Rashad Evans interview: ?Suga? focused on fight in front of him

Though former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans is focused on his fight with Phil Davis at UFC on Fox 2, there is another man who still gets on Evans' nerves: the current UFC light heavyweight champion. In fact, the mere mention of Jones' name caused the once friendly relationship between Evans and Davis to grow frosty.

"We've actually always been friendly to each other," Evans told Cagewriter. "I've always been a Phil fan. But when you're talking trash about Jon Jones, it kind of bothers me a little bit. I can't lie."

Though Evans and Jones were once friends and training partners, their relationship fell apart after Jones remarked to media that he would fight Evans. Since then, Evans has been irked by Jones.

"All the stuff that Jon has done, he deserves credit for and I respect that. He's been an amazing athlete in the sport, and he's accomplished so much. I have nothing but respect for him in that, but when he opens his mouth against me, it bothers me."

During the UFC on Fox 2 press conference, Davis mentioned what Jones said about Evans' lack of chin. Evans responded to Davis, a Penn State alumnus, by referring to the Penn State sex abuse scandal.

"Sometimes you say things and you didn't think about it when you say it. I can't tell somebody how they should feel about something. It was a lesson that I learned about being a little bit more conscious and watching what I say because you never know how it's going to affect people in different ways."

Both Evans and Davis were collegiate wrestlers, but Davis made a comment that he is the only one who truly has wrestling skills. According to Evans, there is a big difference between collegiate wrestling and MMA wrestling.

"What it comes down to is that he can be the best college wrestler in the world. He can have all the accolades. That's awesome. But we're not wrestling college wrestling. This is a fight. You can have the best college wrestling in the world, but you can have terrible MMA wrestling. His MMA wrestling is OK. It's not phenomenal. It's not exceptional. But his transitions from his punches to a takedown are trash," Evans said.

Davis was an NCAA Division I wrestling champion, but Evans doesn't see him as a well-rounded fighter.

"It's about timing and his timing is off. He's not comfortable standing up and punching, and it's a two-part thing. That's the other part of it. You can have a great shot. Great wrestling, but if you're afraid to get punched, or if you don't have good set-ups for your takedowns, then it doesn't matter. You can't execute because you're too afraid to get hit. Or you spend too much time thinking about it. The moment you think about the shot, the moment I see it. If I see it, it's too late. You're not going to shoot on me."

Next Saturday, Evans will fight in his adopted city of Chicago, just hours away from Michigan State, where he went to school. Logic would say that he would get a warm reception from the crowd, but Evans is usually booed by crowds. He doesn't expect any change from his fellow Midwesterners.

"Of course I expect to be booed. People always have to find the bad guy, and for some reason, the look on my face or something, people just want to boo me.That's fine. I know who I am as a person, and if they boo me, they boo me. That's OK. It doesn't make me lose sleep at night. I know who I am in real life. The same people that boo you are the same people who will ask you for a picture an an autograph. They don't know why they boo me."

Evans is often cast as a villain in fights, but he doesn't relish the role, like Chael Sonnen or Josh Koscheck does.

"It's so far from my character. People who know me in real life know that's on the extreme of the other end of who I am. So when people boo me, or they say things about me, 'Rashad thinks he's this, Rashad thinks he's that,' it does bother me to a certain extent, but then I've got to remember that it's not me they're saying it about. It's a character of who they think I am, and I've got to divorce myself from that character."

He also has learned to take any promises of title shots with a shaker's worth of salt. Evans has been promised title shots with Mauricio Rua and Jones, but injuries and timing have gotten in the way. Again, Evans has been promised a shot at Jones with a win over Davis, but he knows better than to put stock in it.

"No matter what, it's not about the next fight after this one. The only fight that matters is this fight. What comes after this is for the fans to anticipate and think about. For me? Nothing matters besides the fight that I have. And that's the way it should be. Whether I've been promised something or not. Only thing I care about, the only thing I think about is the fight in front of me."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/rashad-evans-interview-suga-focused-fight-front-him-213006869.html

Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade 

GSP Prefers to Fight Nick Diaz Over Carlos Condit

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UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre could be considered a Nick Diaz fan, at least for the next several weeks.

St-Pierre, who is currently rehabbing his right knee, says he prefers to see Diaz capture the interim title against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 on Feb. 4.

"The reason why I wish Nick Diaz to win that fight is because I want to fight Nick Diaz," St-Pierre said Monday during a live studio appearance on HDNet's Inside MMA. "I don't want to fight Carlos Condit. I want to fight Nick Diaz. But in another way, I just hope the best man will win. But if the best man is Nick Diaz I will appreciate it more because it would be a better build up for the fight."

St-Pierre's absolutely correct. From a marketing perspective, a St-Pierre showdown against Diaz would be an easy sell. First, there's the backstory of St-Pierre being the UFC champion and Diaz being the former Strikeforce welterweight titleholder. And there's even more anticipation now that the fight has fallen through twice.

"That's the fight that had to happen in the beginning. It didn't happen," St- Pierre said. "At first he didn't show up for the promotion and after I got hurt and this whole thing happened. That's really the fight that I want to do."

They've never trained together, but St-Pierre has closer ties to Condit, having called Greg Jackson's gym his team before making the full-time move to the TriStar gym. And although St-Pierre thinks highly of Condit, St-Pierre's preference to see Diaz emerge the victor is strictly professional.

"Even though I like Carlos Condit better as a person," St-Pierre says. "I would rather fight Nick Diaz."

St-Pierre also believes he'll be in exceptional form for a fight against the trash-talking Diaz.

"I'm at my best when there's pressure on my shoulders," St-Pierre said. "I'm at my best when someone is picking on me."

St-Pierre underwent successful knee surgery in December and said Monday he is planning to return to hard training in July. St-Pierre told Inside MMA he's eyeing late October, early November for his return. Or at least one fight by the end of the year.

"I hope so, please," said St-Pierre, holding his hands in a prayer position. "Give it to me."

 

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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/01/17/gsp-prefers-to-fight-nick-diaz-over-carlos-condit/

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz

Dana White says Brock Lesnar?s run was a positive for MMA

With its two biggest pay-per-view draws (Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre) disappearing in the last month, Dana White could be in a sour mood. But he's not, especially over the sudden retirement of Lesnar last week at UFC 141.

"The way I look at the Brock Lesnar thing is we were lucky to have him around for as long as we did. Look at what he did. It was fun to have him in the UFC while we did. He made the heavyweight division, some exciting fights," White said on "The MMA Insiders" on ESPN1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas (10:09 mark).

White often tells the story of laughing at Lesnar when he first asked to fight in the UFC. He eventually went on to win the UFC heavyweight title and defend it successfully against Shane Carwin.

"I give him all the credit in the world in what he was able to accomplish, inside the Octagon, in this sport and as a draw for the UFC," White said.

The UFC boss is confident he has plenty of options to fill the void left by Lesnar's retirement and the ACL injury to GSP.

"I think we have a lot of guys. It's not like boxing where everything depends on one guy or two guys. The great thing about us is we got 10 or 15 guys," White said.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/dana-white-says-brock-lesnar-run-positive-mma-220731104.html

John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves 

MMA Marketplace: The UFC wants to brand your car

The UFC wants you to let the world's roadways know that you are, in fact, as real as it gets. To help, they put out a new line of merchandise aimed at putting their three letters all over your vehicle.

Seat covers, wheel covers, floor mats, hitch covers; you can cover your car in the UFC. But will it help you get out of a ticket? Someone buy this stuff and let us know. The pictured seat cover is $44.95, and the steering-wheel cover is $19.95.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/mma-marketplace-ufc-wants-brand-car-141924665.html

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio 

Dana White Calls ESPN Report 'Piece of Trash' as UFC Releases Its Own Report

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Dana White and the UFC 141 fighters will answer questions from the media at the UFC 141 post-fight press conference.UFC President Dana White promised before ESPN's Outside the Lines reported on fighter pay that the UFC would release a video of Lorenzo Fertitta's full, uncut interview with ESPN. But what the UFC actually posted online on Monday was something more than that -- it was a full-on rebuttal of the Outside the Lines report that featured not only Fertitta's comments but also comments from White and some of the UFC's fighters.

White introduced the UFC's video by referring to the Outside the Lines report as a "piece of trash" and "one-sided." And while Outside the Lines is generally well-respected for producing high-quality sports journalism, White also said he doesn't respect the kind of journalism that ESPN does.

"They're dirty, they lie, and they never really give you all the facts," White said.

The UFC's response makes the case that the pay scale in the UFC is better than the ESPN report would have had viewers believe, noting that many UFC fighters have become rich for what they did inside the Octagon. However, the Outside the Lines report didn't dispute that -- Outside the Lines acknowledged that the UFC's best draws are doing well financially. Outside the Lines was more concerned with how much the entry-level fighters are making.

Where the UFC's rebuttal report is lacking is in offering any specifics about how much money the low-tiered fighters are making. Fighters like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Matt Serra are featured saying they're satisfied with their pay, but those three guys are popular former champions. There still isn't a lot of information available about how much entry-level fighters are making. Fertitta says specific payroll numbers are not something the UFC is interested in revealing.

"We're not hiding anything from anybody, it's just that we don't publish it for everybody to see," Fertitta says. "We're not a public company. There's no reason for us to do that."

The strongest part of the UFC's response comes at the very end, where Ken Shamrock is shown after his final UFC fight talking about how much money he made in the UFC. Shamrock was featured on ESPN talking about how fighters don't get paid enough by the UFC, so that quote from Shamrock is a strong rebuttal.

But featuring Shamrock is something of a distraction from the real issue at hand. The issue isn't whether well-known fighters like Shamrock are making good money, it's whether the undercard fighters are making good money.

The UFC has also chosen not to release information about how much fighters are making from sources like sponsorships and pay-per-view bonuses. For some fighters, those sources of income represent more than what they make in their purses. But we don't know for sure which fighters are getting those kinds of bonuses because the UFC has chosen to keep that information private.

Ultimately, Outside the Lines and the ESPN response offered two sides of a story. And neither side has told the whole story.

UPDATE: Later on Monday the UFC posted the entire 47-minute interview with Fertitta on YouTube. That video is below.

 

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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/01/16/dana-white-calls-espn-report-piece-of-trash-as-ufc-releases-it/

Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo 

?King Mo? Muhammed takes Lorenz Larkin into his realm to force stoppage at Strikeforce

LAS VEGAS - Muhammed Lawal's ready to reclaim his crown. Make that another crown.

Nicknamed "King Mo," Lawal is a nasty ground artist and put the hurt on Larkin, stopping him at 1:32 of the second round in fight No. 3 of the main card at Strikeforce inside The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Lawal got off 15 unanswered shots before referee Kim Winslow saved Larkin. Some in attendance thought it was a late stoppage, including Lawal, who yelled something in disgust about the ref.

"She explained to me that she wants to give us a fair chance to keep on continuing," Lawal said once he calmed down a bit. "If it was me, I'd rather be put to sleep, too."

Lawal, a former star on the international wrestling scene, has developed his striking, but there was little sense in banging it out on the feet with Larkin. Larkin is a dynamic striker with very little grappling experience.

King Mo played to his strength early by scoring a takedown just 27 seconds into the fight. Larkin got back to his feet after a shaky standup by referee Kim Winslow.

Lawal was good on both of takedown attempts and landed 58-of-94 shots on the ground.

In essence, this was a light heavyweight title qualifier. Lawal should be line to face someone for the title later this year. Former champ Dan Henderson vacated the title when he left to return to the UFC.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/king-mo-muhammed-takes-lorenz-larkin-realm-force-043832129.html

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe