After starring on TUF 3, Kendall Grove and Michael Bisping still share bond

MONTREAL – Kendall Grove and Michael Bisping are old chums from way back. All the way back to The Ultimate Fighter 3 in 2006, back when both guys won the reality show in their respective weight brackets. Back when Grove was a gangly 23-year-old Hawaiian to keep an eye on and Bisping, the outspoken Brit, was sawing through Josh Haynes.

And this weekend in Montreal, they are back together. Grove will be cornering Bisping on Saturday night when he takes on C.B. Dollaway in the hinge fight of the UFC 186 pay-per-view at the Bell Centre in Montreal. He has been with Bisping since UFC 152 in Toronto, when “The Count” fought Brian Stann. Bisping has been with Grove ever since then as well. It’s a bond that has strengthened both men. Together they’ve become a partnership of mutual perseverance.

“I give him credit for helping me revive my career,” Grove said on Thursday at the media day in the old section of Montreal. “I seen him a few years back when I was still with the UFC, I did a Fan Expo in England when he was fighting [Yoshihiro] Akiyama. I hadn’t seen him in awhile except in passing. We have that bond from The Ultimate Fighter. It changed our lives. And on top of him and me winning it, he told me, ‘if you need any help, let me know.’”

At the time Grove was essentially training on his own, and he was at the tail end of his UFC run. Bisping was putting together another run at the middleweight title, and so Grove was reluctant to bug him.  

“But then I got into my sh*t with the UFC, I got let go and I was kind of a nomad,” he said. “I was traveling around, trying to get back there. And then I saw him again, and he said the offer still stood. My wife said, hey, you need help, there’s nobody here on Maui for you to train with, call Bisping. So I called him. He said, you help me out and I’ll help you. So he flew me out there out of his own pocket [for the Stann camp], put me up at his house, fed me, let me train. That was the start of everything.”

Grove says he never quite understood why the UFC let him go after split decision losses to Demian Maia and Tim Boetsch, but that now it’s “water under the bridge.” Since leaving the UFC in 2011, he has fought under 10 different promotional banners all over the globe. Post-UFC, he became the very definition of a journeyman. He fought in KSW in Poland, at RWE in Maui, at K-Oz Entertainment in Perth, Australia, and most recently in Bellator, at such exotic locations as Cedar Rapids, Iowa and West Valley City, Utah. He fought in the AFC, and before then in a ShoFight showdown with Derek Brunson. He’s been all over the place, and encountered every level of success and failure.

Yet, here he is. At 32, he’s on the verge of finally breaking through.

In his next fight, Grove will go against Brandon Halsey for Bellator’s middleweight crown. That fight takes place at Bellator 139 on May 15 in Temecula, Calif., just a few weeks removed from Bisping’s fight with Dollaway. Grove, who at one point lost three fights in a row and was spiraling, is now positioned to become a champion in a major organization. He credits Bisping for getting him not only back into the spotlight, but back into relevancy. And it all started back at that Las Vegas mansion, when it was just two guys from entirely different islands who ended up bonding over an inference of being wronged.

“For me, I bonded with [Bisping] because I knew I was never going to fight him, because he was at 205,” Grove says. “So, and then we kind of clicked. I pushed him and he pushed me. We both felt disrespected by Tito [Ortiz] at the time, because he had his No. 1 picks and we’re both No. 2 picks for our weight. Bisping said at the time, ‘did he just call us training partners for our champions?’ We kind of had a chip on our shoulders for that. We were like, ‘f*ck that, we’ll prove everyone wrong.’ And we ended up doing it. And it’s kind of cool that we have that connection.”

A decade is a lifetime in the fight game. It’s easy to overstay your welcome in a game predicated on relevancy. Yet, Bisping is fighting Dollaway on a PPV with hopes of making one last stab at the title. He’s still viable. Grove is fighting for the Bellator title. He’s not through yet. Grove has helped Bisping keep his dream of fighting for a title alive, and Bisping has stood by Grove through what he calls his “up-and-down roller coaster career.”

It’s been a crazy ride, full of detours and shifting destinations. Montreal is just the next stop. On this day, Grove is watching Bisping’s media scrum, and he gets a little wistful looking at his old TUF 3 alum.

“I was trying to get back to the UFC,” he said. “So I went to KSW in Poland, which is an unbelievable show. I think they come in only second to Pride with the grand entrances and the overall show in general. I fought for their belt [against Michal Materla], and I think I got ripped off. My contract said three rounds, and yet we ended up in a mysterious fourth round. But I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to get killed in Poland by some gangsters.

“But then Bellator called and I started a relationship with them, and now I’m fighting for the belt. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m very fortunate. I’m very blessed.”

MONTREAL – Kendall Grove and Michael Bisping are old chums from way back. All the way back to The Ultimate Fighter 3 in 2006, back when both guys won the reality show in their respective weight brackets. Back when Grove was a gangly 23-year-old Hawaiian to keep an eye on and Bisping, the outspoken Brit, was sawing through Josh Haynes.

And this weekend in Montreal, they are back together. Grove will be cornering Bisping on Saturday night when he takes on C.B. Dollaway in the hinge fight of the UFC 186 pay-per-view at the Bell Centre in Montreal. He has been with Bisping since UFC 152 in Toronto, when “The Count” fought Brian Stann. Bisping has been with Grove ever since then as well. It’s a bond that has strengthened both men. Together they’ve become a partnership of mutual perseverance.

“I give him credit for helping me revive my career,” Grove said on Thursday at the media day in the old section of Montreal. “I seen him a few years back when I was still with the UFC, I did a Fan Expo in England when he was fighting [Yoshihiro] Akiyama. I hadn’t seen him in awhile except in passing. We have that bond from The Ultimate Fighter. It changed our lives. And on top of him and me winning it, he told me, ‘if you need any help, let me know.’”

At the time Grove was essentially training on his own, and he was at the tail end of his UFC run. Bisping was putting together another run at the middleweight title, and so Grove was reluctant to bug him.  

“But then I got into my sh*t with the UFC, I got let go and I was kind of a nomad,” he said. “I was traveling around, trying to get back there. And then I saw him again, and he said the offer still stood. My wife said, hey, you need help, there’s nobody here on Maui for you to train with, call Bisping. So I called him. He said, you help me out and I’ll help you. So he flew me out there out of his own pocket [for the Stann camp], put me up at his house, fed me, let me train. That was the start of everything.”

Grove says he never quite understood why the UFC let him go after split decision losses to Demian Maia and Tim Boetsch, but that now it’s “water under the bridge.” Since leaving the UFC in 2011, he has fought under 10 different promotional banners all over the globe. Post-UFC, he became the very definition of a journeyman. He fought in KSW in Poland, at RWE in Maui, at K-Oz Entertainment in Perth, Australia, and most recently in Bellator, at such exotic locations as Cedar Rapids, Iowa and West Valley City, Utah. He fought in the AFC, and before then in a ShoFight showdown with Derek Brunson. He’s been all over the place, and encountered every level of success and failure.

Yet, here he is. At 32, he’s on the verge of finally breaking through.

In his next fight, Grove will go against Brandon Halsey for Bellator’s middleweight crown. That fight takes place at Bellator 139 on May 15 in Temecula, Calif., just a few weeks removed from Bisping’s fight with Dollaway. Grove, who at one point lost three fights in a row and was spiraling, is now positioned to become a champion in a major organization. He credits Bisping for getting him not only back into the spotlight, but back into relevancy. And it all started back at that Las Vegas mansion, when it was just two guys from entirely different islands who ended up bonding over an inference of being wronged.

“For me, I bonded with [Bisping] because I knew I was never going to fight him, because he was at 205,” Grove says. “So, and then we kind of clicked. I pushed him and he pushed me. We both felt disrespected by Tito [Ortiz] at the time, because he had his No. 1 picks and we’re both No. 2 picks for our weight. Bisping said at the time, ‘did he just call us training partners for our champions?’ We kind of had a chip on our shoulders for that. We were like, ‘f*ck that, we’ll prove everyone wrong.’ And we ended up doing it. And it’s kind of cool that we have that connection.”

A decade is a lifetime in the fight game. It’s easy to overstay your welcome in a game predicated on relevancy. Yet, Bisping is fighting Dollaway on a PPV with hopes of making one last stab at the title. He’s still viable. Grove is fighting for the Bellator title. He’s not through yet. Grove has helped Bisping keep his dream of fighting for a title alive, and Bisping has stood by Grove through what he calls his “up-and-down roller coaster career.”

It’s been a crazy ride, full of detours and shifting destinations. Montreal is just the next stop. On this day, Grove is watching Bisping’s media scrum, and he gets a little wistful looking at his old TUF 3 alum.

“I was trying to get back to the UFC,” he said. “So I went to KSW in Poland, which is an unbelievable show. I think they come in only second to Pride with the grand entrances and the overall show in general. I fought for their belt [against Michal Materla], and I think I got ripped off. My contract said three rounds, and yet we ended up in a mysterious fourth round. But I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to get killed in Poland by some gangsters.

“But then Bellator called and I started a relationship with them, and now I’m fighting for the belt. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m very fortunate. I’m very blessed.”

Matt Hume: Demetrious Johnson won’t compromise who he is

MONTREAL – One person who is invested in the slow-to-catch on Demetrious Johnson mythos is his coach, Matt Hume, who has been with “Mighty Mouse” since day one. Hume, who runs the AMC Kickboxing and Pankration gym in Kirkland, Washington, has literally taken Johnson from a factory nine-to-fiver who just wanted to get in shape to the most electric dynamo to ever sport UFC gold.

Still, we wonder about Johnson as a feature attraction.

Heading into his sixth flyweight title defense against Kyoji Horiguchi on Saturday night, Johnson’s longtime coach said that he barely hears any criticism that his main guy can’t sell a fight, and that it’s not Johnson’s fault if he’s installed as a ridiculously heavy favorite. Hume — like Johnson — believes there’s a big picture in play, one that is far purer than ten thousand pounds of hype.

“Demetrious is on a journey to be the greatest martial artist that he can be,” Hume told MMA Fighting at the UFC 186 media day down on the old port in Montreal. “And that doesn’t pertain to any specific opponent. His job is to finish all his opponents, without regard as to who that opponent is or how competitive they are. If somebody else goes on that same journey, they’ll give him a tougher fight. But it’s not going to stop him and his journey.”

Hume is one of the martial arts great historians. He can take techniques back to their origins, and has been known to brush off ancient modes of thought and apply them to the modern cage. His is a philosophy-based program. But what he’s done with Johnson is fairly remarkable, if under-heralded. He has helped create one of the most dominant champions in UFC history, a guy who has incrementally separated himself from the flyweight pack since defeating Joseph Benavidez to win the belt at UFC 152.

Still, Johnson doesn’t captivate the imagination like some fighters do. Even heading into his main event fight with the 24-year old Horiguchi the attention at the media day was directed at the more polarizing figure, Quinton Jackson, who was sitting one stool down. Most of the criticism Johnson receives has less to do with his fighting ability so much as it does his sellability. 

“The reality is that stuff doesn’t matter,” Hume said. “He’s creating a legacy to be the great mixed martial artist ever. He’s creating that legacy. And, guys like Joe Rogan — guys like that — are talking about it. Joe Rogan says he’s not the No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter, he’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound guy. I agree with that. It’s just up to us to continually prove that. And we will. If we don’t do that, then we aren’t doing out job.

“All that other criticism are that he’s not selling his fight because he’s not talking sh*t or something, that’s not who he is. If you want to talk about video games, and that he’ll do one of his moves from a video game or something like that, then we can talk and make it interesting. But if you want him to talk smack about somebody, that’s just not really his personality.”

It doesn’t help that Horiguchi doesn’t speak a lick of English, or that he was tucked away in Japan for the greater part of his camp. Or that Johnson’s last opponent, Chris Cariaso, was neighborly polite about the encounter, or that Ali Bagautinov also had a language barrier. Nor does it help that he’s been put in spots of vulnerability, this time as a smaller weight package deal with bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and Renan Barao before that bout was postponed until July with an injury.

Even with the circumstances being what they are Hume said that accompanying Johnson on this “journey” has been rewarding. And that Johnson is a guy who won’t change his stripes. Instead, at some point, Hume believes that people will see those stripes for what they are.

“What he does is he sets the example for everybody else,” Hume said. “Here’s the example of a guy that came in not saying I want to be a fighter and a champion, but kept his mouth shut and did the work, all while working a 10-hour a day job in a factory, while taking care of family. That happened until I told him, when he was fighting for a title in the UFC, ‘quit your job. It’s now time to quit your job.’ And he was like, ‘are you sure?’

“He is an example of a guy who was patient and waited. He didn’t try to want to be a pro fighter because it sounded cool. He waited until I told him, now it’s time to become a pro fighter. He waited until I told him now it’s time to quit your job and focus on winning this title. So those kinds of things. Having the dedication, the discipline, the loyalty, and having the hunger for education in the martial arts, he’s the example I can point to. And that’s how he helped me.”

Asked if Johnson could end up being the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, Hume is as realistic about it as he is lofty.

“That’s the goal I always have for everybody that I train, but it’s up to them to take it that far,” Hume said. “I’m with him every step of his journey, but he could get injured next week crossing the road and be done with that. You never know where it’s going to go. But we’re going to continue to build his techniques and build him into a perfect martial artist as long as he’s able to do it.”

MONTREAL – One person who is invested in the slow-to-catch on Demetrious Johnson mythos is his coach, Matt Hume, who has been with “Mighty Mouse” since day one. Hume, who runs the AMC Kickboxing and Pankration gym in Kirkland, Washington, has literally taken Johnson from a factory nine-to-fiver who just wanted to get in shape to the most electric dynamo to ever sport UFC gold.

Still, we wonder about Johnson as a feature attraction.

Heading into his sixth flyweight title defense against Kyoji Horiguchi on Saturday night, Johnson’s longtime coach said that he barely hears any criticism that his main guy can’t sell a fight, and that it’s not Johnson’s fault if he’s installed as a ridiculously heavy favorite. Hume — like Johnson — believes there’s a big picture in play, one that is far purer than ten thousand pounds of hype.

“Demetrious is on a journey to be the greatest martial artist that he can be,” Hume told MMA Fighting at the UFC 186 media day down on the old port in Montreal. “And that doesn’t pertain to any specific opponent. His job is to finish all his opponents, without regard as to who that opponent is or how competitive they are. If somebody else goes on that same journey, they’ll give him a tougher fight. But it’s not going to stop him and his journey.”

Hume is one of the martial arts great historians. He can take techniques back to their origins, and has been known to brush off ancient modes of thought and apply them to the modern cage. His is a philosophy-based program. But what he’s done with Johnson is fairly remarkable, if under-heralded. He has helped create one of the most dominant champions in UFC history, a guy who has incrementally separated himself from the flyweight pack since defeating Joseph Benavidez to win the belt at UFC 152.

Still, Johnson doesn’t captivate the imagination like some fighters do. Even heading into his main event fight with the 24-year old Horiguchi the attention at the media day was directed at the more polarizing figure, Quinton Jackson, who was sitting one stool down. Most of the criticism Johnson receives has less to do with his fighting ability so much as it does his sellability. 

“The reality is that stuff doesn’t matter,” Hume said. “He’s creating a legacy to be the great mixed martial artist ever. He’s creating that legacy. And, guys like Joe Rogan — guys like that — are talking about it. Joe Rogan says he’s not the No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter, he’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound guy. I agree with that. It’s just up to us to continually prove that. And we will. If we don’t do that, then we aren’t doing out job.

“All that other criticism are that he’s not selling his fight because he’s not talking sh*t or something, that’s not who he is. If you want to talk about video games, and that he’ll do one of his moves from a video game or something like that, then we can talk and make it interesting. But if you want him to talk smack about somebody, that’s just not really his personality.”

It doesn’t help that Horiguchi doesn’t speak a lick of English, or that he was tucked away in Japan for the greater part of his camp. Or that Johnson’s last opponent, Chris Cariaso, was neighborly polite about the encounter, or that Ali Bagautinov also had a language barrier. Nor does it help that he’s been put in spots of vulnerability, this time as a smaller weight package deal with bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and Renan Barao before that bout was postponed until July with an injury.

Even with the circumstances being what they are Hume said that accompanying Johnson on this “journey” has been rewarding. And that Johnson is a guy who won’t change his stripes. Instead, at some point, Hume believes that people will see those stripes for what they are.

“What he does is he sets the example for everybody else,” Hume said. “Here’s the example of a guy that came in not saying I want to be a fighter and a champion, but kept his mouth shut and did the work, all while working a 10-hour a day job in a factory, while taking care of family. That happened until I told him, when he was fighting for a title in the UFC, ‘quit your job. It’s now time to quit your job.’ And he was like, ‘are you sure?’

“He is an example of a guy who was patient and waited. He didn’t try to want to be a pro fighter because it sounded cool. He waited until I told him, now it’s time to become a pro fighter. He waited until I told him now it’s time to quit your job and focus on winning this title. So those kinds of things. Having the dedication, the discipline, the loyalty, and having the hunger for education in the martial arts, he’s the example I can point to. And that’s how he helped me.”

Asked if Johnson could end up being the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, Hume is as realistic about it as he is lofty.

“That’s the goal I always have for everybody that I train, but it’s up to them to take it that far,” Hume said. “I’m with him every step of his journey, but he could get injured next week crossing the road and be done with that. You never know where it’s going to go. But we’re going to continue to build his techniques and build him into a perfect martial artist as long as he’s able to do it.”

Georges St-Pierre: UFC’s anti-doping efforts looking ‘pretty good so far’

MONTREAL – Just because Montreal native Georges St-Pierre happens to be idle this time as the UFC makes its way through his home city, it doesn’t mean he’s not part of Fight Week. On Friday, the former welterweight champion hosted a Q&A at Metropolis for a packed house of fans. And before that he spent 15 minutes talking with the media about what he’s  up to currently.

And though St-Pierre said he didn’t have any immediate plans to return to the Octagon, he did say that his knee is back to 100 percent and he’s training again.

“I got the go from the doctor,” he said. “The last time I got an ACL surgery on my right leg I was in a rush when I was fighting Carlos Condit. This time I’m taking my time. I’m not in a rush, and I don’t have any fights scheduled. It was more relaxed, so I was able to breathe a little bit more. And yeah, I’m back training the gym on a regular basis.”

St-Pierre walked away from active competition in 2013 after defending his title against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. He forfeited his belt, which now belongs to Robbie Lawler, who fights St-Pierre’s training partner Rory MacDonald in July at UFC 189. St-Pierre said that he will be helping prepare MacDonald for that title fight, and that the future of the welterweight division belongs to his protégé.

St-Pierre cited fatigue, anxiety and a loss of desire as the reasons he walked away from the UFC at 31 years old. It has since gotten more complicated than that, as St-Pierre has staunchly made it clear he thought that there was a drug problem in MMA. When he was fighting Hendricks, St-Pierre was upset at the UFC’s handling of his request for out-of-competition testing. He said he would only return to the UFC if the problem was addressed.

With the UFC now implementing third party out-of-competition testing for all fighters beginning in July, as well as hiring the anti-doping expert/BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky as its Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, the UFC is taking the steps St-Pierre hoped they would.

When asked if he’d sit down with UFC president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta while they visit Montreal, St-Pierre said he already met with the UFC brass.

“We had a meeting with the UFC yesterday,” he said. “They hired someone for anti-doping testing, so it looked pretty good. I don’t have much to tell about it, they didn’t tell enough about the program about what they want to do, but [Novitzky] is a very reliable man in the business. He’s the one that caught [Olympic medalist] Marion Jones. So it looked really good so far, but like I said, I don’t have enough to tell right now, and I’m not a specialist. I need to see and ask a specialist what they think about it.”

Another potential snag for St-Pierre’s return could be in the new sponsorship deal that the UFC reach with Reebok this past December. In July, all UFC fighters will wear Reebok gear, and be paid on a tier-system based on overall experience (the number of fights). As a longtime client of Under Armour, St-Pierre was asked how that would affect him if he came back.

“It’s a good question,” he said. “I’ve thought about it, but it’s not up to me – it’s not my field of expertise. I’m sure if something happened my manager will make it work out. It’s not my level of expertise. I’m not a lawyer, you know. It’s a very delicate question.

“It depends on what’s going to happen. I don’t know what it implies. I haven’t talked to my manager, so we’re not sure 100 percent about that. Depends on what’s in the contract, what I’m allowed, what I’m not allowed. There’s a bunch of questions.”

MONTREAL – Just because Montreal native Georges St-Pierre happens to be idle this time as the UFC makes its way through his home city, it doesn’t mean he’s not part of Fight Week. On Friday, the former welterweight champion hosted a Q&A at Metropolis for a packed house of fans. And before that he spent 15 minutes talking with the media about what he’s  up to currently.

And though St-Pierre said he didn’t have any immediate plans to return to the Octagon, he did say that his knee is back to 100 percent and he’s training again.

“I got the go from the doctor,” he said. “The last time I got an ACL surgery on my right leg I was in a rush when I was fighting Carlos Condit. This time I’m taking my time. I’m not in a rush, and I don’t have any fights scheduled. It was more relaxed, so I was able to breathe a little bit more. And yeah, I’m back training the gym on a regular basis.”

St-Pierre walked away from active competition in 2013 after defending his title against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. He forfeited his belt, which now belongs to Robbie Lawler, who fights St-Pierre’s training partner Rory MacDonald in July at UFC 189. St-Pierre said that he will be helping prepare MacDonald for that title fight, and that the future of the welterweight division belongs to his protégé.

St-Pierre cited fatigue, anxiety and a loss of desire as the reasons he walked away from the UFC at 31 years old. It has since gotten more complicated than that, as St-Pierre has staunchly made it clear he thought that there was a drug problem in MMA. When he was fighting Hendricks, St-Pierre was upset at the UFC’s handling of his request for out-of-competition testing. He said he would only return to the UFC if the problem was addressed.

With the UFC now implementing third party out-of-competition testing for all fighters beginning in July, as well as hiring the anti-doping expert/BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky as its Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, the UFC is taking the steps St-Pierre hoped they would.

When asked if he’d sit down with UFC president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta while they visit Montreal, St-Pierre said he already met with the UFC brass.

“We had a meeting with the UFC yesterday,” he said. “They hired someone for anti-doping testing, so it looked pretty good. I don’t have much to tell about it, they didn’t tell enough about the program about what they want to do, but [Novitzky] is a very reliable man in the business. He’s the one that caught [Olympic medalist] Marion Jones. So it looked really good so far, but like I said, I don’t have enough to tell right now, and I’m not a specialist. I need to see and ask a specialist what they think about it.”

Another potential snag for St-Pierre’s return could be in the new sponsorship deal that the UFC reach with Reebok this past December. In July, all UFC fighters will wear Reebok gear, and be paid on a tier-system based on overall experience (the number of fights). As a longtime client of Under Armour, St-Pierre was asked how that would affect him if he came back.

“It’s a good question,” he said. “I’ve thought about it, but it’s not up to me – it’s not my field of expertise. I’m sure if something happened my manager will make it work out. It’s not my level of expertise. I’m not a lawyer, you know. It’s a very delicate question.

“It depends on what’s going to happen. I don’t know what it implies. I haven’t talked to my manager, so we’re not sure 100 percent about that. Depends on what’s in the contract, what I’m allowed, what I’m not allowed. There’s a bunch of questions.”

Alexis Davis begins her long trot back from the old drawing board

MONTREAL – The first time Alexis Davis fought Sarah Kaufman was the first time she fought at all. It was back in 2007, at an Ultimate Cage Wars show that they dubbed “Anarchy” out in Winnipeg, long enough ago that Davis only has the foggiest memories of it.

“To be perfectly honest, people are like, you fought Kaufman twice already, and I say, well, we fought twice on paper,” Davis says. “But for me, I can barely remember what I did yesterday, so…no, no real memories of that first fight.”

Davis has come a long way since that TKO loss to Kaufman in her pro debut. She’s come so far that now she’s making a second circle, beginning with a third fight against Kaufman on Saturday night at UFC 186. The third one is a pick-up-the-pieces rebound fight. This is one is all about direction.

The 30-year-old Ontario native Davis fought her way to the penultimate spot this last July when she stepped in against bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey at UFC 175. She came so close to becoming the best in the world. She only had one final hurdle. The problem was that hurdle was more like a yawning chasm. After Rousey scored a furious 16-second knockout of Davis in what was one of the more memorable KOs of the year, Davis was still a million miles away.

“Obviously it sucked,” she says. “I’m going to be straight forward with it. But, it’s how you take it all in the end, whether you’re going to be one of those people who needs a pity party and wants everybody to feel bad, or you’re going to sit on the couch and get fat, or you can use it to motivate you. I really only took a couple of weeks off, that’s it. I took a couple of weeks in San Jose and visited my family there, then went back to Canada to visit people there for a couple of weeks, then I was right back to the gym.  I just wanted to help use it to motivate me until I got my next opponent.”

Davis actually told matchmaker Sean Shelby that she wanted to fight as soon as possible after losing to Rousey. Davis wanted to erase the memory of that 16-second blitz and get back to the momentum that brought her there. Before the Rousey bout she’d won five straight fights, three of them in the UFC. After already having defeated Liz Carmouche and Jessica Eye, there weren’t a lot of options for Davis to make a quick turnaround.

Nine months later, she finally gets the chance move forward. And it just so happens to be Kaufman, who was the last person to beat her before the Rousey fight. That fight happened at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey in Ohio, and it went down as one of the better fights, bell-to-bell, of 2012. In it, both battered each other all over the cage, turning the tables on each other and chin-checking from the pocket for 15 frenzied minutes.

That second fight? Now that one Davis remembers.

“We were just kind of doing our thing,” she says. “And it’s great. To this day people come up and they talk about that fight. For me it’s an honor to be a part of it.

“And it’s exciting to do it again, because you have your certain traits that you don’t change, and our styles kind of grow when we add on to things. But especially for me. My comparison to that fight to my fights to this day, I’m not even the same person. I’m not the same fighter. So, this is a great opportunity for me. I feel like I’ve come a long way, and what better way to find out how far than to fight her. She was my last loss before Ronda, and it was an all-out war.”

It’s been a long nine months, but it wasn’t idle. Davis says that besides taking a little bit of personal time away from the cage that she was able to concentrate on herself for a change, rather than fixating on an opponent.

“If you’re fighting someone like Kaufman you’ve really got to work on your footwork and your hands because she’s a great boxer,” she says. “But when I have all this time and don’t have an opponent, I can look back at my own footage figure out what I need to work on to be a better fighter.”

Yet she’s been keeping tabs on the division, too. Davis, like everyone else who has stood across Rousey and lost, is now focused on finding her way back. It’s a different odyssey on the way back than it was on the way there the first time. She says the fire is different. The feelings are different. The moment means something different. There’s a knowledge. She watched with a familiar sense of vertigo as Cat Zingano had her chance to uproot Rousey at UFC 184 and came up woefully short.

Cat lasted only 14 seconds.

“My first reaction was — I felt heartbroken for Cat,” Davis says. “I just, I almost experienced the same thing myself. It’s…Ronda’s a beast. And you kind of have to take into consideration that she’s a fast starter, and that’s where she’s at her strongest. Both Cat and I were like, nope, we’re not going to play this game, we’ll do our own thing. But live and learn. I’m excited to see how things play out for her in the future. I just want to get past Sarah Kaufman, and hopefully that’s going to put me back in the running so I can have a chance at her again.”

Davis was a quiet contender when she made her way to Rousey the first time. She rattled off five victories in a row, but never banged pots and pans along the way. Hers is a direct demeanor, a get-things-done approach that has served her well for the last eight years. She says she took some lessons from the whole encounter with Rousey. She learned to operate under the intensified floodlights of an International Fight Week, as a challenger to the UFC’s biggest star. She was cast in support of that effort, as Rousey’s next victim.

That it played out to expectation eats at her. It has for nine months. Heading into Saturday’s fight, she says she believes she’ll get another crack at a title if she takes care of business. Stranger things have happened. After all, she’s getting a third chance at Kaufman in a fight that materialized out of thin air, why can’t she find her way back to Rousey?

“That’s the reason why we fight, because we want that belt,” she says. “We live for the competition. Everybody was like, you’re fighting Sarah again, how do you feel about that? Well, it was an unexpected fight for me too. Of all the people on our roster I didn’t see that it would be Sarah that I would fight again, but I’m taking this as a great opportunity. She’s ranked in the top five. She’s one of the toughest fighters out there. I’m not just fighting a nobody; I’m fighting a tough fight. I’m coming off of losses from her. It’s just going to put me back into the eye of the UFC and get me back on track.”

MONTREAL – The first time Alexis Davis fought Sarah Kaufman was the first time she fought at all. It was back in 2007, at an Ultimate Cage Wars show that they dubbed “Anarchy” out in Winnipeg, long enough ago that Davis only has the foggiest memories of it.

“To be perfectly honest, people are like, you fought Kaufman twice already, and I say, well, we fought twice on paper,” Davis says. “But for me, I can barely remember what I did yesterday, so…no, no real memories of that first fight.”

Davis has come a long way since that TKO loss to Kaufman in her pro debut. She’s come so far that now she’s making a second circle, beginning with a third fight against Kaufman on Saturday night at UFC 186. The third one is a pick-up-the-pieces rebound fight. This is one is all about direction.

The 30-year-old Ontario native Davis fought her way to the penultimate spot this last July when she stepped in against bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey at UFC 175. She came so close to becoming the best in the world. She only had one final hurdle. The problem was that hurdle was more like a yawning chasm. After Rousey scored a furious 16-second knockout of Davis in what was one of the more memorable KOs of the year, Davis was still a million miles away.

“Obviously it sucked,” she says. “I’m going to be straight forward with it. But, it’s how you take it all in the end, whether you’re going to be one of those people who needs a pity party and wants everybody to feel bad, or you’re going to sit on the couch and get fat, or you can use it to motivate you. I really only took a couple of weeks off, that’s it. I took a couple of weeks in San Jose and visited my family there, then went back to Canada to visit people there for a couple of weeks, then I was right back to the gym.  I just wanted to help use it to motivate me until I got my next opponent.”

Davis actually told matchmaker Sean Shelby that she wanted to fight as soon as possible after losing to Rousey. Davis wanted to erase the memory of that 16-second blitz and get back to the momentum that brought her there. Before the Rousey bout she’d won five straight fights, three of them in the UFC. After already having defeated Liz Carmouche and Jessica Eye, there weren’t a lot of options for Davis to make a quick turnaround.

Nine months later, she finally gets the chance move forward. And it just so happens to be Kaufman, who was the last person to beat her before the Rousey fight. That fight happened at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey in Ohio, and it went down as one of the better fights, bell-to-bell, of 2012. In it, both battered each other all over the cage, turning the tables on each other and chin-checking from the pocket for 15 frenzied minutes.

That second fight? Now that one Davis remembers.

“We were just kind of doing our thing,” she says. “And it’s great. To this day people come up and they talk about that fight. For me it’s an honor to be a part of it.

“And it’s exciting to do it again, because you have your certain traits that you don’t change, and our styles kind of grow when we add on to things. But especially for me. My comparison to that fight to my fights to this day, I’m not even the same person. I’m not the same fighter. So, this is a great opportunity for me. I feel like I’ve come a long way, and what better way to find out how far than to fight her. She was my last loss before Ronda, and it was an all-out war.”

It’s been a long nine months, but it wasn’t idle. Davis says that besides taking a little bit of personal time away from the cage that she was able to concentrate on herself for a change, rather than fixating on an opponent.

“If you’re fighting someone like Kaufman you’ve really got to work on your footwork and your hands because she’s a great boxer,” she says. “But when I have all this time and don’t have an opponent, I can look back at my own footage figure out what I need to work on to be a better fighter.”

Yet she’s been keeping tabs on the division, too. Davis, like everyone else who has stood across Rousey and lost, is now focused on finding her way back. It’s a different odyssey on the way back than it was on the way there the first time. She says the fire is different. The feelings are different. The moment means something different. There’s a knowledge. She watched with a familiar sense of vertigo as Cat Zingano had her chance to uproot Rousey at UFC 184 and came up woefully short.

Cat lasted only 14 seconds.

“My first reaction was — I felt heartbroken for Cat,” Davis says. “I just, I almost experienced the same thing myself. It’s…Ronda’s a beast. And you kind of have to take into consideration that she’s a fast starter, and that’s where she’s at her strongest. Both Cat and I were like, nope, we’re not going to play this game, we’ll do our own thing. But live and learn. I’m excited to see how things play out for her in the future. I just want to get past Sarah Kaufman, and hopefully that’s going to put me back in the running so I can have a chance at her again.”

Davis was a quiet contender when she made her way to Rousey the first time. She rattled off five victories in a row, but never banged pots and pans along the way. Hers is a direct demeanor, a get-things-done approach that has served her well for the last eight years. She says she took some lessons from the whole encounter with Rousey. She learned to operate under the intensified floodlights of an International Fight Week, as a challenger to the UFC’s biggest star. She was cast in support of that effort, as Rousey’s next victim.

That it played out to expectation eats at her. It has for nine months. Heading into Saturday’s fight, she says she believes she’ll get another crack at a title if she takes care of business. Stranger things have happened. After all, she’s getting a third chance at Kaufman in a fight that materialized out of thin air, why can’t she find her way back to Rousey?

“That’s the reason why we fight, because we want that belt,” she says. “We live for the competition. Everybody was like, you’re fighting Sarah again, how do you feel about that? Well, it was an unexpected fight for me too. Of all the people on our roster I didn’t see that it would be Sarah that I would fight again, but I’m taking this as a great opportunity. She’s ranked in the top five. She’s one of the toughest fighters out there. I’m not just fighting a nobody; I’m fighting a tough fight. I’m coming off of losses from her. It’s just going to put me back into the eye of the UFC and get me back on track.”

Quinton Jackson: Fighters can’t earn a living elsewhere ‘like you can in the UFC’

MONTREAL – Quinton Jackson arrived to the media day on the Pavilion Jacques-Cartier like a man resurrected. Just days ago he was still forbidden from competing on this weekend’s UFC 186 card after Bellator sued him for breach of contract and an injunction was filed in New Jersey. Just as suddenly, he was back on for his fight with Fabio Maldonado in one of the crazier bait-and-switch moments you’ll see in the fight game.

And after his off-again, on-again month leading up to Fight Week — along with the process of just entering Canada, which he recounted as harrowing –it still remains to be seen how he looks on Saturday night when he and the wheelhouse slugger Maldonado square off. Jackson said it’s been a whirlwind just to get here.

He likened the strange process of getting to the point where his fight was definitively happening to that of a fight itself.

“I agree, this is the strangest of the strangest that I can think of,” he told a throng of media at the “Scena,” on the old port. “I’ve never went through this type of fight before. I felt like I had to fight to get here. And it was a really tough fight.”

Now back in the crosshairs of the Brazilian Maldonado, the bout — which appears as the co-main event on the pay-per-view — will be contested at a catchweight of 215 pounds. But that the fight is on, after former hockey player Steve Bosse had been booked to replace Jackson, has been the buzz this week in Montreal. Even with the legal process still unfolding for his contractual rights between Zuffa and Bellator, “Rampage” will at the very least be making a cameo appearance with the UFC. Jackson left the UFC back in early-2013 after publicly voicing his displeasure with the promotion on a number of topics ranging from pay to sponsorship clothing to matchmaker Joe Silva’s matchmaking ability.

He was guarded in talking about the suit, but did say he and UFC president Dana White had patched up whatever problems they’d had in the past.

“I talked to Dana on the phone the other day,” he said. “Dana’s cool. I think we all grew up. I had some problems with some stuff I felt like I was receiving, and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo [Fertitta] and I, we talked about it. So this time if I feel like I should receive some stuff that I wasn’t getting before, I will talk about it first and see if we can’t get it fixed.

“Honestly there’s a lot worse shows out there than the UFC. People think that MMA fighters have been treated bad and stuff like that…there are people out there that don’t care about your one bit. At least in the UFC you can earn a pretty good living. Other places, I don’t see you earning no living like you earn in the UFC.”

Jackson also said that he didn’t regret taking a chance and signing with Bellator when he did. At the time it felt like the right move.

“And I’m just being real, I always try to keep it real,” he said. “I thought that there was something better. I thought, ‘oh, I could go out there and do better.’ You got to try, though. I’m a fighter. One thing about me, I fight every day. I was born this way. I can’t help it. I fight everything. I’m not only a physical fighter…I’m the worst person to argue with, I fight everything.”

Jackson last fought in May of last year for Bellator’s foray into PPV against Muhammed Lawal. He won a close decision, which set the table for a rematch — or, at the time, possibly another PPV against somebody else. Asked if he regretted not facing anybody on the Bellator roster, in particular that rematch with Lawal, Jackson didn’t hesitate.

“No, come on man,” he said. “Obviously right after the [Lawal] fight I was upset that I didn’t knock him out. So I wanted to knock him out, but there really wasn’t anyone else in Bellator to fight really. But then I thought about it, and I was like [if we fought again] he ain’t going to try to do anything but the same thing that he did to [Cheick] Kongo, he’ll just stall you out and lay on top of you. They got nothing going on for them over there.”

MONTREAL – Quinton Jackson arrived to the media day on the Pavilion Jacques-Cartier like a man resurrected. Just days ago he was still forbidden from competing on this weekend’s UFC 186 card after Bellator sued him for breach of contract and an injunction was filed in New Jersey. Just as suddenly, he was back on for his fight with Fabio Maldonado in one of the crazier bait-and-switch moments you’ll see in the fight game.

And after his off-again, on-again month leading up to Fight Week — along with the process of just entering Canada, which he recounted as harrowing –it still remains to be seen how he looks on Saturday night when he and the wheelhouse slugger Maldonado square off. Jackson said it’s been a whirlwind just to get here.

He likened the strange process of getting to the point where his fight was definitively happening to that of a fight itself.

“I agree, this is the strangest of the strangest that I can think of,” he told a throng of media at the “Scena,” on the old port. “I’ve never went through this type of fight before. I felt like I had to fight to get here. And it was a really tough fight.”

Now back in the crosshairs of the Brazilian Maldonado, the bout — which appears as the co-main event on the pay-per-view — will be contested at a catchweight of 215 pounds. But that the fight is on, after former hockey player Steve Bosse had been booked to replace Jackson, has been the buzz this week in Montreal. Even with the legal process still unfolding for his contractual rights between Zuffa and Bellator, “Rampage” will at the very least be making a cameo appearance with the UFC. Jackson left the UFC back in early-2013 after publicly voicing his displeasure with the promotion on a number of topics ranging from pay to sponsorship clothing to matchmaker Joe Silva’s matchmaking ability.

He was guarded in talking about the suit, but did say he and UFC president Dana White had patched up whatever problems they’d had in the past.

“I talked to Dana on the phone the other day,” he said. “Dana’s cool. I think we all grew up. I had some problems with some stuff I felt like I was receiving, and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo [Fertitta] and I, we talked about it. So this time if I feel like I should receive some stuff that I wasn’t getting before, I will talk about it first and see if we can’t get it fixed.

“Honestly there’s a lot worse shows out there than the UFC. People think that MMA fighters have been treated bad and stuff like that…there are people out there that don’t care about your one bit. At least in the UFC you can earn a pretty good living. Other places, I don’t see you earning no living like you earn in the UFC.”

Jackson also said that he didn’t regret taking a chance and signing with Bellator when he did. At the time it felt like the right move.

“And I’m just being real, I always try to keep it real,” he said. “I thought that there was something better. I thought, ‘oh, I could go out there and do better.’ You got to try, though. I’m a fighter. One thing about me, I fight every day. I was born this way. I can’t help it. I fight everything. I’m not only a physical fighter…I’m the worst person to argue with, I fight everything.”

Jackson last fought in May of last year for Bellator’s foray into PPV against Muhammed Lawal. He won a close decision, which set the table for a rematch — or, at the time, possibly another PPV against somebody else. Asked if he regretted not facing anybody on the Bellator roster, in particular that rematch with Lawal, Jackson didn’t hesitate.

“No, come on man,” he said. “Obviously right after the [Lawal] fight I was upset that I didn’t knock him out. So I wanted to knock him out, but there really wasn’t anyone else in Bellator to fight really. But then I thought about it, and I was like [if we fought again] he ain’t going to try to do anything but the same thing that he did to [Cheick] Kongo, he’ll just stall you out and lay on top of you. They got nothing going on for them over there.”

With Rampage Jackson, nothing is ever quite as it seems

Quinton Jackson is another word for complicated. You get the feeling “Rampage” may not know an injunction from an outjunction from Petticoat Junction, but he always had a feeling he’d fight on Saturday night and guess what — it turns out he will. Here he comes, there he goes, beware the Mighty Bungalows.

The lawsuit filed by his former (at times current?) employer Bellator FC in the state of New Jersey that was to prevent him from competing at UFC 186 was nothing more than a little something to confuse poor Fabio Maldonado. At first, in a bit of highly theoretical matchmaking, Maldonado was facing Jackson. And then, after some legal action, he wasn’t. One click of the gavel meant former hockey player Steve Bosse was in. Two meant he was back out. 

(I thought I heard two. Did you hear two? Could have sworn it was two.)

When the injunction came down to prevent Jackson from competing in Montreal the UFC was flummoxed, and Bellator was stoked. On Tuesday, when that injunction lifted like a morning fog just five days before fight day, Bellator was disappointed, and the UFC was pleased. UFC president Dana White, who didn’t necessarily like Jackson just a couple of years ago, said he liked “Rampage” now because he goes in there to finish fights. Bellator sees him today as a paradox — the greatest finisher to ever leave things so unresolved.

Somewhere, in an underground lair that from the outside looks like an ordinary mountain face, Bjorn Rebney is stirring a tall Tanqueray and tonic with a naked finger.

If you are confused by any of this, join the freaking club. All I know is Jackson-Maldonado is back on, and that’s got to be triply confusing for Maldonado, who has to be wondering if he lost more than he realized in that Stipe Miocic fight.

All I can say is that when Quinton Jackson fights it’s usually pretty complicated, and this time he’s really raising the bar. In his last fight in Bellator against Muhammed Lawal he won a fight he sort of lost. In his last fight in the UFC — before he left full of mood and aspersions — he lost to Glover Teixeira in a let’s-just-get-this-out-of-the-way fight. Before then he lost to Ryan Bader, a wrestler, and was disgruntled because Bader was not only a wrestler (something he hates), but also a stinking wrestler (which he really can’t abide by). That was the time he was casually tinkering with TRT. When asked to explain himself about that, he said, well…here’s what he said to Sherdog.

“If I was losing my hair and the doctor told me, ‘You need a hair transplant,’ I’m going to do a hair transplant. If I get my tooth knocked out like did against [Lyoto] Machida, I’m going to get a new tooth put in my mouth. If my testosterone gets low and the doctor tells me, ‘You need to raise your levels back up to where you used to be when you were 25,’ and you’re fighting these young folks, I’m going to go do it.”

But all of this is just a sideways glance at the bottom line. The thing that matters is that, after clearing some legal hurdles and a tug-of-war over the word “breach,” Jackson is fighting Maldonado again on Saturday in Montreal, and really nobody outside of the Viacom offices is overly upset about it. In fact, plenty of us just went, “oh, hell yeah,” when we heard. Some didn’t.

“WTF,” wrote one colleague.

And see, that’s a good question. With Rampage it’s always a little bit like that. “WTF” indeed. Maldonado is saying “WTF.” Bosse is saying “WTF.” Bellator’s saying “WTF.” Yet for all we know “WTF” stands for Watch The Fights, because with Jackson, well, it’s always a little complicated like that.

Quinton Jackson is another word for complicated. You get the feeling “Rampage” may not know an injunction from an outjunction from Petticoat Junction, but he always had a feeling he’d fight on Saturday night and guess what — it turns out he will. Here he comes, there he goes, beware the Mighty Bungalows.

The lawsuit filed by his former (at times current?) employer Bellator FC in the state of New Jersey that was to prevent him from competing at UFC 186 was nothing more than a little something to confuse poor Fabio Maldonado. At first, in a bit of highly theoretical matchmaking, Maldonado was facing Jackson. And then, after some legal action, he wasn’t. One click of the gavel meant former hockey player Steve Bosse was in. Two meant he was back out. 

(I thought I heard two. Did you hear two? Could have sworn it was two.)

When the injunction came down to prevent Jackson from competing in Montreal the UFC was flummoxed, and Bellator was stoked. On Tuesday, when that injunction lifted like a morning fog just five days before fight day, Bellator was disappointed, and the UFC was pleased. UFC president Dana White, who didn’t necessarily like Jackson just a couple of years ago, said he liked “Rampage” now because he goes in there to finish fights. Bellator sees him today as a paradox — the greatest finisher to ever leave things so unresolved.

Somewhere, in an underground lair that from the outside looks like an ordinary mountain face, Bjorn Rebney is stirring a tall Tanqueray and tonic with a naked finger.

If you are confused by any of this, join the freaking club. All I know is Jackson-Maldonado is back on, and that’s got to be triply confusing for Maldonado, who has to be wondering if he lost more than he realized in that Stipe Miocic fight.

All I can say is that when Quinton Jackson fights it’s usually pretty complicated, and this time he’s really raising the bar. In his last fight in Bellator against Muhammed Lawal he won a fight he sort of lost. In his last fight in the UFC — before he left full of mood and aspersions — he lost to Glover Teixeira in a let’s-just-get-this-out-of-the-way fight. Before then he lost to Ryan Bader, a wrestler, and was disgruntled because Bader was not only a wrestler (something he hates), but also a stinking wrestler (which he really can’t abide by). That was the time he was casually tinkering with TRT. When asked to explain himself about that, he said, well…here’s what he said to Sherdog.

“If I was losing my hair and the doctor told me, ‘You need a hair transplant,’ I’m going to do a hair transplant. If I get my tooth knocked out like did against [Lyoto] Machida, I’m going to get a new tooth put in my mouth. If my testosterone gets low and the doctor tells me, ‘You need to raise your levels back up to where you used to be when you were 25,’ and you’re fighting these young folks, I’m going to go do it.”

But all of this is just a sideways glance at the bottom line. The thing that matters is that, after clearing some legal hurdles and a tug-of-war over the word “breach,” Jackson is fighting Maldonado again on Saturday in Montreal, and really nobody outside of the Viacom offices is overly upset about it. In fact, plenty of us just went, “oh, hell yeah,” when we heard. Some didn’t.

“WTF,” wrote one colleague.

And see, that’s a good question. With Rampage it’s always a little bit like that. “WTF” indeed. Maldonado is saying “WTF.” Bosse is saying “WTF.” Bellator’s saying “WTF.” Yet for all we know “WTF” stands for Watch The Fights, because with Jackson, well, it’s always a little complicated like that.