Liz Carmouche was patiently waiting. Until her waiting wasn’t so patient.
The popular UFC women’s bantamweight fighter healed from a hand injury soon after her loss to Miesha Tate at UFC on FOX 11 in April 2014 and she wanted to get back into the Octagon as soon as possible. Things didn’t quite work out that way.
Carmouche (9-5) grew irked and took to social media to press the UFC into giving her a fight as far back as October. The San Diego resident then began retweeting all her fans begging for the organization to book her. Carmouche used the same strategy more than three years ago when her rabid fan base supported her into getting the first-ever women’s fight in the UFC against champion Ronda Rousey.
Carmouche, who is openly gay, lovingly calls her group of fans “Lizbos” and “Lizbros.”
“One thing that I showed with the fight against Ronda, that’s one of the means that I go to,” Carmouche told MMAFighting.com. “When I’m not getting a response, I start going to social media asking the fans to start standing up for me and asking for it and going to arms for me.”
Eventually, it worked. Carmouche will meet Lauren Murphy at UFC Fight Night: Mendes vs. Lamas on April 4 in Fairfax, Va. It’s an important fight against a ranked opponent. Carmouche just wishes it had come three or four months ago.
“I’ve been just nipping at them just trying to get anything,” Carmouche said. “If there were crumbs falling off the table of a fight, I was there waiting to catch it. I told them, ‘You want one-week notice? Two-week notice? I’m your person. Please just let me know. I want to fight. If somebody is injured, I don’t care who it is. I want to go back in.’ So I’m super anxious for this fight.”
Carmouche, 30, isn’t 100 percent sure what the hold up was. Sean Shelby, the UFC’s matchmaker for the lower weight classes and women’s divisions, is well-respected and does a solid job. Carmouche theorizes that the women’s bantamweight division doesn’t have as many options as the UFC would have liked when it became the inaugural women’s weight class in the organization in 2013. Carmouche is not the only 135-pound woman who has gone unbooked for months and taken to Twitter to spur on the UFC. Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman have done similar things.
I’m going crazy waiting for my chance to get back in the Octagon! I’m told soon but still waiting for the green light!
“I think that they’re still trying to build up the division,” Carmouche said. “It’s not as large as we would have hoped for and I really feel like there’s a lot of 125ers in the 135-pound division. That makes it a little bit difficult.”
Carmouche herself would be a natural 125-pounder. Tate, her last opponent, has also said that she might be better served at 125 pounds. But the UFC does not have a 125-pound women’s weight class and probably won’t for a long time. The only other female division the UFC has is at 115 pounds. And that would be too much weight to cut for women like Carmouche.
“Trying to find true 135-pounders in that division with the caliber that belongs in the UFC is a little bit difficult,” Carmouche said. “As a result, they don’t get as many fights booked because they really want to put on a fight that really showcases the skills of the women.”
Murphy (8-1) definitely represents that for Carmouche. Both are good standing with strong grappling. Each woman is an excellent athlete. Murphy is coming off a split decision loss to Sara McMann in August, but many felt Murphy should have won that fight. She landed more strikes and arguably did more damage, though McMann controlled the proceedings on the ground.
Carmouche has lost two straight after beating Jessica Andrade following the loss to Rousey. She might be small for the weight class, but she has plenty of fight in her. By now, Carmouche was hoping to get back into the Octagon to get the bad taste of the Tate loss out of her mouth.
“There’s a pace that was set in my mind for what I thought my career would be like and I hoped to maintain that,” Carmouche said. “Once I experienced that loss to Miesha, I wanted to get back in the cage and show that it was just a mistake. I needed to go back in there and get right to the grind. To not do that, it’s definitely kind of a bummer. I want to get in there and show everybody and get back on the fast track to the belt.”
She can still do that, even if it’s a little later than was the original plan.
“I need to win this one to show not only my fans and the UFC, but also myself that this is where I belong,” Carmouche said. “And I have to showcase my skills now before I can start looking past anything else.”
Liz Carmouche was patiently waiting. Until her waiting wasn’t so patient.
The popular UFC women’s bantamweight fighter healed from a hand injury soon after her loss to Miesha Tate at UFC on FOX 11 in April 2014 and she wanted to get back into the Octagon as soon as possible. Things didn’t quite work out that way.
Carmouche (9-5) grew irked and took to social media to press the UFC into giving her a fight as far back as October. The San Diego resident then began retweeting all her fans begging for the organization to book her. Carmouche used the same strategy more than three years ago when her rabid fan base supported her into getting the first-ever women’s fight in the UFC against champion Ronda Rousey.
Carmouche, who is openly gay, lovingly calls her group of fans “Lizbos” and “Lizbros.”
“One thing that I showed with the fight against Ronda, that’s one of the means that I go to,” Carmouche told MMAFighting.com. “When I’m not getting a response, I start going to social media asking the fans to start standing up for me and asking for it and going to arms for me.”
Eventually, it worked. Carmouche will meet Lauren Murphy at UFC Fight Night: Mendes vs. Lamas on April 4 in Fairfax, Va. It’s an important fight against a ranked opponent. Carmouche just wishes it had come three or four months ago.
“I’ve been just nipping at them just trying to get anything,” Carmouche said. “If there were crumbs falling off the table of a fight, I was there waiting to catch it. I told them, ‘You want one-week notice? Two-week notice? I’m your person. Please just let me know. I want to fight. If somebody is injured, I don’t care who it is. I want to go back in.’ So I’m super anxious for this fight.”
Carmouche, 30, isn’t 100 percent sure what the hold up was. Sean Shelby, the UFC’s matchmaker for the lower weight classes and women’s divisions, is well-respected and does a solid job. Carmouche theorizes that the women’s bantamweight division doesn’t have as many options as the UFC would have liked when it became the inaugural women’s weight class in the organization in 2013. Carmouche is not the only 135-pound woman who has gone unbooked for months and taken to Twitter to spur on the UFC. Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman have done similar things.
I’m going crazy waiting for my chance to get back in the Octagon! I’m told soon but still waiting for the green light!
“I think that they’re still trying to build up the division,” Carmouche said. “It’s not as large as we would have hoped for and I really feel like there’s a lot of 125ers in the 135-pound division. That makes it a little bit difficult.”
Carmouche herself would be a natural 125-pounder. Tate, her last opponent, has also said that she might be better served at 125 pounds. But the UFC does not have a 125-pound women’s weight class and probably won’t for a long time. The only other female division the UFC has is at 115 pounds. And that would be too much weight to cut for women like Carmouche.
“Trying to find true 135-pounders in that division with the caliber that belongs in the UFC is a little bit difficult,” Carmouche said. “As a result, they don’t get as many fights booked because they really want to put on a fight that really showcases the skills of the women.”
Murphy (8-1) definitely represents that for Carmouche. Both are good standing with strong grappling. Each woman is an excellent athlete. Murphy is coming off a split decision loss to Sara McMann in August, but many felt Murphy should have won that fight. She landed more strikes and arguably did more damage, though McMann controlled the proceedings on the ground.
Carmouche has lost two straight after beating Jessica Andrade following the loss to Rousey. She might be small for the weight class, but she has plenty of fight in her. By now, Carmouche was hoping to get back into the Octagon to get the bad taste of the Tate loss out of her mouth.
“There’s a pace that was set in my mind for what I thought my career would be like and I hoped to maintain that,” Carmouche said. “Once I experienced that loss to Miesha, I wanted to get back in the cage and show that it was just a mistake. I needed to go back in there and get right to the grind. To not do that, it’s definitely kind of a bummer. I want to get in there and show everybody and get back on the fast track to the belt.”
She can still do that, even if it’s a little later than was the original plan.
“I need to win this one to show not only my fans and the UFC, but also myself that this is where I belong,” Carmouche said. “And I have to showcase my skills now before I can start looking past anything else.”
That’s a “Mighty” big fight purse.
Demetrious Johnson, the UFC flyweight champion, is down for a superfight with bantamweight titleholder T.J. Dillashaw, but only for $2 million, Johnson told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour…
That’s a “Mighty” big fight purse.
Demetrious Johnson, the UFC flyweight champion, is down for a superfight with bantamweight titleholder T.J. Dillashaw, but only for $2 million, Johnson told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.
“Mighty Mouse” said he ran into Dillashaw in Las Vegas over the weekend during UFC 183 fight week and told him the plot.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I told everybody that I’ll fight you,'” Johnson said. “He was like, ‘You did?’ I said, ‘Yes and I told everybody we gotta get paid. I said $2 million.’ He goes, ‘Eff, yeah. I’m down with that.'”
Johnson (21-2-1) conceded that it wouldn’t take quite that much. But close.
“I guess not,” he said. “Maybe one million if Dana wants to come out with that.”
The superfight question has come up recently simply because there is a scarcity of contenders in the flyweight division. John Lineker would have made plenty of sense as the next challenger, especially after he beat Ian McCall on Saturday night at UFC 183. But Lineker failed to make weight for the fourth time in eight UFC fights. UFC president Dana White will force him to go up to bantamweight.
“It does suck for the flyweight division,” Johnson said. “That was the No. 1 contender. He’s been on a hot streak, destroying his opponents. Not just squeaking by. It would have made for a great fight for me and the fans.”
There aren’t too many options after him that fit. Johnson said he’d be OK with a fight with Kyoji Horiguchi, the top Japanese prospect who has won four straight in the UFC and is coming off a unanimous decision win over Louis Gaudinot at UFC 182.
“Obviously Horiguchi, he’s been whooping people’s butts in the flyweight division,” Johnson said. “He’s on a hot little win streak. I wouldn’t mind.”
Then there’s John Dodson, who gave Johnson a pretty tough challenge in January 2013. While Dodson deserves another crack with two impressive finishes since that fight, there’s a question of when he could be ready. The Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA product tore his ACL last July and that’s usually a year recovery for an MMA fighter.
Johnson calls into question Dodson’s resume, too. Regarding Dodson’s finish of Darrell Montague, Johnson said, “I haven’t even heard of him.” But for the most part, the champion wouldn’t care if that was what the UFC decided.
“If they want Dodson to fight me, that’s the fight they want, whatever,” Johnson said.
That could mean Johnson would have to wait until the summer, but he has designs on competing at UFC 187 on Memorial Day Weekend in Las Vegas. The rumored main event for that card is Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson for the UFC light heavyweight title, so it’s no surprise Johnson would want that co-headlining spot.
“I don’t mind sliding a little ‘Mouse’ in there and letting him display his skillset,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter who it is.”
Well, it almost certainly will not be Dillashaw, who meets Renan Barao in the main event of UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal. If it comes to leaving the division for a fight or hanging out a little longer waiting for an opponent, Johnson would choose the latter.
“I’m sticking around at 125,” he said. “If I want to get my sweat on and my juices going, I can get it [in the gym]. Let’s just spar hard. Let’s just make it happen.”
Unless of course Uncle Dana antes up with six figures.
We may have seen the last of Kelvin Gastelum at welterweight. And that is a shame, according to Mike Dolce.
The MMA diet and nutrition guru, who has worked with Gastelum in the past, thinks that 170 pounds was an excellent weight class for the young star, he told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. Middleweight, where Gastelum will be forced to go by the UFC, will present some problems, Dolce said.
Gastelum missed weight by nine pounds before his fight with Tyron Woodley at UFC 183 on Jan. 31. It was Gastelum’s second time missing weight and he has struggled several other times to reach 171 pounds, the welterweight maximum. UFC president Dana White said after Gastelum’s unanimous decision loss to Woodley that Gastelum would have to move up to 185.
Dolce thinks Gastelum, 23, should absolutely be a welterweight — he just needs to clean up his diet when he’s not in training camp.
“He could be the welterweight champion,” Dolce said. “I’ve said before, if Kelvin gets his body fat down to 10 percent or so, which is perfect for combat athletes, 7 percent for competition, I think 170 is easy for him and I think he grows into a very dominant lightweight. Now, I’m not saying he should go there. I’m saying based upon his frame and based upon his body-fat ratio, that’s not out of the realm of possible.”
As for middleweight, Dolce isn’t sure if Gastelum would be elite at 185 pounds against much larger opponents. Gastelum stands at just 5-foot-9. Dolce said he’s similar in size to two of his other clients, Johny Hendricks and Thiago Alves, who fight at 170 and 155, respectively.
“You want to bring as many skills and attributes with you to competition and he’s gonna be giving up a lot of his skill set when he goes up against the bigger guys,” Dolce said.
Gastelum made weight working with Dolce before his submission win over Brian Melancon in August 2013. Since then, the two have not been able to get together. Last summer, Gastelum asked Dolce to work with him, but when Gastelum’s coaches followed up weeks later Dolce was already booked through the fall. Dolce is very much interested in working with him again. The two have remained friends.
“I would love to work with him,” Dolce said. “Why would I not work with a kid like Kelvin?
“I want to see him succeed. I want to see him make millions of dollars and take care of his family. I’m available. We’ve just gotta make sure the timing is right. But he’s gotta be committed. This is a 52-week-a-year job.”
Gastelum’s coach Chance Farrar told MMAFighting.com that Gastelum had to be taken to the hospital hours before weigh-ins due to flu-like symptoms that returned during his cut. Farrar said it was the illness, not the weight cut, that made Gastelum miss by that much.
Dolce believes the two things were related and said that plenty of his fighters have gotten sick during weight cuts, including Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who was “the sickest I’ve ever seen a human being” before one fight.
“A lot of athletes have flu-like symptoms while they’re cutting weight,” Dolce said. “A lot of athletes throw up while they’re cutting weight. I’ve seen the worst of the worst.
“Sometimes as an athlete you just need to nut up, get out there and do your job.”
Dolce wants to work with Gastelum again and thinks he has a bright future, as long as he’s fully committed to working hard on his diet outside of the time when he has a fight coming up.
“Kelvin is a young kid,” Dolce said. “And I understand, he’s a young kid, he’s got some things, he’s got some money and I don’t think he’s surrounded by the healthiest people year-round. But he’s a professional, he’s gotta make professional decisions on his own.”
We may have seen the last of Kelvin Gastelum at welterweight. And that is a shame, according to Mike Dolce.
The MMA diet and nutrition guru, who has worked with Gastelum in the past, thinks that 170 pounds was an excellent weight class for the young star, he told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. Middleweight, where Gastelum will be forced to go by the UFC, will present some problems, Dolce said.
Gastelum missed weight by nine pounds before his fight with Tyron Woodley at UFC 183 on Jan. 31. It was Gastelum’s second time missing weight and he has struggled several other times to reach 171 pounds, the welterweight maximum. UFC president Dana White said after Gastelum’s unanimous decision loss to Woodley that Gastelum would have to move up to 185.
Dolce thinks Gastelum, 23, should absolutely be a welterweight — he just needs to clean up his diet when he’s not in training camp.
“He could be the welterweight champion,” Dolce said. “I’ve said before, if Kelvin gets his body fat down to 10 percent or so, which is perfect for combat athletes, 7 percent for competition, I think 170 is easy for him and I think he grows into a very dominant lightweight. Now, I’m not saying he should go there. I’m saying based upon his frame and based upon his body-fat ratio, that’s not out of the realm of possible.”
As for middleweight, Dolce isn’t sure if Gastelum would be elite at 185 pounds against much larger opponents. Gastelum stands at just 5-foot-9. Dolce said he’s similar in size to two of his other clients, Johny Hendricks and Thiago Alves, who fight at 170 and 155, respectively.
“You want to bring as many skills and attributes with you to competition and he’s gonna be giving up a lot of his skill set when he goes up against the bigger guys,” Dolce said.
Gastelum made weight working with Dolce before his submission win over Brian Melancon in August 2013. Since then, the two have not been able to get together. Last summer, Gastelum asked Dolce to work with him, but when Gastelum’s coaches followed up weeks later Dolce was already booked through the fall. Dolce is very much interested in working with him again. The two have remained friends.
“I would love to work with him,” Dolce said. “Why would I not work with a kid like Kelvin?
“I want to see him succeed. I want to see him make millions of dollars and take care of his family. I’m available. We’ve just gotta make sure the timing is right. But he’s gotta be committed. This is a 52-week-a-year job.”
Gastelum’s coach Chance Farrar told MMAFighting.com that Gastelum had to be taken to the hospital hours before weigh-ins due to flu-like symptoms that returned during his cut. Farrar said it was the illness, not the weight cut, that made Gastelum miss by that much.
Dolce believes the two things were related and said that plenty of his fighters have gotten sick during weight cuts, including Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who was “the sickest I’ve ever seen a human being” before one fight.
“A lot of athletes have flu-like symptoms while they’re cutting weight,” Dolce said. “A lot of athletes throw up while they’re cutting weight. I’ve seen the worst of the worst.
“Sometimes as an athlete you just need to nut up, get out there and do your job.”
Dolce wants to work with Gastelum again and thinks he has a bright future, as long as he’s fully committed to working hard on his diet outside of the time when he has a fight coming up.
“Kelvin is a young kid,” Dolce said. “And I understand, he’s a young kid, he’s got some things, he’s got some money and I don’t think he’s surrounded by the healthiest people year-round. But he’s a professional, he’s gotta make professional decisions on his own.”
The antitrust lawsuit filed against the UFC refers to the other MMA organizations in the United States, namely Bellator, as minor leagues. Spike TV president Kevin Kay takes umbrage with that depiction.
“I don’t think we’re a minor league at all,” Kay told MMAFighting.com recently at an event to promote Premier Boxing Champions on Spike. “That’s just lawyers talking. They have to position stuff a certain way.”
