like, “I’m in the best shape.” We don’t go and tell people, we don’t want our opponent to know, but I can tell you now years ago, for the first three weeks of that camp, I did a six week camp. Back in those days I only did six weeks because I stayed training year-round because of PRIDE they could tell you whenever to fight, so I was in shape year-round. So the first three weeks, the camp was going good. I was in really good cardio shape and everything and I got an ankle injury where I couldn’t run anymore, that’s the only way I got my cardio and back then, PRIDE first round was 10 minutes and Shogun was known to have good cardio, so you know what I’m saying, I should have just backed out of the fight you know what I’m saying, but you know I was you know I was like, “he hadn’t fought nobody in PRIDE, just a couple of Japanese guys,” I didn’t think he was that good you know at the time and he crashed me right away, boom, took me out. And he hurt my rib, yeah, he hurt my rib with knees, totally unexpected, he jumped on me right away. I tried to pace myself, go back and watch the fight, I’m trying to pace myself so I don’t get tired in the first round and Shogun just jumped on me and that fight has haunt me, has haunt me all this time. Now it’s still haunting me and it’s time to get him back and then I had another similar thing with Forrest, you know what I’m saying, I didn’t train properly, I got injured in camp, I got those healed up but I had some injuries that could have ended the fight, I was way overweight and didn’t train and believing my own crap you know because I was the champion, just won the undisputed belt like you know I got a little injured with Dan Henderson in the fight and all I had was like a little ligament right here on my pinky and I ended up not training at all, you know what I’m saying I could have kept running and something but I’m being all like “oh, I’m hurt,” you know what I’m saying, and get another loss and you would think that you know what I’m saying that I would learn from the fight with Shogun not to go into a fight not prepared but in my mind I thought I would be prepared except because I thought like, oh Forrest coming out of The Ultimate Fighter, he got a glass jaw, he beat this fight, and now that fight haunts me so.”
“I know I won the fight, but you know what I’m saying, it’s still one of the thing that haunts you you know what I’m saying, it’s on your record, I know mentally I won that fight that he didn’t whoop me, he didn’t whoop my ass you know what I’m saying.”
How Rampage sees his upcoming fight schedule if he could control things
“I had to deal with it, but yeah, I want to go, I want to get Rashad a nice warm-up fight, kick his ass, fight Shogun, redeem myself for my sleep, for my mind, and then go and just beat the hell out of Forrest, retire. Retirement. Only reason why is because the way Forrest acted afterwards when he know he lost the fight and you go back and watch the footage when they said you know he won, he was so surprised you know what I’m saying, I said that fight was a controversial fight just like Shogun/Machida I was controversial, you know what I’m saying it’s one of those things, but look at me, you know what I’m saying, you know Forrest is the golden boy, he’s the one who made the UFC with The Ultimate Fighter, him and Stephan Bonnar, you know what I’m saying, you know so they have their things, I have my things.”
How Rampage views his relationship with UFC
“Well, really, to be honest like it’s on my management, my manager wanted me to work things out and stuff like that, it’s still hard dealing with the UFC except now you know what I’m saying, you know those guys you know what I’m saying, if I had my way I still would be retired you know what I’m saying. I want to promote my own, I want to be like De La Hoya, you know what I’m saying? I don’t need the UFC, I don’t need the UFC banner. I don’t need the way they don’t want you to make you money to (stop business with) your partners or steal your sponsors, they do all this, you know what I’m saying? Man, let us make money, they just sold 10% of the company for $100 million? Like, I’m going to tell you how I am this and this is real and God knows if I’m lying. If I had a big company and I sold my big company for, a piece of my company, 10% of my company for $100 million, I would give some of the fighters that helped me make [unintelligible] contract, I would hook them up, I would hook them up big time. I would choose like you know what I’m saying the top fighters you know what I’m saying each weight class, hook them up, you know what I’m saying, go do something for them you know what I’m saying, I would like I would do something for them, give them a nice expensive car, a nice watch, any thing tax-write off [unintelligible], you know what I’m saying, I would hook them up, you know what I’m saying, just how I am because the UFC ain’t did it with just their name. Like I said before, you put two UFC symbols in that cage, see how many PPVs they get. Let the two UFC symbols fight each other. See, what people don’t know, what people don’t understand is not all about your name or UFC, it’s about the characters, it’s about the people inside that Octagon, you know what I’m saying, the whole package deal, they don’t realize that. Yeah, you know what I’m saying, they can keep making new fighters and stuff like that, some people can’t be emulated you know what I’m saying?”
Rampage’s thoughts on doing The Ultimate Fighter
“Everybody get a call from TUF. That ain’t nothing special. Like, you know, doing TUF and how much work goes into it and it’s eight, six weeks, that’s your life, you know what I’m saying, and Vegas, you know how much that cost? I could have bought the company myself with how much money I spend in the clubs in Vegas, now that’s my fault, but if I’m Vegas I’m in Vegas, it is my personality, you know what I’m saying. I spent that money you know what I’m saying, I lose money every time I do Ultimate Fighter. But you know what I’m saying, it’s just my point view of things you know what I’m saying.”
Why Rampage doesn’t like the way UFC does business
“I don’t care if the UFC don’t like I say or not, you know what I’m saying. For years, you know what I’m saying, I fought in the UFC and I didn’t agree with a lot of stuff but I kept my mouth shut, I didn’t say nothing, you know what I’m saying, things that didn’t go right, I kept my mouth shut, I didn’t say anything. You know what I’m saying, but it’s hard to keep your mouth shut when people just keep stepping on you ,you know what I’m saying? People can only take so much, you know what I’m saying. I still say that the UFC has a lot of good qualities and stuff like that. Yeah, I re-signed a contract with them, you know what I’m saying, it’s no secret, I got six more fights with the UFC and stuff like that but like right away they messed things up, right away, already I’m not happy with them again, right away.”
—
I came away from this interview a little depressed, a little alarmed, and a little concerned.
- Depressed because it seems Rampage squanders some of his ability because he has no discipline.
- Alarmed because this is a guy who can barely work with managers and business representation and now he thinks he has the discipline to be a promoter? He has enough trouble picking business partners that he doesn’t dump overboard every other year.
- Concerned because something doesn’t entirely seem right here with him. Even though I agree with him on several points that he made about his frustrations with doing business with UFC, the truth is that he’s not considering “the other side” at all in this equation. Let’s go see Rampage set up an office and try to promote an MMA show to draw 2,000 people, let alone a casino with 15,000. Let’s see him try to run an office of over 100 employees day-to-day. You know and I know how that would work out.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The good, the bad, and the ugly coming out of Strikeforce’s event in St. Louis
By Zach Arnold | May 15, 2010
Josh Gross said the attendance for tonight’s show was 8,136.
Really questionable judging
Missouri’s commission is ran by Tim Lueckenhoff, who is the head of the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions). He is someone who UFC regulatory czar Marc Ratner says should be involved in recruiting new MMA judges and referees. Tim might want to try helping out his state first before he decides to help out the rest of the country.
Really, really questionable announcing on the Showtime broadcast team
Every time one of your friends tells you that they are tired of Mike Goldberg shilling and Joe Rogan going off on a crazy tangent, just tell your friend to listen to those two call a match and then tell them to watch a Showtime “main team” broadcast. (Sorry, Mauro.) Trying to force concepts from a piece of paper, cram a million different things down your throat, and have guys sometimes go out of their comfort zone on opinions creates an unbearable situation. The announcing lately on the Strikeforce telecasts for “the main team” is detracting, not adding to the product.
I hope that the announcing team for next week’s event in Portland is better.
The end of Andrei Arlovski and a re-birth for Antonio Silva
It’s sad to see the ex-UFC champion go out the way he has, but he’s made a lot more money than a lot of fighters in the business. I tip my cap to him for his years of service as a fighter. As for Bigfoot Silva, I’m not sure he’s a Top 10 heavyweight right now (given his stamina issues), but he’s certainly picking up technique. Late bloomer?
The media’s flip-flopping on Alistair Overeem
Going into this fight, Brett Rogers was the fashionable pick to win. Frank Shamrock played his up gimmick by saying that he wanted Rogers to knock out Overeem because Overeem is arrogant. Jon Anik on Tapout radio was firm in picking Rogers. So were a lot of other people. The media, before this fight, largely wasted their time focusing entirely on Overeem not answering steroid questions. (As if he’s the only one who is questionable as far as doping in the business is concerned.)
I’m glad that the coverage coming out of this fight is about Overeem’s skill. Given the media’s predictably, I fully expect those who “boycotted” him this week to bring up steroid allegations in passing, but note that it will be in passing. Alistair Overeem is a legitimate K-1 fighter and anyone with high-level skill like him or Badr Hari will always pose a major threat in an MMA fight. There’s a reason Joe Rogan always talks about K-1 level striking on commentary — because it means something.
Hell, I remember the days of watching Valentijn Overeem when Chris Dolman booked him for Akira Maeda in RINGS. Never thought that Alistair would become what he has become, but I’m happy to see him execute to his maximum potential.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The heat-up for Strikeforce in St. Louis and Rampage Jackson is unhappy with UFC, again
By Zach Arnold | May 15, 2010
Preview of coming attractions tonight on Showtime
- MMA Junkie: Storyline heading in and coming out of Strikeforce St. Louis show is about Fedor
- Rogers Sportsnet: Alistair Overeem doesn’t care what you think about him
- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: MMA heavyweight Brett Rogers takes next big step (profile article worth your time to read)
- USA Today: Story going into St. Louis event — can Strikeforce recover from disappointing Nashville event?
- Heavy: How watching “The Ultimate Fighter” changed Lyle ‘Fancy Pants’ Beerbohm’s life
- Leland Roling: Can Andrei Arlovski overcome mental miscues to defeat Antonio Silva?
- Yahoo Sports: Alistair Overeem destroys a sledgehammer
Quinton Jackson wants to be MMA’s version of Oscar De La Hoya
Caught this item where he says he wants to be a promoter and would like to be retired as a fighter.
Other MMA headlines
- ESPN UK: Georges St. Pierre plans to change tactics for Josh Koscheck re-match
- The Chronicle Herald (Canada): Auditions taking place for new Halifax-based reality show that turns average citizens into MMA fighters
- The State Journal-Register: Matt Mitrione says rumor about him fight Joey Beltran is false and that person who started the rumor apologized to him for floating it
- San Jose Mercury-News: Jose Canseco returning to the Bay Area to train MMA with Cesar Gracie
- ESPN: Seven new ‘EA Sports MMA’ screens
- Fox Business: Letter of intent signed for creating new Tapout Training Center in Los Angeles
- MMA Torch: Bobby Lashley vs. Ron Sparks set for 6/16 in Los Angeles
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DREAM 5/29 Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | May 15, 2010
Start time – 16:00 (4 PM JST)
Just added:
Main card:
- Catch Weight (88 kg): Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie
- Welterweights: Hayato Sakurai vs. Nick Diaz
- Featherweights: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Kenji Osawa
- Featherweights: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Joachim Hansen
- Featherweights: Hideo Tokoro vs. Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura
- Featherweights: Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takafumi Otsuka
The media spin so far on this match announcement is that if Sakurai loses, this could be his final match. Sakurai is promising a career revival. DREAM relayed comments from Nick Diaz about the fight and Diaz said that he was completely confident that he would beat Sakurai in the same manner in which he beat Marius Zaromski.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Major questions arise from Strikeforce’s “drug testing program”
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
As you’ve read on this site throughout the week, Scott Coker has been pretty vague in interviews about the issue of making drug testing more stringent in Mixed Martial Arts. Give credit where credit is due — Eddie Goldman was the one who put him on the spot. We posted the transcript of Mr. Coker’s comments on the site and the reaction we got was voluminous.
The takeaway from our readership is one of skepticism. Now, to counterbalance that opinion, there is a media report that Strikeforce drug tested their fighters at a St. Louis hotel with a “local independent laboratory” doing the drug testing.
The article raises more questions than it does answers on the issue of drug testing for the promotion.
Why did the promotion suddenly feel the need to do this? The stated reason is “spurred on in part by the Missouri Office of Athletics’ policy of conducting only random testing.”
What? Every state does random testing. In the case of a few states, it’s the main-eventers who get tested. “Only random testing.” What the heck is that about?
The idea of testing all the fighters on a card is good. In fact, I wish all the athletic commissions used that standard. So, on the surface, drug testing all the fighters is a good step forward.
What is the name of this independent drug testing laboratory and why wasn’t it revealed in media reports? What is the laboratory’s reputation? Is the testing standard urine testing? (Addendum: Josh Gross reports that the name of the drug-testing outfit is called Drug Testing Network. Urine-based testing. Here is what DTN claims their urine tests can detect.)
Remember, the discussion about drug testing in the Eddie Goldman interview was about using blood-based Olympic-style drug testing in MMA, similar to what Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley used for their May 1st boxing fight. If the drug testing being done here by the promotion is the standard urine-based testing, will it really prevent cheaters from cheating?
Why is this promotion doing their own drug testing program in Missouri but not in other states independently? This gets back to the “random drug testing” question in Missouri. If all states do random drug testing, including California and Nevada, then why is Strikeforce’s drug testing policy only happening in Missouri and not happening in other commission states?
In short, it’s a panic PR move (in my opinion) in response to the unbelievable MMA media swarm on Alistair Overeem. Pure and simple. This move is not about serious, independent drug-testing for all shows — and as stated by Ben Fowlkes, this drug testing policy won’t happen any further after the event. How can people take these drug testing results seriously then?
Where’s SF’s version of Marc Ratner to watch over the testing? UFC uses Quest Diagnostics. Quest is a big name. Who from Strikeforce is in the Marc Ratner role of overseeing this drug testing policy?
Strikeforce’s strange local drug testing procedures won’t answer any questions in regards to the constant media drumbeat about Alistair Overeem. If he passes a urinalysis, then people say he’s using a masking agent. If he fails the test, then he will be called stupid for failing “an IQ test.” Without a blood-based drug testing solution, the criticism will simply continue.
In the Ben Fowlkes article, Coker is quoted as saying that if anyone fails a test that they will be suspended like they would if they failed a drug test in California or Nevada.
First off, how is this promotion going to be able to enforce such a suspension outside of not booking a fighter? If that happens, the fighter could conceivably sue the promotion in court.
Second, how is the promotion going to get all athletic commission to go along with their drug test ruling if the commission didn’t administer the test on their own? Strikeforce matchmaker Rich Chou claims that if a fighter fails a drug test that the Missouri commission will work with them on punishment.
Third, how is this going to stop fighters from taking bookings in other countries if they fail a test and Strikeforce won’t book them in America? (Answer: They can’t. Nick Diaz won’t get booked by Strikeforce due to the Nashville brawl, but he’s fighting in two weeks for DREAM at Saitama Super Arena.)
Finally, take note of this quote from the Ben Fowlkes article:
“It’s just to make it clear to everyone that all the fighters are going to be tested, and I believe they’ll test clean,” Coker said.
How would he know that everyone is clean? Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva already failed a steroid test. Who is to say that fighters on this card aren’t cheating?
Overall, this story raises a lot of red flags to me and could do just as much damage as it could benefit the promotion in a public relations manner. Also, it doesn’t address what Eddie Goldman asked about in the first place, which is the idea of using Olympic-style drug testing to catch up with cheaters who are 8-10 years ahead of the curve.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Alistair Overeem: I didn’t fight in Strikeforce the last couple of years because there were no opponents for me to fight
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
Every time I listen to an interview of his, including this new one with MMAFighting.com, I find him to be one of the more unique talkers in Mixed Martial Arts. He doesn’t care what you think about what he says — he just says what is on his mind without screaming. He manages to anger so many people and gets paid to fight. Life is pretty good for him right now.
“I’m feeling good. I’m feeling excited to fight in the States again. I’m fired up. Preparation went really well. I’m ready to go. I’m ready to show great technique and ready to show a great fight.”
And with that, here’s some quotes from his MMAFighting.com interview:
Do you prepare differently for fights when you are fighting in America versus in other countries?
“No, actually not. Nah, not really, you focus on yourself, you focus on the conditioning and sparring and all the usual stuff that everybody does, I guess. And yeah, it’s not really different. This is going to be in a cage. In Europe or Japan it’s in the ring, but it’s not very different.”
How has Strikeforce changed since the last time you fought for the promotion? It certainly has become much bigger.
“Yes I have because when I won the title there was nobody else for me to fight then because the Heavyweight division was scattered over Affliction, UFC, Elite, and now there’s a lot of more guys for me to fight so that’s why I’m fighting here again and that’s why you can expect to see a lot of more this year.”
“Definitely.”
There are lots of new MMA fans who will see you for the first time or will be seeing you for the first time in the States. Why didn’t you fight in the States for the last 2-3 years?
“It’s a combination of factors. It was not a choice, but like I said when I won the title there was no other opponents for me in Strikeforce. I beat the strongest guy in Strikeforce and that was Paul Buentello at the time. The Heavyweigh division was scattered, well after Affliction and Elite bankrupt Strikeforce got bigger and now they got the Showtime deal and the contracts of some Heavyweight fighters so there was some more fights for me. When I won the title, there were no other fights for me so I spoke with Scott, Scott Coker the President and he allowed me as the champion to fight in Japan, in DREAM and in K-1 where there were fights. Of course, I’m a fighter, I have to make a living, yeah, I want to make money so you go where the fights are. That’s basically what happened and now because there are more fights I’ll be fighting here more.”
Brett Rogers has said some bad things about and takes it personally that you have held up the Strikeforce heavyweight division by not fighting in America. What are your thoughts about Brett Rogers?
“You know, for me, it’s just a body, I have no opinion of him, he’s a strong guy, he comes in there with a lot of fights, 10 wins and 1 loss to Fedor. I have no opinion about him, I don’t know him personally, but this Saturday he’s going to go down. That’s one thing I know for sure.”
Do you expect this fight to be a stand-up war or to go to the ground? Brett Rogers has been doing some wrestling training recently.
“I’m open for anything. I train for anything, I’m ready for anything.”
“Well, you know, I had this gut feeling I knew he was not going to stand with me, but like I said, I’m ready for anything.”
There was a Youtube video clip of you eating horse meat in a kitchen. How did you discover eating horse meat?
“Well, that’s a funny thing, because I just recently found out that horse meat is illegal in the States. I heard that in America they don’t eat horse, but in Holland you can eat horse and for me it’s a good protein, better than beef, but I think that the Youtube clip you are referring to I was eating beef. Yeah, I eat beef and a lot of chicken also, and a lot of fish also.”
“A horse is a little bit more expensive than beef. You can just buy it, but it’s more expensive.”
Do you have a message for your critics and doubters?
“You know, I don’t really pat attention to other people, what they say, I’m just focused on myself, and you know that already takes all of my attention. You have to take care of all your sparring partners, your organization, your trainers, all these meetings, your diet guy, thinking about the techniques at your gym, your accountant, buying a house, selling a house, a new kitchen needs to be installed, whatever, I have all this stuff, I don’t have time to worry about what other people think.”
Do you feel you have anything to prove on Saturday night to the critics, to the fans, to Dana White?
“You know, I’m just going to have a good time. I’m going to beat up a big guy who has a big mouth and I’m going to have fun doing that and apart from that, I’m going to get paid for doing it and after that I have some nice trips coming up, coming up to New York, going to Dubai, and that’s basically that.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will we see a new-and-improved Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night?
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
Andrei Arlovski did an interview with Loretta Hunt earlier this week to talk about his fight with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva on Saturday night in St. Louis for the Strikeforce promotion.
This is a very difficult fight for Arlovski and he can’t afford to lose. That said, he should have the speed advantage against the incredibly shrinking Bigfoot and he has a real chance of making this fight a real war, if not outright win. Here are a few quotes from his interview with Sherdog:
What has it been like switching between different training camps over the last year to try to find a new way to train and develop strategy for fights?
“You know, like my manager, he’s like every time like repeats, things happen for a reason, but I don’t like this reason because obviously I lost two of my last fights and I kind of went down in the ratings.
I’m very excited because after my loss to Brett Rogers I had the opportunity to train with Greg Jackson for the first time. After that I came back to Chicago, I trained until the New Year. I have a couple of weeks off. After that I went to American Kickboxing Academy, it’s like a thank you all the guys who let me train like Bob Cook and all the guys, they were all nice to me and after that I came back to Chicago in a couple of days and I went to Greg Jackson to work in New Mexico and I was very excited, you know, I learned a lot and it’s since that fight on June 6th my training schedule changed a lot.
I’m very excited with my training schedule.”
After your last two losses, how depressed were you and how did you fight off the depression?
“It’s kind of embarrassing but I went to a sports psychologist and it happens but of course anybody that don’t like to lose but obviously it happened and I lost two of my fights and it’s kind of put me down with my ratings, with my opportunity with my contract, obviously I shut many doors for myself because of two losses but I look still forward and I have a lot of energy, a lot of things in my mind and I’m just ready to go, you know it’s just going to be another fight. For this fight I trained hard for this fight and I just want to fight. I mean right now I have only like what’s very important for me. I train hard, I’m focused and more disciplined because my biggest problem was I lost two of my fights, I’m talking about Emelianeko and Rogers, before I even step in the ring and the Octagon, I lost in my mind and I did some stupid flying knees and I didn’t take serious(ly) Brett Rogers and the result is he knocked me out… and I just have to be more disciplined, I have to stick with my game plan, I have to follow the instructions of my trainers and I hope, I hope now that I’m more disciplined and now I’m more like paying more attention to what my trainers told me.”
“All of my mind is on May 15th against Bigfoot (Silva). He’s dangerous, he’s tough, he’s not a joke at all, and I have to take this fight very serious.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will UFC 114 draw one million PPV buys? Plus: Is UFC on the same level as PRIDE in making superstars?
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
I had to pull a couple of passages from the Observer’s Wednesday night radio show for you here.
The first passage deals with episode one of the UFC 114 Countdown show that will be hyping up Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the ex-PRIDE star, against Ultimate Fighter and UFC homegrown star Rashad Evans. The winner of this fight will face Mauricio Shogun, a former PRIDE ace who is currently the UFC Light Heavyweight champion.
Given the name recognition of the fighters involved, can this fight at UFC 114 help the PPV draw one million buys?
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “We had the Quinton Jackson-Rashad Evans 24/7-style deal tonight, hyping up the PPV coming up at the end of the month and… I thought it was good, I didn’t think it was great. I think if there was a problem with it, if anything, it’s that… these guys had such a rivalry, they cut such great promos on each other, and I know that hardcore MMA fans are going to really like the fact that they showed a lot of training footage, but to me this is not about each guy’s training. This is about each guy trash-talking the other and there was not enough of it on this show.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I thought there was enough of it. I thought it was great, I really did. And as of the training… I thought that the training footage was pretty good in the context of what they showed, it was very-well edited and I thought that in particular with Jackson, Jackson really got himself over as like this, they really got to me got Quinton Jackson over and Rashad, it’s like he was enough of a star and training hard enough to where he looked like he was in the league of Jackson but Jackson just came off, I thought Jackson came off of the show, you know, between the training and the talking and then the personality profile of him growing like he was this bad dude, you know I mean I thought that they really did a great job with him. I liked it a lot, I think that that match is going to do tremendous business.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Oh, it’s going to be huge.”
DAVE MELTZER: “It’s going to be, I mean I was watching that thing when it was over and it was like this is the best-promoted fight in a long, long time. I mean… perhaps, again I didn’t watch enough of the boxing 24/7’s just because I’m so busy with the wrestling, but of the stuff that I’ve seen this is already you know I mean it blows away Georges St. Pierre & Dan Hardy and I don’t know if it’s going to blow away BJ Penn & St. Pierre from last year, but this was, since then I mean, you know, Lesnar-Mir you know I guess it’s probably the best-promoted fight since Lesnar-Mir and we still got two weeks to ago.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah, I just felt, when I was like watching Ultimate Fighter. When I was watching Ultimate Fighter with these two guys on it, I really badly wanted to see them fight and with this one it was like, well, you know, I’m excited to see them fight, I don’t know if this makes me any more excited than I was going in, but it’s still very good. They obviously told the story of I guess Jackson, obviously I think everybody knows he does not like training and for a long time he didn’t do a whole hell lot of a training. He doesn’t like training, but he’s now since moving to the Wolfslair he’s doing a hell of a lot of training and they really played it up like this was a guy who did phenomenal in his career without really working all that hard in training and now that he’s working hard and training like a world-class athlete he’s going to go in there and kill this guy. And obviously they built up the same thing with Rashad, so, I mean it was a very good Countdown special, don’t get me wrong, and I think it’s going to do, easy, million buys this particular show.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Really? I don’t know if I counted a million, but I think it will be in that ballpark.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I say a million buys.”
DAVE MELTZER: “A million buys, that’s still a lot. That’s a very, you know, I mean there have only been two, maybe two or three UFC shows that have hit that number and you know it takes you know that’s a lot of people and it’s really got to capture people’s imagination to hit that and it may, I think it’s going to be, it may hit a million. I don’t know. I think Lesnar and Carwin is going to be a little bit bigger, though, just because Lesnar’s a bigger name.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, yeah, I think Lesnar & Carwin is going to beat it and I think if GSP and Dan Hardy did almost 800,000, then with a three-week Countdown special for this show, it should do a million.”
DAVE MELTZER: “It could, it could, we’ll see. It’s going to do a lot.”
The second passage is tangentially connected to the first one in regards to the fact that we are seeing PRIDE taped shows drawing good ratings on Spike TV (They did lousy ratings on Fox Sports Net, but then again it’s hard to get any traction on that network) and we are seeing some of PRIDE’s big stars do well in UFC right now.
So, the question being posed: Has UFC reached the same level and ability as PRIDE did in terms of making new superstars?
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “PRIDE, in the hey day, was a giant mega event. Tens of thousands of people, huge stars, just fans going nuts, I mean it was very different than Sengoku and such nowadays.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Yeah, that’s true, but I mean DREAM is still you know DREAM is still a good show. Sengoku, not so much. But yeah, I mean, nothing compares to PRIDE. UFC doesn’t compare to PRIDE realistically. I mean I’m not saying the fighters aren’t better you know or anything like that I’m just saying like and the atmosphere at UFC is good, you know in its own way, really good, but I mean I still don’t think it compares to PRIDE as far as going to an overall show, certainly not in making the fighters look larger-than-life. UFC, there are fighters that are larger-than-life because they keep winning and they’re publicized very well, but there are not as many as PRIDE made. I mean, you know, PRIDE made these guys into superstars because of the presentation and also by booking a lot of squash matches, which helped their aura whereas UFC they book a lot more evenly so it’s hard to have you know as many spectacular finishes or some guy, Wanderlei Silva, winning 17 in a row or something like that, that doesn’t happen in UFC, I mean you know you couldn’t do it because you’re fighting too many top guys over and over.”
Topics: Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Jacare Souza thinks Mayhem Miller is a gloryhog but has no real interest in fighting him again
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
Quotes from his Thursday interview with MMAFighting.com (Jacare with his translator):
Thoughts on upcoming fight against Joey Villasenor?
“Very happy to have this fight versus Joey Villasenor. I’m ready. It’s going to be a fast-paced fight. I’ll bring a big game and I hope he’s ready too because I want to provide a good fight for everyone.”
You are taking the booking on two weeks notice. How long did you know that it would Joey Villasenor as your opponent?
“I was ready to fight anyway and when I heard about the fight I was like ‘finally I have a fight.’ It’s been a while since my last fight so I’m kind of like, ‘I want to fight, I want to fight.’ But I’m happy because you know it’s happening and I’ve been ready. Let’s see what’s happens.”
This is the classic grappler vs. striker match-up. Is your goal to take this fight to the ground?
“Yeah, my plan is to have a great fight. I’m going to have a stand-up fight, a ground fight, everything, it will be a great fight, I’m ready, and you guys are going to see it.”
You had a great debut against Matt Lindland. Do you see fighting in America as your big goal in MMA? What are your plans?
“Yeah, my plan is to fight for Strikeforce for a long time and my major goal is to get the belt.”
Will you be upset if Jake Shields goes to UFC and you don’t get to fight him?
“I’m ready to fight anyone. I mean, I’ll fight anyone in Strikeforce.”
If you beat Joey Villasenor, will it put you in the Strikeforce Middleweight title picture?
“If I have a chance for the title, I hope it happens. I hope it doesn’t take too long.”
How would you describe your rivalry with Mayhem Miller and what happened in Nashville between Miller and the Cesar Gracie camp?
“I mean, I don’t have a problem with him, he might have a problem with me. You know when I fought him first fight I won, and the second fight you saw what happened, I was winning the fight and whatever. And regarding Jake Shields, that was Jake Shields’ moment and he has no business to be there. That was you know c’mon, national TV, talk about his fight, he just won against one of the top guys in the weight division. That was his moment. He has no business there you know and just don’t like what happened.”
Are you or are you not interested in a re-match with Mayhem Miller?
“I work for Strikeforce, so pretty much they tell me, ‘hey, fight this guy,’ I’m going to go there and go to fight. Jason Miller is a guy that for me it doesn’t make any difference to fight him, I just really don’t care and I work for Strikeforce, they tell me what to do and I go there and do it the best I can.”
What do you think the finish for your fight will be on Saturday night?
“The reality is he doesn’t know how it’s going to end. … after a few minutes he’s going to see exactly who’s ready and who’s prepared and let’s see what happens, but I’m ready.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC announcer Bruce Buffer talks about new sponsor Crime Scene Cleaners and The Menendez Brothers
By Zach Arnold | May 13, 2010
You have to hear the Sherdog audio to believe it.
“I saw the, probably going to take the lead as the funniest sponsor I’ve seen on a fighter’s butt. I thought Condom Depot was definitely up there and is definitely up there, there’s something that’s funny about that on the back of a fighter’s tush (Sam Stout’s). But Crime Scene Cleaners has now taken the #1 spot for me. Crime Scene Cleaners.
Crime Scene Cleaners, let’s say that there’s a horrific crime, somebody gets shot, there’s blood everywhere, there’s brains everywhere, whatever the scenario is… the Crime Scene Cleaners it’s their job after the forensics people do all their work in the police department. Crime Scene Cleaners, what they would do is go in after forensics and police have done their job, they close the crime scene, and it’s their job to clean it.
Let’s say, like for instance, I played poker in a house in Beverly Hills about four years ago and we were playing in this room and I got a really weird feeling, I couldn’t understand, we’re in this like $15 million dollar mansion and I just had an eerie feeling and I, ‘I don’t know why guys, but I got a really eerie feeling sitting here.’ It turns out that it was the house that the Menendez Brothers killed their parents in. So, you want to talk about a crime scene because these boys shotgunned their Mom and Dad on the couch in the living room and not just once, but more than once, and that had to be a definite Crime Scene Cleaner situation.
He actually did get a deal, I think he bought the house for something in the area of something of $9 million when realistically homes in the area were going for $13 (million) or $14 million. It’s not wise to have somebody die in your home in a horrific way, I’ll tell you that much, it will definitely kill your real estate values.”
Bruce Buffer tells Rashad Evans about his problems with men who don’t dress well
“I am getting so tired of seeing people walking around with their pants hanging down to the back of their knees like they just took a dump and having their underwear hanging out and if this cool and girls find this sexy, man, then you know what, those are not the girls I want to go out with.
I was raised that when you wear a hat, and again I’m not trying to put anybody down, I’m not trying to show any disrespect to our fans out there, I’m just telling my own personal style. I was raised that when you wore a hat, you took that hat off when you walked inside a building. I was raised by a Marine, so obviously that’s part of it. The guy that wore his hat, and Rashad, don’t get at me because I know I’ve seen you wear it slightly to the side, too, but the guy who wears his hat to the side hanging over the side used to be classified in cartoons and in public and in movies as the not-too-intelligent-guy-in-the-neighborhood if you know what I’m talking about.
But, Rashad, these guys that walk around with their pants hanging down to the back of their knees, what would they do if they suddenly got in a street fight? Or if they had to take off because somebody was chasing them down ready to bang their head inside-out? I mean, what do you do, you pull up your pants and run?”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC’s Rashad Evans comments on Paul Daley firing, upcoming Rampage Jackson fight, and Kimbo Slice’s future
By Zach Arnold | May 13, 2010
Quotes from his interview on Tuesday with Bruce Buffer…
On watching Paul Daley implode at UFC 113 and his subsequent firing
“You know I was just kind of disappointed that a such great fighter like Paul Daley you know took those measures, you know I mean, you know it happens in all kinds of sports where people kind of lose their temper and you see them kind of go crazy and throw some punches or they go in the stands and start you know throwing some punches or whatever, I mean people lose their temper in sports. It’s not uncommon, it’s just unfortunate that you know a great fighter like Paul Daley that has so much potential you know fell victim to his emotions, you know, I mean, it’s kind of hard to describe what you go through sometimes when you get in a cage and you’re fighting because you go through a rainbow of emotions and sometimes you try to control them but sometimes it gets hard to, you know, and you know seeing that Saturday was very unfortunate because you know despite losing the fight, I don’t think he had too bad of a performance, I think that he was not ready, you know, he was just not ready for someone like Koscheck. That does not mean he would never be but I just think he was not ready and it was sad to see him fall victim to his emotions.”
On all the trash talk with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson leading up to UFC 114 in Las Vegas and the training he’s been going through to get into the best shape possible
“All the trash talking, all the build-up is finally going to come to a head, you know, and you know it’s a big fight, I mean, I’m excited for it. I’m excited to see how I perform you know because I’ve been building up and you know getting caught up with the trash talking and just kind of enjoying it for the most part but now is time for the talking to ending and the fighting to begin.”
“All the words that we said back and forth to each other, you know, we get to see exactly who can actually back up what they say and it’s kind of exciting, at the time same time it can be a bit nerve-wracking you know because you don’t want to find yourself on the other end of an unfortunate punch or something like that and look stupid but that’s the price you pay when you open your mouth, you know.”
“This is a fun fight more than anything, you know. We’re professional athletes. At the same time, you know sometimes fighting in the fight game can feel like a job and every once in a while you get blessed with a treat and actually have a fight that’s actually fun, you know and it’s fun the whole way, you know, you get a little trash talking, you know you get a little rivalry going, something extra little motivation to make it a little bit fun, make it about competing and having fun again because sometimes it’s easy to just you know make it like a job and as you know, when you something a job it can become tiresome, monotonous, and boring, so it’s fun to just have a fight where it’s going to just be all about fun.”
“You know, there’s qualities that I don’t like about him and I can’t overall say that I hate him altogether but you know the qualities that I don’t like about him overpower the qualities that I do like about it. I’ll just say it like that. But for the most part, yeah, I don’t like him too much.”
“Well, I’m doing about two to three (training) sessions a day, but I’m keeping them pretty short and I’m keeping them intense. At this level, it’s all about trying to get out of training camp without being injured by going very intense and getting good technique and being effective, you know, it’s so hard, you want to push yourself and go, go until you’re just dog tired and you can’t move anymore but then at the same time that’s when you open yourself up for injuries and at this late in the game, at this stage where I’m at right now you know three weeks before my fight, you know I just got to be careful, you know what I’m saying. It just sucks to come this far and then just have something mess me up and go into the fight hurt because no matter what I’m going to fight no matter what, you know what I’m saying unless it’s something very detrimental where I can’t you know move or get beyond and I’m going to go in there. I’ve fought many fights hurt and I’m sure most fighters do but right now I’m feeling 100%, I’m feeling blessed about it, I’m going to train smart and continue to train smart.”
On doors and furniture getting shredded on The Ultimate Fighter
“The materials that are used to make some of the stuff on The Ultimate Fighter show are not high-quality for good reasons like people tearing a door down and stuff like that. I mean they tore that door down and probably had another one up there in an hour, so they probably got doors on stand-by on that show and they got a lot of things like that on the show because they know people will tear up stuff like that, you know what I’m saying.”
On Kimbo Slice’s tenure in UFC and whether or not he has an MMA future
“I think he can continue to fight, I just think that in an organization such as UFC you know a lot of the guys, the level s just so high you know, it’s just so high and when you’re in a position and you’re in an organization like UFC, it’s everybody’s big opportunity so you find guys may not altogether be you know better than you rising to the level just because this is their moment to shine and if you can’t match that intensity, if you can’t match that level when it’s time to then you’re going to find yourself in an unfortunate position like Kimbo found himself in. I think that you know one thing I wish that Kimbo would have done was find himself a good team, and I’m not saying that ATT (American Top Team) is not a good team, I don’t know what their training was with Kimbo, but I still seen you know holes in his game as far as his conditioning level, you know what I’m saying, and the fact that he wastes a lot of energy just you know being stronger on brute strength when if he used a little bit more power effectively then he could have actually conserved a little bit more energy. But you know with Kimbo he kind of had a hard time finding his niche just because when he came into fighting, he already had this huge target on his back, everybody seen him from his Internet sensational videos and they just wanted to go out there and get a rep(utation) off him so it did not make it easy for him to go into a gym and find training partners that was not out to try to hurt him, so that mindset carried on with all his training and I think it was hard for him to find a place where he could finally train and finally learn and sit down and do the regiment that he needed to prepare himself effectively for a fight.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Alistair Overeem, Brian Cushing, steroids in the NFL & MMA, and the way the media covers these subjects
By Zach Arnold | May 13, 2010
Updated with Sherdog radio comments at 10:40 AM EST.
Yesterday, when I posted an article previewing Strikeforce’s Saturday night event in St. Louis on Showtime, I noted that one of the big questions heading into the event dealt with the constant media scrutiny about Alistair Overeem and allegations of him using performance-enhancing drugs. I quoted Sports Illustrated writer Josh Gross, who noted on his radio show that he was scheduled to have Alistair Overeem on his program but when Overeem declined to talk about the issue of steroids, Gross declined to have him on his show.
Sherdog radio did the same. More on that later in this article.
I compared the media treatment of Overeem to that of Barry Bonds, who was also vilified in the media for questions regarding his ties to BALCO and whether or not he failed a MLB-administered drug test. When I made this comparison, I was focusing more on the media than I was focusing on the actual basis of the allegations made against Alistair Overeem.
I don’t question the validity of the actual questions. I question the volume and the motive of the questioning.
Sports fans are torn on the issue of PEDs because they see both sides. On one hand, there is a certain realization that athletes are always looking to find new ways to improve their performance and that there is a lot of pressure on athletes to do better in order to make a lot of money. If you ask fans if they would take growth hormone in exchange for six-figure pay days, a high percentage of fans would consider it. On the other side, they don’t like the fact that drug usage is rampant in professional sports and that many people look at athletes as heroes, but these same athletes are often putting up a false front about who and what they really are.
So why do sports fans tend to have glazed-over eyes or an ambivalent reaction whenever PEDs are mentioned?
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |