Author: Ben Fowlkes

Matt Hughes Has a "Sickness," but Josh Koscheck Can Sympathize

Filed under: UFCDENVER — There’s a reason you don’t hear Josh Koscheck trash-talking Matt Hughes in advance of their UFC 135 bout. It’s because, however unlikely it may seem judging by some of his past remarks, Koscheck does, in fact, possess a sense …

Filed under:

DENVER — There’s a reason you don’t hear Josh Koscheck trash-talking Matt Hughes in advance of their UFC 135 bout. It’s because, however unlikely it may seem judging by some of his past remarks, Koscheck does, in fact, possess a sense of empathy for his fellow fighters. Especially for an aging legend who seems to be on his way out of the sport.

“Eventually, at some point in my career, I’m probably going to be in Matt Hughes’ shoes,” Koscheck told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t want some young [expletive] kid punking me and talking [expletive] on me, you know?”

But while everyone else may be operating under the assumption that this could very well be Hughes’ final UFC appearance, the former welterweight champ is going out of his way to leave all his options open, even as he contemplates the dangers of hanging on too long.

“No matter what happens in this fight, we’ll see how I feel afterwards,” said Hughes, who disagreed with UFC president Dana White’s claim that there was “no way in hell” he’d retire if he upsets Koscheck on Saturday night.

“I’m not saying if I lose I’m done, if I win I’m staying in,” said Hughes. “Dana seems to think that if I go out and demolish Josh Koscheck, there’s no way I’ll retire. I’m telling you that that’s not a true statement. Really, it doesn’t matter about the outcome of the fight, it’s how I feel afterwards.”

And, at least for the moment, he feels good, Hughes said. He feels like he needs to fight, which is why he had no problem accepting Koscheck as a late replacement for his original opponent, Diego Sanchez, who pulled out with a broken hand.

“I’d trained so long, I was going to fight somebody,” he said. “It didn’t matter who it was.”

But as Hughes approaches both the last fight of his contract and his 38th birthday, the question is, what is he fighting for? That’s the question that the UFC president is asking as he looks at another aging former champ who’s in no hurry to hang up the gloves.

“I get to this point with these guys — and Hughes is a perfect example, same thing with [Chuck] Liddell — what’s next? Unless you guys tell me you want to go for another run at the title, you look at guys like Hughes and Liddell who have accomplished everything — Wanderlei [Silva] too, Wanderlei’s accomplished everything — what’s next at this age? You guys have made a ton of money. Hughes doesn’t need to make any more money. Believe me when I tell you.”

That much is true, said Hughes. Though he wouldn’t turn down “one of those Chuck Liddell jobs,” and White said that, in the end, he wouldn’t be surprised if Hughes ends up like Liddell, “get[ting] paid to do nothing,” Hughes admitted that he’s not in it for the money anymore. He could never work again and be set for life, he said, although “that’s not the kind of person I am.”

But pro fighters who hang on too long risk doing things to themselves that they can’t undo with any amount of money, so why can’t Hughes, who admits that he doesn’t want to be fighting in his 40s and doesn’t want another lengthy contract with the UFC, just come out and say that this fight will be his last?

According to Hughes, it’s because he has “a sickness” in him.

“I grew up with a twin brother on a farm miles away from everybody else. That twin brother gave me somebody to play with, but it [was] soon after that that we learned competition was a big thing. So I grew up competing my whole life. I’ve still got such a sickness. I try to have the faster truck than my brother, the better-looking wife, the more disciplined kids…it’s a sickness, to compete with your twin brother after that’s all you’ve known.”

And yet, he has to give it up sooner or later. Watching the way Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell ended their careers on losses, Hughes said, made him want to be different. But as long as he’s still winning, how can he convince himself that it’s time to quit?

“In a perfect world I go out on top, with my hand raised, and I’m done,” he said. “But the bad thing is, we’re all competitors. …You get that win and you just want another one and another one. It’s a sickness.”

Koscheck, of all people, seems to understand best what Hughes is going through. Maybe it’s because he feels like he might be looking into his own future, or just watching the decline of a colleague.

“[Hughes] said it best. He doesn’t want to be in his 40s and still fighting, and that’s smart,” said Koscheck. “Some guys take their career too long and they stay in the game too long. They have four or five losses on their way out and you’re just doing it for a paycheck then. I don’t want to be that fighter and I’m sure Matt Hughes doesn’t want to be that fighter.”

But then, Hughes is a lot closer to the end than Koscheck is. It’s one thing to say you don’t want to become a pro fighting cliché, but another to make the hard choices necessary to avoid it. If Hughes isn’t careful, his “sickness” could get the best of him.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Rampage Jackson Says Jon Jones Disrespected His Coach at Open Workouts

DENVER — At Thursday afternoon’s UFC 135 open workouts Quinton “Rampage” Jackson continued to blast UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones for what he interpreted as disrespect, but this time he had a new accusation to level at his opponent.

“He ba…

DENVER — At Thursday afternoon’s UFC 135 open workouts Quinton “Rampage” Jackson continued to blast UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones for what he interpreted as disrespect, but this time he had a new accusation to level at his opponent.

“He badmouthed my coach today, here at the open workout,” Jackson told reporters. “That’s not right. The kid has no respect for nobody. He needs to be humbled.”

The coach in question was British boxing coach Mark Kinney, a stout veteran of the fight game who told MMA Fighting that Jones was “just trying to wind me up.”

“He said something to me and then I said something back to him,” said Kinney, who declined to reveal exactly what was said, but painted Jones as the instigator. “I’m not going to lose sleep over it,” he added.


In Jackson’s mind, it was just the latest example of disrespectful behavior from Jones, who had long since disappeared from the MusclePharm gym by the time Jackson made the accusation to reporters.

“It’s very disrespectful what he did to my coach,” Jackson said. “You don’t come up to your opponent’s coach and talk crap. For the honor and respect of this sport, you don’t do that. Jon Jones says I fight for money, and this and that and he fights for fun and honor and stuff like that. But he’s not showing the [signs] of a fighter who fights for honor. Yes, I fight for money, because this is the career I chose. But at the same time I have a lot of honor and respect for this sport and other fighters.”

But Kinney, the man who was supposedly disrespected, brushed off the incident as a fairly tame run-in. Maybe Jones was feeling just a little too confident in the days leading up to the fight, he suggested, but the champ could be in for a surprise.

After Saturday night, Kinney said, no one will be asking about what Jones said to him or whether he really had a spy in Jackson’s camp. “They’re going to be asking about his concussion. They’re going to be asking whether he’ll be in hospital for two weeks or four.”

Both Kinney and Jackson continued to insist that Jones had someone on the inside of the challenger’s training camp feeding him information, but neither would say who it was. Jackson said he eventually found out the identity of the so-called spy, and his manager took action against him.

“Let’s just say he’s hurting financially right now,” Jackson said. “But we did find the spy, and as I suspected he wasn’t a fighter.”

And while most people are counting Jackson out against the taller, lankier Jones, Kinney hinted that the team has a plan for getting inside the champion’s longer reach and doing damage in close. Of course, he wasn’t eager to divulge that information with the fight still two days away.

“But he’ll get inside,” Kinney said. “Trust me.”

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-134680%

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

A Night at the Movies with ‘Mayhem’ Miller and Michael Bisping

Filed under: UFCDENVER — Michael Bisping and Jason “Mayhem” Miller make for an unlikely movie date, but in some bizarre way the pairing works. The two showed up at the Paramount Theater on Wednesday night for a private screening of The Ultimate Fighte…

Filed under:

Mayhem Miller and Michael BispingDENVER — Michael Bisping and Jason “Mayhem” Miller make for an unlikely movie date, but in some bizarre way the pairing works. The two showed up at the Paramount Theater on Wednesday night for a private screening of The Ultimate Fighter season 14 premiere looking less like rivals and more like…well, not friends exactly, but also not quite enemies.

“He’s not a bad guy. He’s alright,” Bisping admitted, nodding over at Miller who was, at the very moment, practically shouting into a video camera a few feet away. “But trust me, that in your face for six weeks? You’re going to kill the guy.”

Now that filming is over and Bisping can get back to dealing with Miller “in small doses,” the two seem to get along just fine. Or at least, that’s how it seemed as they sat down together with a handful of media members to watch the first episode of the Spike TV reality show inside the 80-year-old art deco theater.

The show’s first episode didn’t give the coaches all that much to do, however. After a brief introduction, complete with highlight reels, they spent the bulk of the episode separated by UFC president Dana White, watching TUF hopefuls scrap for a spot on the show inside the empty Mandalay Bay Events Center. Not that there weren’t a few barbs here and there, of course.

When Bisping appeared on screen, describing Miller’s current bleached blonde look as a cross between “Josh Koscheck and a toilet brush,” even Miller reared his head back and laughed along with the rest of us.

And all night long, both on screen and in person, the one thing they agreed on was a mutual respect for the talent level of the fighters in this season of the show. Miller estimated that at least eight of the competitors were worthy of UFC contracts, regardless of how they fared during the reality show tournament.

But while seeking refuge in the lobby during the final half-hour of the show, Miller hinted that some days had been tougher than others when working alongside his British counterpart.

“I wanted to hit him,” he said. “I’d be like, today I’m going to hit him.”

What stopped him, he explained, was that he worried it would make him look like a jerk once the show aired. “And then my mom would get mad,” he added.

The six weeks of filming in Las Vegas and the ensuing media tour to hype the show have ensured that Miller and Bisping hardly go a day without talking about one another. For a fight that’s still more than two months away, that’s an uncommon amount of preamble, even in the UFC.

In fact, Miller said, it’s taken almost every bit of patience he has to keep from freaking out with so much time to think about the fight. In his younger days, he said, this is exactly the kind of thing that might have sent him looking for trouble at a local bar.

“Or I’d start an argument with my girlfriend, just for the drama,” he said.

These days, as he jets from southern California to New York for talk shows, then to a private screening in Denver, more often than not it’s Bisping who is his date. And as they bickered about practical jokes and busted one another’s chops on stage following the show’s premiere, they seemed not unlike an old married couple — though maybe one that’s headed for divorce.

“During the show, I wanted to kill him,” Bisping said. “I’m going to kill him.”

Miller just rolled his eyes, flashing the same unimpressed expression we’d seen just moments before on the giant screen behind him.

“Save your breath for cooling your pies,” he said.

“Whatever that means,” Bisping shot back.

As with any couple, few battles are as fierce as the fight for the last word.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

‘Rampage’ Jackson Not Feeling the Respect From ‘Cocky’ Champion Jon Jones

Filed under: UFCDENVER — Quinton “Rampage” Jackson walked into the UFC 135 pre-fight press conference on Wednesday looking more irritated than upset.

Between the oddsmakers and fans who are counting him out of this weekend’s title fight entirely, to…

Filed under:

Jon Jones and Rampage JacksonDENVER — Quinton “Rampage” Jackson walked into the UFC 135 pre-fight press conference on Wednesday looking more irritated than upset.

Between the oddsmakers and fans who are counting him out of this weekend’s title fight entirely, to the grinning young champion who Jackson insists is too “cocky,” everywhere Jackson looks he finds another reason to scowl. Now that fight week is finally here, even that familiar gesture seems barely worth the effort to him.

“I don’t want to sit here and disrespect ‘Rampage…'” UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones said when asked how he sees Saturday night’s fight ending.

“Go ahead, Jon,” Jackson all but sighed into the microphone. “You’ve been doing it before.”

“You’ve been doing it, too,” Jones shot back. And he had a point. Only minutes earlier Jackson had talked about how much he enjoyed his training camp in Denver, where he visited the zoo and “made a friend” — a monkey that he said looked just like Jones.

Somehow, though, it didn’t seem to matter. Jackson and light heavyweight nemesis Rashad Evans have branded Jones as cocky and it seems to have stuck. Jones, not surprisingly, chalked it all up to fellow fighters looking for any insult they could find and their fans going along for the ride.

“It could have been any other word,” he said. As for claims from both Jackson and Evans that he puts on a phony persona in public, the champ insisted it was “funny” to him, saying, “a lot of people don’t even know me, so how do you know if I’m fake?”

If Jones is feeling good about his chances, there are plenty who think he has a reason to. The 24-year-old champion is as high as a 7-1 favorite against the 33-year-old Jackson, according to some oddsmakers. It’s a faith in the relatively untested Jones — or, if you prefer, a lack of confidence in the weary veteran Jackson — that UFC president Dana White called “crazy.”

“Seriously, all of us sitting here today, all the media and all of us who have been involved in the sport for as long as we have, do you honestly think that Rampage is a 5-1 underdog in this fight?” White said.

To hear the UFC boss tell it, this is exactly the kind of fight that Jackson needed to get his head right and his body ready. He’s been in Denver training at the Muscle Pharm gym for the last few months, which, at least to White, demonstrates a level of commitment to his preparation that Jackson hasn’t always been known for.

“Rampage is pretty miserable right now,” White said. “We were in the back…he’s pretty nasty for this fight. This is going to be an interesting fight. He hates Jon Jones. Hates him. He feels like he’s been disrespected and wants to win this fight. It’s good for Rampage. This is what Rampage needs.”

But as nice as it is to think that Jackson finally got fired up enough to train hard, that might not be enough against the young phenom Jones. The champion is taller, faster, and younger. At the press conference he showed off his Hollywood smile as he explained that he can take a shot better than most older fighters because he has a “fresh chin” that hasn’t been hammered by too many blows just yet.

“I’m a 24 year-old guy, still growing pubic hair,” he joked, explaining that he trains not get hit at all, rather than simply not getting hit hard. “I focus on things like evading and slipping and…”

Here, Jackson interrupted again, suggesting, “…and running.”

“I haven’t disrespected you, have I?” Jones asked.

“Not today,” Jackson replied.

But then, the day was still young. And when you’re looking for signs of disrespect around every corner, as Jackson seems to be, it never takes long before you find it.

It could be as simple as a smiling young opponent on the other side of the podium, joking with fans, mugging for cameras, looking as unconcerned about you as he was about any of the other challenges he’s faced and — at least so far — easily overcome. And why should he worry, when he’s never known anything but success in this business? Why should he think this time will be any different? How could he?

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Strikeforce’s Future Depends on Showtime, Says Dana White, but Deadline Looms

Filed under: ,

DENVER — Near the end of Wednesday’s UFC 135 pre-fight press conference, a particularly insistent fan decided he didn’t need the microphone in order to grill UFC president Dana White about the future of Strikeforce’s women’s division, of which he seemed to be an ardent supporter. What would become of the female fighters, he inquired, after Strikeforce…well, you know.

“After Strikeforce what?” White shot back. Though really, he didn’t need to ask. He understood the unstated assumption as well as anyone in the room, and the sheepish grin on his face said as much.

“Are you assuming that we’re going to shut Strikeforce down?” White asked, as if it was the first time he’d heard the idea.


To hear White tell it, it’s not a question of whether Zuffa wants to continue to operate the lesser-known organization it acquired last spring. Instead, he insisted, it’s up to Showtime, which broadcasts the fights on its premium cable network.

“Who knows what’s going to happen? The way this thing works is, it depends on Showtime. The ball’s in their court. They need to decide whether they want to keep Strikeforce around or not,” White said.

Of course, with the UFC picking off Strikeforce champions left and right, it seems as though White isn’t giving Showtime a lot of reasons to keep the flagging organization alive.

Former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and former welterweight champ Nick Diaz both have UFC dates in the near future, and vacant Strikeforce titles in their wakes. The UFC also recently signed Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson to take on Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 139 after “smooth” contract negotiations, according to White, and the stakes for Hendo are indeed big in his return to the Octagon.

“It would be tough not to give the winner of [Henderson-Rua] a title fight,” White added. “After Rashad [Evans].”

But while Strikeforce continues to play out its Showtime contract, White doesn’t seem terribly interested in following the action. He claimed not to have seen the most recent World Heavyweight Grand Prix event, which got very little hype from Zuffa or Showtime, and received dismal ratings after drawing a paltry live crowd. Showtime reportedly has an option to extend the Strikeforce contract, but White added there was a “deadline” for the network to decide by.

“It depends on whether they seriously want to stay in the business, the mixed martial arts business,” White said, before hinting that he thought Strikeforce had signed a bad deal when it aligned itself with Showtime.

“Everybody that comes into this business thinks that pay-per-view or free TV is the holy grail, the answer to everybody’s problems. Bulls–t. Either of those two things will put you out of business. You get into a bad deal with one of these companies, and the next thing you know you’re $30 million in the hole.”

It’s comments like that that have many in the industry assuming it’s all just a matter of time before Strikeforce disappears for good. With the Showtime contract expiring soon, and with ratings worse than ever, it seems unlikely that the cable network would want to continue to air an organization that is rapidly losing its few stars to the UFC.

And maybe that’s the whole point, even though White won’t confirm or deny it.

“I’m UFC, man,” he said. “I’m all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it’s not like I’m Showtime’s best friend. Lorenzo [Fertitta]’s much nicer than me. Let Lorenzo go deal with that.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: ,

DENVER — Near the end of Wednesday’s UFC 135 pre-fight press conference, a particularly insistent fan decided he didn’t need the microphone in order to grill UFC president Dana White about the future of Strikeforce’s women’s division, of which he seemed to be an ardent supporter. What would become of the female fighters, he inquired, after Strikeforce…well, you know.

“After Strikeforce what?” White shot back. Though really, he didn’t need to ask. He understood the unstated assumption as well as anyone in the room, and the sheepish grin on his face said as much.

“Are you assuming that we’re going to shut Strikeforce down?” White asked, as if it was the first time he’d heard the idea.


To hear White tell it, it’s not a question of whether Zuffa wants to continue to operate the lesser-known organization it acquired last spring. Instead, he insisted, it’s up to Showtime, which broadcasts the fights on its premium cable network.

“Who knows what’s going to happen? The way this thing works is, it depends on Showtime. The ball’s in their court. They need to decide whether they want to keep Strikeforce around or not,” White said.

Of course, with the UFC picking off Strikeforce champions left and right, it seems as though White isn’t giving Showtime a lot of reasons to keep the flagging organization alive.

Former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and former welterweight champ Nick Diaz both have UFC dates in the near future, and vacant Strikeforce titles in their wakes. The UFC also recently signed Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson to take on Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 139 after “smooth” contract negotiations, according to White, and the stakes for Hendo are indeed big in his return to the Octagon.

“It would be tough not to give the winner of [Henderson-Rua] a title fight,” White added. “After Rashad [Evans].”

But while Strikeforce continues to play out its Showtime contract, White doesn’t seem terribly interested in following the action. He claimed not to have seen the most recent World Heavyweight Grand Prix event, which got very little hype from Zuffa or Showtime, and received dismal ratings after drawing a paltry live crowd. Showtime reportedly has an option to extend the Strikeforce contract, but White added there was a “deadline” for the network to decide by.

“It depends on whether they seriously want to stay in the business, the mixed martial arts business,” White said, before hinting that he thought Strikeforce had signed a bad deal when it aligned itself with Showtime.

“Everybody that comes into this business thinks that pay-per-view or free TV is the holy grail, the answer to everybody’s problems. Bulls–t. Either of those two things will put you out of business. You get into a bad deal with one of these companies, and the next thing you know you’re $30 million in the hole.”

It’s comments like that that have many in the industry assuming it’s all just a matter of time before Strikeforce disappears for good. With the Showtime contract expiring soon, and with ratings worse than ever, it seems unlikely that the cable network would want to continue to air an organization that is rapidly losing its few stars to the UFC.

And maybe that’s the whole point, even though White won’t confirm or deny it.

“I’m UFC, man,” he said. “I’m all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it’s not like I’m Showtime’s best friend. Lorenzo [Fertitta]’s much nicer than me. Let Lorenzo go deal with that.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Dana White: ‘Senile’ Larry Merchant Embarrassed HBO

Filed under: UFCDENVER — With as fired up as UFC president Dana White gets when talking about last weekend’s Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz boxing match, you almost wouldn’t know that his organization put on some fights of its own that same night.

Fo…

Filed under:

DENVER — With as fired up as UFC president Dana White gets when talking about last weekend’s Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz boxing match, you almost wouldn’t know that his organization put on some fights of its own that same night.

Following Wednesday’s UFC 135 press conference, White ripped into referee Joe Cortez for “destroying” the highly-anticipated bout, but he saved his most virulent criticism for HBO commentator Larry Merchant, who found himself in a bizarre confrontation with Mayweather after the controversial ending.

“It’s my big beef with Merchant for years,” White said. “These guys get done fighting and he jumps in the ring and just starts saying off-the-wall, weird, rude [expletive] to these guys. Who the hell would want to do an interview with him? It’s probably the thing they dread worse than training and cutting weight and everything, is their interview with Larry Merchant. It’s ridiculous.”

Merchant drew Mayweather’s ire in the post-fight interview for asking about the dubious fight-ending punch combo that, while legal, seemed dirty to many. As Mayweather criticized Merchant for what he regarded as a history of bias on the part of the 80-year-old TV commentator, suggesting that HBO should fire him, Merchant retorted, “I wish I was 50 years younger and I would kick your ass.”

It was a lapse in professionalism that apparently didn’t help to endear him to White, an avid boxing fan.

“I actually thought that that was very embarrassing for HBO,” the UFC president said. “The guy is senile, he’s out of his mind. He’s up there berating Floyd, but Floyd can’t say anything back to you? You’ve been disrespecting guys your whole career, and guess what, you can go back 60 years, you’re not kicking Floyd’s ass, okay? Give me a break. And what’s Floyd going to do? A 102-year-old guy just said that to him.”

For the 35 minutes that White spoke to reporters following the pre-fight press conference inside the Pepsi Center, no subject seemed to hold as much interest for him as the Mayweather-Ortiz bout and its aftermath.

Though he claimed not to have watched the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix event on Showtime the weekend before, Mayweather-Ortiz prompted a lengthy rant from White on all the ways Cortez had erred in his handling of the fight, and how it only proved that “something needs to be done” about the athletic commissions that handle both MMA and boxing events.

“Realistically, when you look at it, boxing puts on two big fights a year,” White said. “Two big fights a year. They [expletive] up one of them. The referee destroyed that fight. He destroyed it. …That was a multi-, multi-million dollar fight that this one guy destroyed. Because I don’t know about you guys, but I was watching the fight, I would have liked to have seen how that really would have ended.”

White added that what really scares him is the potential for an athletic commission or a referee to wreak similar havoc on a UFC bout at a juncture as critical for MMA as the Mayweather-Ortiz bout may have been for boxing.

“The last thing that I want to have happen is that, to me, on FOX,” White said.

At least White doesn’t have to worry about Merchant on any of his broadcasts. From the sound of things, the veteran boxing commentator can rule out any potential future with the UFC.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments