Author: Ben Fowlkes

Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 130 Picks With Yves Edwards

Filed under: UFCIn the last edition of Fighter vs. Writer, my underdog picks backfired big time, resulting in a humiliating defeat at the hands of “Mayhem” Miller.

This time, I tapped MMA veteran and Thug-Jitsu master Yves Edwards (whose musings you c…

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In the last edition of Fighter vs. Writer, my underdog picks backfired big time, resulting in a humiliating defeat at the hands of “Mayhem” Miller.

This time, I tapped MMA veteran and Thug-Jitsu master Yves Edwards (whose musings you can follow on Twitter) for a head-to-head battle over UFC 130 in an attempt to change my luck.

Edwards is taking on Sam Stout at UFC 131 in Vancouver in June, so my hope was that he’d be too distracted to know or care who’s in action tonight. Then he started going off on Roy Nelson’s basketball skills before politely reminding me that he has a couple of teammates on tonight’s card, and that’s when I realized that maybe I was in trouble.

Too late to back out now. On with the predictions…

“Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt Hamill

Edwards: Hamill via decision. “I like ‘Rampage’ a lot, but I think Hamill takes this fight. I really do. I think he’s just going to go in there and wrestle, and I think he’ll out-wrestle ‘Rampage.'”
Fowlkes: Jackson via decision. I can’t rule out the possibility that Hamill will use takedowns and clinch control to win a Rashad Evans-esque decision here, but I think Jackson will be better able to keep this fight in the center of the cage and turn it into a boxing match.

Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson

Edwards: Nelson via TKO. “Roy Nelson can dunk a basketball. That’s unbelievable. I’ve got to go with him just on the strength of that.”
Fowlkes: Nelson via TKO. I think his big right hand will be more of a factor than his dunking ability, but Yves has a point. That is pretty impressive.

Stefan Struve vs. Travis Browne

Edwards: Struve via TKO. “He’s just going to win that by being a skyscraper. He’s awkward for everyone, and I think he’s now coming into his own. He’s going to do well, and I think he’s going to take this one.”
Fowlkes: Struve via TKO. If he makes it through the first two minutes, this is Struve’s fight all the way. His biggest problem is that he tends to start slow and take too much damage early. If he can get past that here, he’ll pick Browne apart on the feet.

Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story

Edwards: Alves via decision. “I can’t ever pick against my friends in a tough fight, so I have to go with ‘Pitbull.’ I think it’ll go the distance, but he’s going to bust up Story’s legs with kicks. If he can’t take ‘Pitbull’ down early, he’s in a lot of trouble.”
Fowlkes: Alves by TKO. I doubt Story will be able to get Alves down very often or keep him down for long if he does score a takedown. The more time he spends standing in front of “Pitbull,” the greater the chance that he will get separated from his consciousness.

Brian Stann vs. Jorge Santiago

Edwards: Santiago via decision. “Another tough one with a friend. Stann is tough and he’s been looking good lately, but Jorge has been fighting the best outside of the UFC. I think he’ll come in with something to prove and win a decision.”
Fowlkes: Stann via decision. I think Santiago’s style plays right into Stann’s strengths. It will most likely turn into a shootout – it’s my pick for Fight of the Night, as a matter of fact – but I think Stann scores a clear victory.

Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson

Edwards: Johnson via decision. “I have to pick Johnson just on speed and momentum. He’s fast, he’s explosive, and he’s got a lot of momentum. I genuinely like [Torres] – we’ve hung out on a couple occasions, done a couple things, work-wise – but ‘Mighty Mouse,’ he’s found his weight class.”
Fowlkes: Johnson via decision. Even though he’s giving up about six inches in height to Torres, his ability to close the distance on takedowns in the blink of an eye will negate Torres’ size.

Kendall Grove vs. Tim Boetsch

Edwards: Grove via TKO. “Boetsch is coming down to 185 [pounds] for the first time, so I have to go with Kendall just on that. Boetsch is a big dude, and that weight cut might be hard for him. I don’t know if he’s had a dry run at it or not, but that can be tough. I see Kendall being able to stop it late when Boetsch gets tired late in the third.”
Fowlkes: Boetsch via decision. Yves makes a very good point about the effect of the weight cut, but my guess is that Boetsch didn’t make the decision to drop down without first making sure that he could lose the weight and still have gas in the tank on fight night. At least, I hope.

Tiebreaker question: time of the fastest fight of the night?

Edwards: 3:00 of round 1
Fowlkes: 1:27 of round 1

Edwards picks: Hamill, Nelson, Struve, Alves, Santiago, Johnson, Grove
Fowlkes picks: Jackson, Nelson, Struve, Alves, Stann, Johnson, Boetsch

 

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Eight Ways of Looking at UFC 130

Filed under: UFCWith UFC 130 just a day away, we look at what constitutes a main event, what becomes of former champs in both victory and defeat, and so much more.

I. “Rampage” Jackson could be auditioning for a title shot, not just fighting for one. …

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With UFC 130 just a day away, we look at what constitutes a main event, what becomes of former champs in both victory and defeat, and so much more.

I. “Rampage” Jackson could be auditioning for a title shot, not just fighting for one. It’s still unclear who will get the first crack at UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, but it’s not hard to imagine that a Jackson victory on Saturday and an Evans loss (or even mediocre victory) in August could result in a Rampage-Bones title fight in the fall. But in order to effectively sell Jackson as legitimate competition for Jones, the UFC needs a convincing performance out of him here. If Jackson barely squeaks by Hamill (who Jones destroyed so thoroughly he ran out of legal strikes to hit him with) the way he barely squeaked by Machida, how many people are really going to be interested in seeing him fight the champ? Jackson can always sell a fight with his mouth – when he feels like it, anyway – but with three straight decisions under his belt, it’d be nice for him to show that he can still sell one with his fists, too.

II. Is Miguel Torres tired of fighting guys who come up to his nipples in the pre-fight staredown? At 5’9″, Torres is practically the Stefan Struve of the bantamweight division. Demetrious Johnson will be the fourth straight opponent he’s faced who hovers in the 5’3″ range (Joe Benavidez is officially listed at 5’4″, but then Shane Carwin is listed at 6’2″, so go figure). Last time out Torres was content to hide behind his long jab and ride it all the way to the scorecards for an easy win. It wasn’t his most popular effort, however, which makes you think that this time he may be tempted to mix it up more for the sake of the crowd. Against the speedy little “Mighty Mouse,” that could be a dangerous, though perhaps necessary gamble. Torres has two straight wins under his belt. The third could be the charm, as long as it’s not another snoozer.

III. With no more title fight at UFC 130, time for the UFC to make chicken salad out of chicken…well, you know. Let’s face it, fans are being asked to pay main event prices for a show that’s essentially all undercard. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some exciting scraps lined up for Saturday. Jackson-Hamill? Nelson-Mir? Those fights both feature former champs, and both have future implications…probably. At the same time, neither can be confused for a true, honest to goodness, call-in-sick-to-your-own-wedding type of main event. For some fans, that’s also going to mean it’s not worth the fifty bucks to stay home on a holiday weekend Saturday night and watch it. The UFC has to expect that, but injuries happen, so what are you going to do? The answer, I suspect, is take this one on the chin and move on to Vancouver. Sometimes you eat the chicken salad, and sometimes, well, the chicken salad eats you. I think that’s how the saying goes, anyway.

IV. If Frank Mir can’t beat Roy Nelson, then what? Mir is a former heavyweight champ who poses serious problems for most of the big men on the UFC’s roster, but he’s also a train that may be running out of track. He’s been beaten by both Lesnar and Carwin. He holds victories over also-rans like Kongo and faded legends like Cro Cop and Big Nog. If he can’t beat “Big Country,” he can pretty much forget about a heavyweight title shot any time soon. Mir just turned 32, so it’s not as if he can afford to wait around in the division until the wind shifts again. It’s strange to think that the situation might be so dire when he’s coming off a knockout victory, but then again, how bright can Mir’s future in the UFC really be if he loses on Saturday?

V. Rick Story is about to take a serious leap up in competition. The question is, is he ready for it? His five-fight win streak inside the Octagon is impressive, but who’s the best welterweight he’s beaten so far? Johny Hendricks? Brian Foster? No offense to those guys, but Alves is in an entirely different class. Two men can claim victories over “Pitbull” in the last half-decade: Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch. Alves is a solid little ball of muscle who’s tough to takedown (unless you happen to be one of the two best takedown artists in all of MMA) and who can kick your legs into jelly if you stand with him. So how does Story – who is not a Fitch-level wrestler or an Alves-level kickboxer – win this fight? I have no idea, but it should be interesting to see what he comes up with.

VI. On paper, anyway, Matt Hamill is riding a five-fight win streak. Of course, that includes the DQ win over Jones, and even the popcorn venders in the cheap seats could tell he wasn’t going to be celebrating that one at the after-party. Still, imagine he wrestles his way to a decision over Jackson. Imagine he’s got six consecutive W’s on the scoreboard. Imagine what it says about the real meaning of this fight that he still wouldn’t even be in the conversation about potential title contenders at that point, and we all bloody well know it.

VII. What does an MMA heavyweight look like? From the corpulent, straight-outta-the-trailer-park look that Roy Nelson has cultivated, to the extremely tall, pale, and Dutch-as-he-wanna-be Stefan Struve, there’s a range of heavyweight body types on display this weekend, with Frank Mir and Travis Browne hitting the points in between. Maybe somewhere in there is a look at the future of MMA heavyweights. Or maybe that’s just what happens when a weight class spans sixty freaking pounds and a foot or so in height.

VIII. Just maybe, Brian Stann is the UFC’s real American hero at middleweight, and right when it needs one. You look at the former Marine with the square jaw, the ‘aw shucks’ demeanor, and a fighting style that ensures someone will probably get his face broken, and you start to wonder if the UFC didn’t order him straight from central casting. The guy is practically a walking cartoon character of a butt-kicking, Apple pie-eating boy next door. He is, in other words, a godsend for the UFC. Imagine the perfect pro wrestling-esque storyline the writes itself as soon you match Stann against someone like Michael Bisping. Stann salutes the flag while helping old ladies across the street. Bisping dons a soccer jersey and begins sneeringly referring to Stann as a ‘colonial.’ I’m telling you, that kind of theatre is so priceless, the fight is almost secondary. First though, Stann has to get past Santiago, which is where things could veer wildly off-script. The former Sengoku champ can still swat – just ask Kazuo Misaki. It’s a tough draw, but if Stann pulls out the win, look for the big push to start the moment his hand gets raised in the Octagon.

 

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UFC 130: By the Odds

Filed under: UFCWith UFC 130 in Las Vegas just a couple days away, it’s time that we looked at the main card match-ups the way Vegas sportsbooks intended us to: with eyes that are blinded by opportunistic greed.

Oddsmakers have already weighed in on S…

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With UFC 130 in Las Vegas just a couple days away, it’s time that we looked at the main card match-ups the way Vegas sportsbooks intended us to: with eyes that are blinded by opportunistic greed.

Oddsmakers have already weighed in on Saturday night’s fights. Now let’s double-check their work and see if we can’t find some holes in their logic.

“Rampage” Jackson (-265) vs. Matt Hamill (+205)

It is not at all unreasonable to think that Hamill could pull off an upset by out-working and out-hustling Jackson on Saturday night. If he puts his wrestling to work, keeps Jackson either on his back or pinned against the fence, Hamill could certainly pull off a decision win much like Rashad Evans did. That’s totally plausible. It’s also the kind of thing you talk yourself into believing once you see the chance to jump on a 2-1 underdog. Jackson is the better all-around fighter here. As much as I wonder about his career motivation, I don’t have serious doubts that he’s done the work in the gym. He should be able to stop Hamill’s takedowns and force him into a boxing match. And yet, Hamill’s resiliency and dogged determination can keep him in this fight until the end. At these odds, that might be all the excuse I need.
My pick: Hamill. There are lots of ways for this choice to go wrong, but 2-1 against a fighter with as many question marks as Jackson is too good to pass up. That’s why they call it gambling, people.

Roy Nelson (+110) vs. Frank Mir (-140)

The smartest thing Mir could do is to disregard public opinion altogether. Fans (and Dana White) didn’t like your fight with Cro Cop? So what. Go in there against Nelson, pressure him in the clinch, try and put him on his back, lean on him in close and wear him down in a slow grind. People aren’t going to like it, but at least you’ll win. At least you won’t have to find out how that right hand feels on your jaw. Good enough, right? But no, Mir’s not that kind of smart. Regardless of what he says, he cares too much what people think of him. He’ll try to make a show out of it, and the more time he spends standing across from “Big Country,” the worse his chances get.
My pick: Nelson. He’s only a slight underdog, but it’s enough to justify putting faith in his power. Coming off the Cro Cop fight, I question whether Mir would rather win to the sound of boos or lose to the sound of cheers.

Stefan Struve (+110) vs. Travis Browne (-140)

As part of the UFC’s continuing effort to match the 6’11” Struve against fellow giants, in comes the 6’7″ Browne, who is still a bit of an unknown quantity. Browne ran through James McSweeney, but stalled against Cheick Kongo. He seems like more of a step sideways for Struve rather than a move up the ladder, so I’m a little surprised to see the Dutch beanpole as a slight underdog. If it stays standing, Struve wins this. If Browne puts him on his back, well, we’ve seen in the past that that strategy has dangers of its own. Unless Browne has more arrows in the quiver than what we’ve seen of him so far, which is entirely possible, I don’t see him winning this.
My pick: Struve. At +110, he’ll make a nice addition to any parlay.

Thiago Alves (-250) vs. Rick Story (+190)

Story has plowed his way through most of the mid-level welterweights on the UFC roster, but now he’s in with the big boys. Alves has only lost to two people in the last five years, and they were Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch. Story is a talented, aggressive fighter, but is he really on that level? I doubt it. Judging by the betting line, oddsmakers doubt it too. Alves seems to have put his weight struggles behind him, so as long as he doesn’t have to kill himself to make 170, chances are he’ll be ready to put a hurting on Story and remind him just how far he still has to go.
My pick: Alves. -250 still seems a little high, but it’s good enough for the parlay.

Brian Stann (-150) vs. Jorge Santiago (+120)

Stann is a solid technician who does things right and knows how to stick to a game plan. Santiago is a little wilder, like a wind-up toy you set in motion and get the heck away from. I’m not saying that fighting Santiago is going to be like having another go with Chris Leben for Stann, but, well yeah, it’ll be sort of like that. That worked out well for Stann last time, and unless he gets clipped early I see him putting on a repeat performance here. You can’t count Santiago out entirely, but it’s Stann’s fight to lose, and one that will propel him to the next level if he wins.
My pick: Stann. It’s another one for the parlay, but I feel pretty good about this one.

Quick picks:

– Demetrious Johnson (+105) over Miguel Torres (-135). As much as I like Torres and his irrepressible mullet, Johnson will wear him out with takedowns en route to a decision.

– Tim Boetsch (+110) over Kendall Grove (-140). If Boetsch can take this into the later rounds he should be able to put his power to work and grind Grove down, maybe even finish him in the third.

– The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: Struve + Alves + Stann + Johnson.

 

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The Cut List: Who Desperately Needs a Win at UFC 130?

Filed under: UFCUFC 130 kicks off a busy summer in the world of MMA, but with so many fighters now under the Zuffa umbrella it’s no time to get complacent. Just about every undercard has its share of fighters who need a win just to stay viable in the b…

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UFC 130 kicks off a busy summer in the world of MMA, but with so many fighters now under the Zuffa umbrella it’s no time to get complacent. Just about every undercard has its share of fighters who need a win just to stay viable in the big leagues, and Saturday night’s event is no exception.

Let’s check out who might be looking at a win-or-go-home scenario at UFC 130, and who merely needs to lose with a little flair.

Kendall Grove (12-8-1 overall, 7-5 UFC)
Who he’s fighting: Tim Boetsch
Why he’s in danger: It doesn’t seem like it, but Grove has been a UFC mainstay for nearly five years now. Kind of surprising, right? Or maybe it’s just surprising that a guy could hang around in the middle of the pack for that long, making no significant moves up or down, and yet still hanging on to his job. Grove has a talent for survival in that way. He loses two in a row, then wins two in a row. Then he loses again. Then wins. Then loses. Then…you get it. The UFC overlords have shown that they’ll only put up with that pattern for so long, with occasional exceptions made for fan favorites or aging legends. Grove is neither, really, and he’s coming off an unimpressive showing in a decision loss to Demian Maia. If he loses this he’ll be 2-4 in his last six fights. And the two wins? Both came against fighters who are no longer with the UFC. If Grove doesn’t want to join them, he’d better pull out a victory.
Odds of getting cut: 2-1. Boetsch is a difficult opponent for him. Grove’s stand-up is sharp enough and he’s got that gangly jiu-jitsu game off the bottom that gives some people trouble, but he can be outwrestled, which is Boetsch’s specialty. If he loses a snoozer of a decision, somebody better pass Grove the want ads.

Tim Boetsch (12-4 overall, 3-3 UFC)
Who he’s fighting: Kendall Grove
Why he’s in danger: Boetsch has already been cut from the UFC once, and without ever losing two in a row. He went 2-2 in his first stint, taking one step forward and one step back until the UFC sent him down to the minors to beat up on scrubs. Now he’s back, but already up to his old tricks with a 1-1 record this time around. In his last fight he fell victim to Phil Davis’ “Mr. Wonderful” kimura, which is the MMA equivalent of getting posterized by a monster dunk in the NBA. Boetsch’s problem isn’t just his record – it’s his style. He favors the wrestler’s grind, which doesn’t make you many friends in the UFC offices. If they can’t count on you to at least put on a show in defeat, your contract finds its way to the shredder a lot quicker. Now a middleweight, Boetsch needs to get back to the ‘Hulk smash!’ style he displayed in his UFC debut. If he can overpower and straight-up bully Grove, he stands a good chance of winning the fight and keeping his job.
Odds of getting cut: 3-1. Boetsch has only been submitted once in his career, and that was a freakish incident to begin with. If Grove has to fight from the bottom against this guy he’s going to have a long night. I’m not saying it’ll be fun to watch, but I think Boetsch wins. If he doesn’t want to go back to the bush leagues, he’d better.

Rafaello Oliveira (14-3 overall, 1-2 UFC)
Who he’s fighting: Gleison Tibau
Why he’s in danger: Oliveira has also been cut once already, and he wouldn’t be back this soon if Bart Palaszewski hadn’t pulled out with an injury in the weeks before this fight. The UFC appreciates a fighter willing to step up on short notice and do the organization a solid, so as long as Oliveira can turn in a halfway decent effort he can at least make a case for continued employment. Then again, the flip side of taking a short notice fight like this is that you might be signing yourself up for one seriously bad showing if you aren’t adequately prepared. When you end the fight bloodied and beaten, people tend to remember that image and forget how eager you were to jump in there and scrap.
Odds of being cut: Even. Would cutting a guy who stepped up on short notice for you be a real cold-hearted move? Sure. Has the UFC shown an absolute willingness to make such cold-hearted moves in the past? You bet.

Cole Escovedo (17-6 overall, 0-0 UFC)
Who he’s fighting: Renan Barao
Why he’s in danger: Escovedo has been in the game for almost ten years now, and it’s hard not to wonder if he didn’t spend the best of those years as the pre-Zuffa era WEC featherweight champ. There wasn’t a lot of fame or money in that particular title back in those days, and he’s spent the years since then bouncing around from one promotion to the next without ever putting serious roots down. He got knocked out in the IFL, won one fight in the Strikeforce Challengers series, and had mixed results with Dream. Getting his foot in the door with the UFC is a very big deal, but he shouldn’t expect much patience from the bosses now that he’s there. The fact is, Escovedo is pushing 30 and it’s now-or-never time. He’s got talent, but the UFC isn’t likely to see him as investment worth sitting on for too long. He needs to show that he’s got the goods to last at this level, and he needs to do it in a hurry.
Odds of getting cut: 2-1. This is a winnable fight, but by no means an easy one. The UFC is going to be looking for Escovedo to show that he’s not just some guy who beats the also-rans and loses to the rest. If he’s smart, he’ll see this somewhat late notice bout on the bottom of the card for what it is: a tryout. If he’s not ready to make the most of it now, after the career he’s had, then he never will be.

 

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‘Rampage’ Jackson’s Toughest Role? Convincing Us He Still Wants to Fight

Filed under: UFCLet’s say, for the sake of wild, purely speculative conversation, that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson could stay home this Saturday night.

Say he could press a magic button (years of TV and movies have taught me that this button would nece…

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Let’s say, for the sake of wild, purely speculative conversation, that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson could stay home this Saturday night.

Say he could press a magic button (years of TV and movies have taught me that this button would necessarily be big and red, and may or may not be covered by a glass case) and create a Rampage clone that would go and fight for him at UFC 130. Say Real Rampage would get the money and Clone Rampage would do all the work, make the decisions, and live with the pain of defeat or the satisfaction of victory, but to the rest of the world the two would be indistinguishable.

My question isn’t whether Jackson would choose to press the magic button under these circumstances. That’s too easy. Obviously he would press it. The way he talks about his fighting career these days, I don’t think you could keep him away from that button with a pack of wolves and a stun gun.

But say he pressed the button. Say he sent Clone Rampage out into the Las Vegas night to do his bidding against Matt Hamill. My question is: would Real Rampage, still lodged comfortably at home, bother to buy the pay-per-view so he could watch what happened? Or would he decide to do something else instead, maybe opting to find out the results via text message later that night?

This is the question I can’t answer, and it’s also why I don’t know what to make of the current state of Jackson’s MMA career.

To hear him tell it, fighting is just something to fill the time and earn a paycheck between movie roles. The minute he gets paid more to act than he does to fight, Jackson has said, he’s out of here. Nobody can fight forever, and he doesn’t particularly want to try.

Which is completely reasonable to most of us. If you can get paid more for sitting around on movie sets eating organic potato chips than you can for spending weeks living like a monk in training camp and waking up sore every morning, that’s not too tough a decision for most people.

Then again, there’s a reason most people don’t become pro fighters, and a complete lack of skill and athleticism is only part of it.

What it comes down to is a lack of enthusiasm. All fighters have to have it to begin with, because when you’re just starting out the money isn’t good enough to justify doing it for any other reason. Unless you’re Brock Lesnar. Or maybe Bobby Lashley.

But when Jackson made his pro debut in 1999 against a 175-pound Mike Pyle in Memphis, he did it for no more than a couple hundred bucks and a chance to punch someone in the face without legal repercussions.

I don’t know what mix of ambition and anger and competitive zeal was driving that Rampage, but it seems to have evaporated in the eleven-plus years since then. Now when he talks about upcoming fights he seems to be the person least interested in the conversation. Even when he deigns to dredge up some the charisma that made him a fan favorite – such as he did last night on ‘The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson‘ – he still seems far more enthusiastic about the after-party than the fight.

It makes you wonder, what exactly is Jackson trying to accomplish in MMA at this point? Is he only after the money? The fame? Is it nothing more than a way to keep him in the limelight just long enough to hold the interest movie producers? Or does he still want to etch a legacy for himself beyond what he’s already accomplished in the sport? Does he want to be champion? He’s still quite good at it, but does he actually want to participate in the physical act of fighting?

It’s hard to come up with a clear answer right now, and that’s a problem. This is the same Jackson who recently turned down a title shot because he thought six weeks wasn’t enough time to prepare. It’s also the one who waffles between mild interest and complete apathy when the subject of his next fight comes up.

Not only is he not fired up about fighting for a living, he rarely even pretends to be. I don’t know what that means for his immediate future in pro fighting, but it’s probably not the best sign for his acting career. If he can’t convince fans that he’s in the cage because he truly wants to be, how’s he ever going to convince movie audiences that he’s an entirely different person?

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Gray Maynard Talks UFC 130 Withdrawal, Anthony Pettis and More

Filed under: UFCIn a way, Gray Maynard has some cause to be thankful that UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar pulled out of their scheduled title fight at UFC 130 this weekend.

Though Maynard told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour …

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In a way, Gray Maynard has some cause to be thankful that UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar pulled out of their scheduled title fight at UFC 130 this weekend.

Though Maynard told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that he would have been healthy enough to show up on fight night if Edgar hadn’t withdrawn with an injury first, the delay did give him the opportunity to address some lingering injury issues of his own.

“[It was] just some old stuff that I’ve been kind of going through for the last couple camps,” Maynard said. “I was like, well, this is for a title so I got to push through it. …Then Edgar pulled out and it was an opportunity to heal up, and I took that opportunity.”

For Maynard, that meant having arthroscopic surgery on his knee and giving his body some time to recover after several tough training camps had taken their toll. It also means most likely putting off his next shot at UFC gold until late summer or early fall, though Maynard said he would have toughed it out and fought this weekend if Edgar was still game.

“I would have had to,” he said. “It’s kind of like, if you’re going for the belt, you don’t pull out of a fight.”

You especially don’t pull out of a fight that was already nearly snatched away from you once. After fighting to a draw with Edgar at UFC 125 in January, Maynard was dismayed to hear UFC president Dana White announce that Edgar would move on with other title defenses, leaving Maynard behind despite the inconclusive result.

“I’m in this sport for one reason, and that’s to be at the top,” Maynard said. “The cash, all that stuff, it’s cool, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m not in it for that. I’m going to be the best. I want to be the best. I heard that, and you just don’t know what will happen. Will I have a chance again? If I do, it’ll take a long time. How am I going to change up things? You’ve just got all these emotions, and it’s hard to deal with. All your dreams and your goals, it could be gone.”

At least, that’s what he thought until White called to tell Maynard he’d had a change of heart.

“He called me and I was in my hotel room. I was just, you know, I didn’t know what I was going to do. And he called me and he said, ‘It’s f–king yours, kid.’ I think I almost cried, probably. I think I told him I loved him and it went quiet for a minute. Then he was like, ‘Well alright, get to work.'”

And while Maynard said he wasn’t aware of any offer to fight Anthony Pettis after Edgar’s injury withdrawal, he did elaborate on some of the headline-grabbing comments he made about the last reigning WEC lightweight champ.

In a previous interview Maynard had questioned Pettis’ credentials, suggesting that he hadn’t faced enough high-level competition to deserve a shot at a top UFC contender. Though it surprised some to hear the usually reserved Maynard speak so strongly about a fellow fighter, Maynard hardly seemed to realize that it was noteworthy at all.

“I don’t keep up with the news that much, and I remember I was doing probably like three or four interviews. Every interviewer, obviously trying to get things going, was like, ‘Well Anthony, he says that you don’t deserve the title.’ I thought, well, if we’re giving opinions here, then here’s my opinion. … I think Anthony’s a tough kid. He’s young. As for who he’s gone up against, a couple tough guys, but nobody proven, I guess.”

But don’t expect Maynard to make a habit of trash-talking other fighters or, for that matter, trying to get himself noticed on the internet. Even though the UFC is now offering financial incentives for fighters who master Twitter, Maynard remains a mostly passive user for the same reasons that he’s typically soft-spoken in interviews.

“You got everybody trying so hard to get out there, and I don’t know if it’s my attitude, but I don’t really give a f–k. …I’m just me, and that’s not me. These guys are acting like, I don’t know, you’re a gimmick. Do you want to be that or is it you? I don’t know. It’s a gimmick, I think, and it’s not me.”

As for the people – and there are plenty of them – who tell him he should adopt a more vibrant or controversial persona to hype fights? Well, let’s just say they’re probably wasting their breath on Maynard.

“98 percent of the people I talk to are like, ‘Man, you got to build this fight up. You got to do this.’ If the guy’s an a–hole then I’ll tell him he’s an a–hole. But if he’s not, then there’s nothing to talk about.”

 

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