Bellator airs on Kay’s Spike TV and is owned by Viacom, the parent company of both entities.
The major claim being made is that the UFC is a monopoly and every other MMA promotion is “minor league.” The suits also state that the UFC has used anticompetitive methods (like aggressively buying up competitors) to maintain that monopoly. Additionally, there is an assertion that fighters are not treated well or paid fairly and do not have leverage to work elsewhere since the UFC has eliminated other options.
“Bellator athletes lack significant public notoriety, in part because it is a ‘minor league,'” the filing states. “Bellator’s bout purses, gate revenues, attendance figures, merchandise sales, television licensing fees and ad rates are minimal compared to those obtained by the UFC.”
Kay disagrees with that, pointing to Bellator’s recent ratings upswing. Bellator 132, which took place on Jan. 16 in Temecula, Calif., peaked at 1.1 million viewers, a number that is more than many UFC events on FOX Sports 1 garner. Also, Bellator 131 on Nov. 15 in San Diego averaged 1.2 million viewers, peaking at 2 million during the Tito Ortiz–Stephan Bonnar main event. Ortiz-Bonnar was the most watched MMA fight on cable in 2014.
“We’re right on an even footing [with the UFC], I believe,” Kay said. “We’re certainly not the minor leagues. Obviously, they are the market leaders right now, but I think Bellator is stepping up in a big way.”
Bellator 131 went head-to-head against UFC 180, a pay-per-view. Ortiz-Bonnar didn’t start until after the UFC 180 main event of Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt was over, but it was still an impressive number. Werdum-Hunt was for the UFC interim heavyweight title.
“I think that San Diego fight really showed off what the potential was,” Kay said. “Tito and Stephan, whether you like them or not, they did a great job promoting that fight.”
Bellator MMA president Scott Coker has also made it abundantly clear that the UFC will have no advantage over Bellator when it comes to signing big-name free agents. Bellator lost out on Mirko Cro Cop to the UFC last week, but plans on being in the mix for WWE star and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar if he becomes available.
“There’s not going to be a fighter on the planet we can’t afford and have access to,” Coker told MMAFighting.com in December.
Kay doubled down on that statement last week, promising Viacom and Spike TV’s continued commitment to Bellator as a potential MMA powerhouse. As for whether Bellator could surpass the UFC in the next five to 10 years, Kay was succinct.
“I would like to,” he said.
The antitrust lawsuit filed against the UFC refers to the other MMA organizations in the United States, namely Bellator, as minor leagues. Spike TV president Kevin Kay takes umbrage with that depiction.
“I don’t think we’re a minor league at all,” Kay told MMAFighting.com recently at an event to promote Premier Boxing Champions on Spike. “That’s just lawyers talking. They have to position stuff a certain way.”
Bellator airs on Kay’s Spike TV and is owned by Viacom, the parent company of both entities.
The major claim being made is that the UFC is a monopoly and every other MMA promotion is “minor league.” The suits also state that the UFC has used anticompetitive methods (like aggressively buying up competitors) to maintain that monopoly. Additionally, there is an assertion that fighters are not treated well or paid fairly and do not have leverage to work elsewhere since the UFC has eliminated other options.
“Bellator athletes lack significant public notoriety, in part because it is a ‘minor league,'” the filing states. “Bellator’s bout purses, gate revenues, attendance figures, merchandise sales, television licensing fees and ad rates are minimal compared to those obtained by the UFC.”
Kay disagrees with that, pointing to Bellator’s recent ratings upswing. Bellator 132, which took place on Jan. 16 in Temecula, Calif., peaked at 1.1 million viewers, a number that is more than many UFC events on FOX Sports 1 garner. Also, Bellator 131 on Nov. 15 in San Diego averaged 1.2 million viewers, peaking at 2 million during the Tito Ortiz–Stephan Bonnar main event. Ortiz-Bonnar was the most watched MMA fight on cable in 2014.
“We’re right on an even footing [with the UFC], I believe,” Kay said. “We’re certainly not the minor leagues. Obviously, they are the market leaders right now, but I think Bellator is stepping up in a big way.”
Bellator 131 went head-to-head against UFC 180, a pay-per-view. Ortiz-Bonnar didn’t start until after the UFC 180 main event of Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt was over, but it was still an impressive number. Werdum-Hunt was for the UFC interim heavyweight title.
“I think that San Diego fight really showed off what the potential was,” Kay said. “Tito and Stephan, whether you like them or not, they did a great job promoting that fight.”
Bellator MMA president Scott Coker has also made it abundantly clear that the UFC will have no advantage over Bellator when it comes to signing big-name free agents. Bellator lost out on Mirko Cro Cop to the UFC last week, but plans on being in the mix for WWE star and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar if he becomes available.
“There’s not going to be a fighter on the planet we can’t afford and have access to,” Coker told MMAFighting.com in December.
Kay doubled down on that statement last week, promising Viacom and Spike TV’s continued commitment to Bellator as a potential MMA powerhouse. As for whether Bellator could surpass the UFC in the next five to 10 years, Kay was succinct.
Cody McKenzie’s retirement was shorter than most fighters’ time in between bouts.
The idiosyncratic UFC veteran has accepted a fight on short notice and will meet Andrew McInnes in the co-main event of World Series Of Fighting 18: Moraes vs. Hill on Feb. 12 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, it was announced this week. McKenzie announced his retirement after a first-round knockout loss to Beslan Isaev at M-1 Challenge 54 on Dec. 17.
“It was a pretty quick retirement,” McKenzie told MMAFighting.com with a laugh. “I lived off my funds as long as I could and when they ran out, sometimes you gotta come out of retirement. Even if it’s [two] months later.”
McKenzie, an Ultimate Fighter alum, planned on returning to the regular workforce when he left MMA in December. He’s still doing that. McKenzie is a commercial fisher in Alaska and is currently taking on odd jobs, like roofing and welding. He figured why not fight also for extra cash?
“I’m just doing it as a hobby now,” McKenzie said of MMA. “I’m not looking at this as a job anymore, because it’s not a job really. I guess it is. I get some money or whatever. But yeah, I never got into this for the money. I think that’s where I got burnt out for awhile, trying to chase the money when it’s not there.”
After the bout with McInnes, a one-off with WSOF, McKenzie will get right back into the cage in April for Havoc MMA in Canada. He’s happy he’ll at least have two months to prepare for that one, rather than just a week or two.
“I just got the itch again,” McKenzie said. “It’s always there. I like fighting people and people kept calling me asking me to fight. I turned some down. Now I’m just at the point where I need money. Might as well take some fights.”
One of the things McKenzie said when he wanted to step away was that he feared brain trauma. He was knocked out cold in his last fight. But that isn’t a worry anymore, he said. McKenzie said he overreacted.
“I’ve been knocked out a lot more growing up just being crazy, like skateboarding, snowboarding, sh*t like that,” he said. “I used to knock myself out a lot. So it’s not like I’m gonna take any more knockouts fighting. I think I have pretty good head movement. I’ve had my concussions everywhere. Fighting isn’t that much more dangerous than life. Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing something with a risk of getting hurt.”
McKenzie (15-6) went a respectable 3-4 in the UFC. He was released following a unanimous decision loss to Sam Stout in December 2013. In that fight, McKenzie competed in white Nike basketball shorts with the tag still on them. Referee Herb Dean had to pull the tag off during the bout.
Since being cut, the Washington state resident has not had many nice things to say about the UFC and president Dana White. McKenzie told MMAFighting.com in January that he wanted to fight White in an MMA bout for free.
His stance on the UFC and its brass has not changed after his short retirement.
“I’m not gonna beat around the bush,” McKenzie said. “I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t care about money even. I’m not gonna kiss Dana White and the UFC’s ass. They’re a bunch of assholes and they treat their fighters like sh*t, I feel.”
The bout with McInnes will be at welterweight. McKenzie fought at featherweight in the UFC. He said he doesn’t know much about McInnes except he heard “he’s kind of an a**hole.”
Not that it matters. McKenzie will do his thing, collect his paycheck and then head back to his regular life. Until the next fight comes up, likely sooner than expected.
“I’m not afraid of work by no means,” McKenzie said. “I like working hard. I get by, I always have. I’ve always made better money in Alaska [fishing] than I did in the UFC. Every year, I made a bigger paycheck fishing than I did fighting. It just sucks, because I do like to spend my money. I do like to go out, I do like to have fun and I’m always on the road traveling. It’s just a joke how I can make more in three months commercial fishing than I can in two years fighting people.”
Cody McKenzie’s retirement was shorter than most fighters’ time in between bouts.
The idiosyncratic UFC veteran has accepted a fight on short notice and will meet Andrew McInnes in the co-main event of World Series Of Fighting 18: Moraes vs. Hill on Feb. 12 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, it was announced this week. McKenzie announced his retirement after a first-round knockout loss to Beslan Isaev at M-1 Challenge 54 on Dec. 17.
“It was a pretty quick retirement,” McKenzie told MMAFighting.com with a laugh. “I lived off my funds as long as I could and when they ran out, sometimes you gotta come out of retirement. Even if it’s [two] months later.”
McKenzie, an Ultimate Fighter alum, planned on returning to the regular workforce when he left MMA in December. He’s still doing that. McKenzie is a commercial fisher in Alaska and is currently taking on odd jobs, like roofing and welding. He figured why not fight also for extra cash?
“I’m just doing it as a hobby now,” McKenzie said of MMA. “I’m not looking at this as a job anymore, because it’s not a job really. I guess it is. I get some money or whatever. But yeah, I never got into this for the money. I think that’s where I got burnt out for awhile, trying to chase the money when it’s not there.”
After the bout with McInnes, a one-off with WSOF, McKenzie will get right back into the cage in April for Havoc MMA in Canada. He’s happy he’ll at least have two months to prepare for that one, rather than just a week or two.
“I just got the itch again,” McKenzie said. “It’s always there. I like fighting people and people kept calling me asking me to fight. I turned some down. Now I’m just at the point where I need money. Might as well take some fights.”
One of the things McKenzie said when he wanted to step away was that he feared brain trauma. He was knocked out cold in his last fight. But that isn’t a worry anymore, he said. McKenzie said he overreacted.
“I’ve been knocked out a lot more growing up just being crazy, like skateboarding, snowboarding, sh*t like that,” he said. “I used to knock myself out a lot. So it’s not like I’m gonna take any more knockouts fighting. I think I have pretty good head movement. I’ve had my concussions everywhere. Fighting isn’t that much more dangerous than life. Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing something with a risk of getting hurt.”
McKenzie (15-6) went a respectable 3-4 in the UFC. He was released following a unanimous decision loss to Sam Stout in December 2013. In that fight, McKenzie competed in white Nike basketball shorts with the tag still on them. Referee Herb Dean had to pull the tag off during the bout.
Since being cut, the Washington state resident has not had many nice things to say about the UFC and president Dana White. McKenzie told MMAFighting.com in January that he wanted to fight White in an MMA bout for free.
His stance on the UFC and its brass has not changed after his short retirement.
“I’m not gonna beat around the bush,” McKenzie said. “I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t care about money even. I’m not gonna kiss Dana White and the UFC’s ass. They’re a bunch of assholes and they treat their fighters like sh*t, I feel.”
The bout with McInnes will be at welterweight. McKenzie fought at featherweight in the UFC. He said he doesn’t know much about McInnes except he heard “he’s kind of an a**hole.”
Not that it matters. McKenzie will do his thing, collect his paycheck and then head back to his regular life. Until the next fight comes up, likely sooner than expected.
“I’m not afraid of work by no means,” McKenzie said. “I like working hard. I get by, I always have. I’ve always made better money in Alaska [fishing] than I did in the UFC. Every year, I made a bigger paycheck fishing than I did fighting. It just sucks, because I do like to spend my money. I do like to go out, I do like to have fun and I’m always on the road traveling. It’s just a joke how I can make more in three months commercial fishing than I can in two years fighting people.”
Firas Zahabi has some strong opinions about Anderson Silva’s positive drug tests for anabolic steroid metabolites.
Georges St-Pierre’s longtime coach told La Presse in Montreal that Silva’s story is “similar” to that of Lance Armstrong, the disgraced cyclist who was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories amid a doping scandal.
“It’s horrible for the sport,” Zahabi told La Presse (translated from French). “Lance Armstrong has not helped the sport of cycling. A lot of people were inspired by his story and afterwards we find out that it’s a lie. Here, we’re going through something similar in our sport.”
Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005. The United States Anti-Doping Agency presented evidence of doping in 2012 and those titles were taken away. Armstrong denied using performance-enhancing drugs on numerous occasions before telling the truth in January 2013 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Armstrong, who came back from testicular cancer that spread throughout his body, was once considered one of the sports world’s greatest heroes.
Silva, 39, is regarded as the greatest UFC champion of all time. The Brazilian held the UFC middleweight title for seven years and holds the UFC record for most consecutive wins (16) and title defenses (10).
Silva tested positive for drostanolone and androstane in a Jan. 9 out-of-competition drug test. The results did not come back until Feb. 3 — three days after Silva defeated Nick Diaz by unanimous decision at UFC 183 in Las Vegas. Silva has been temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) and will face further discipline at a hearing in March or April.
Silva is denying that he took any performance-enhancing drugs. This is his first time testing positive for any banned substance. But Zahabi believes that all of Silva’s accomplishments have to be called into question. He said that St-Pierre now must be viewed unequivocally as the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
“Georges is the best pound-for-pound fighter,” Zahabi said. “We have to drop Silva. If he really cheated, we can’t set this example for the youth. It’s ridiculous. Is Lance Armstrong considered the best cyclist of all time? No. A few years ago, the answer would have been different.”
St-Pierre, the former UFC welterweight champion, has said that he will not return to the UFC until there are stricter testing methods in place — and that was before Silva popped positive for anabolic steroids. Zahabi said there are currently no plans for GSP to return this year. St-Pierre vacated the belt in December 2013, saying he needed to take some time off. He has never officially retired.
People, notably B.J. Penn and Diaz, have accused St-Pierre, 33, of performance-enhancing drug use throughout his illustrious career. Zahabi said those claims are baseless.
“Georges passed the tests of VADA, the best agency,” Zahabi said. “All his tests are public. We are ready to take them again with random controls 24 hours a day. My athletes are natural and yes Georges is the best fighter of all time.”
Zahabi also casts some blame at the commission for not getting the test results back in time before the bout.
“It’s unbelievable that they let them fight,” he said. “Me personally, I would like the sport to be cleaned up. Because one day, a guy is going to die in the Octagon and we’re going to find out that the guy who killed him tested positive after the fact. Our sport is already dangerous enough as it is. If we add doping on top of that, it becomes madness.”
Firas Zahabi has some strong opinions about Anderson Silva’s positive drug tests for anabolic steroid metabolites.
Georges St-Pierre’s longtime coach told La Presse in Montreal that Silva’s story is “similar” to that of Lance Armstrong, the disgraced cyclist who was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories amid a doping scandal.
“It’s horrible for the sport,” Zahabi told La Presse (translated from French). “Lance Armstrong has not helped the sport of cycling. A lot of people were inspired by his story and afterwards we find out that it’s a lie. Here, we’re going through something similar in our sport.”
Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005. The United States Anti-Doping Agency presented evidence of doping in 2012 and those titles were taken away. Armstrong denied using performance-enhancing drugs on numerous occasions before telling the truth in January 2013 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Armstrong, who came back from testicular cancer that spread throughout his body, was once considered one of the sports world’s greatest heroes.
Silva, 39, is regarded as the greatest UFC champion of all time. The Brazilian held the UFC middleweight title for seven years and holds the UFC record for most consecutive wins (16) and title defenses (10).
Silva tested positive for drostanolone and androstane in a Jan. 9 out-of-competition drug test. The results did not come back until Feb. 3 — three days after Silva defeated Nick Diaz by unanimous decision at UFC 183 in Las Vegas. Silva has been temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) and will face further discipline at a hearing in March or April.
Silva is denying that he took any performance-enhancing drugs. This is his first time testing positive for any banned substance. But Zahabi believes that all of Silva’s accomplishments have to be called into question. He said that St-Pierre now must be viewed unequivocally as the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
“Georges is the best pound-for-pound fighter,” Zahabi said. “We have to drop Silva. If he really cheated, we can’t set this example for the youth. It’s ridiculous. Is Lance Armstrong considered the best cyclist of all time? No. A few years ago, the answer would have been different.”
St-Pierre, the former UFC welterweight champion, has said that he will not return to the UFC until there are stricter testing methods in place — and that was before Silva popped positive for anabolic steroids. Zahabi said there are currently no plans for GSP to return this year. St-Pierre vacated the belt in December 2013, saying he needed to take some time off. He has never officially retired.
People, notably B.J. Penn and Diaz, have accused St-Pierre, 33, of performance-enhancing drug use throughout his illustrious career. Zahabi said those claims are baseless.
“Georges passed the tests of VADA, the best agency,” Zahabi said. “All his tests are public. We are ready to take them again with random controls 24 hours a day. My athletes are natural and yes Georges is the best fighter of all time.”
Zahabi also casts some blame at the commission for not getting the test results back in time before the bout.
“It’s unbelievable that they let them fight,” he said. “Me personally, I would like the sport to be cleaned up. Because one day, a guy is going to die in the Octagon and we’re going to find out that the guy who killed him tested positive after the fact. Our sport is already dangerous enough as it is. If we add doping on top of that, it becomes madness.”
