One of the joys of speaking to Emanuel Newton is that pretty soon you feel like Carl Sagan in a sweat lodge. All you’ve got to do is ask a fairly straightforward question and then get the hell out of the way.
In this case, the question was: Why did it take so long for people to notice you?
“I understand things on a different level,” Bellator’s light heavyweight champion says. “What I believe — and what I see and know, as it is proven — there’s a grid that travels across the earth. That’s how we have cell phone connections. How can I speak to you on Skype all the way on the other side of the world? It’s the grid that runs across the earth.
“The same thing happens when you connect with people. So the more Instagram followers you have, the more Twitter followers you have, the more people you’re connected to. So I believe that it is the universe that made me slow to grow, that made me slow to be noticed. Because I wasn’t ready for it yet. I wasn’t prepared for it yet, because they probably would have just tore me down and beat me up and left me broken. So now I’m prepared, so now I’m ready as it comes as it should. As it’s supposed to. It is what it is, you know?”
That kind of answer can be called a lot of things, but cliché isn’t one of them. Newton, who will attempt to defend his 205-pound title against Liam McGeary on Friday night at Bellator 134: The British Invasion, is a man who investigates his own inner-workings. If he feels he’s in collusion with the very directors of the universe, he’ll damn well tell you so. It makes for interviews that careen off into the cosmos without so much as a second thought.
In other words: Fantastic.
The 31-year old fights a little like he talks, too. It’s a lot of confounding spinny stuff, backfists from divination. He’s proven that he’s somewhat of a master at adapting to his opponent in the cage, as he did with Joey Beltran in September. In that one, he spun a couple of times before something dawned on him. He needed to become a counter striker in this instance, and so he “baited” Beltran into his orbit one last time. Then Newton, gauging his aggression, dropped Beltran with a spinning backfist.
“I was really having a lot of head chatter that night,” he says. “I had a lot of things going through my mind.” Later on he says, “I always need to tap into an energy that helps me to adapt to my opponents.”
This all started for the broader public when he tapped into some raw energy against Muhammed Lawal during the Season 8 light heavyweight tournament. Same thing – a spinning backfist that put Lawal on the dream flow.
“The crazy thing is now from what I’m starting to see of myself in training versus what I see in myself in fighting, I think the majority of it’s instinct,” he says. “Granted, I know how to throw all these things and I practice them, but sometimes I’m in the gym and I’ll be like, man, I throw so much more in a fight…so much weird sh*t in a fight. But I just think at that time my mind goes into a different mode. It’s like, it’s fight time, let’s pull all the tricks out of the basket. And I adapt to my opponents. I adapt to what they do, and I always find a chink in the armor.”
Against McGeary he’ll be fighting a 6-foot-6 Briton who has finished all nine of his profession fights. Imposing? Not when you’re Newton, who sees advantages in being shorter and stockier.
“I prefer to fight taller guys,” he says. “I prefer to fight the bigger guys, because they’re usually not stronger than me and usually they don’t move as well as I do. So, bigger guys are better for me, taller guys are better, and I can get a hold of Liam and have a lot more real estate to work with.”
In Newton’s last fight, at Bellator 130, Newton choked out Linton Vassell, who stands 6-foot-4 and carries and 82-inch wingspan.
“When I can learn his range, and where to stay away from the end of his power, then it’ll be easier for me to spin away and get on the inside,” Newton says. “And then once on the inside, he’s not going to have as much, because his arms are so long. It’s going to be harder for him to hit me, harder for him to pummel with me. If anything, I think fighting a longer guy has its perks to it, too, especially with my style.”
The year 2009 was a pocket of turbulent energy for Newton, who lost all three fights he participated in that year. Since that time, though, he’s gone 13-1, with seven wins in a row in Bellator.
What happened…and what changed?
“Just living in the flesh, man,” he says. “Living in fear and worry, and getting sick and overtraining, and doing what this person wants me to do, and that person wants me to do, instead of paying attention to my inner-voice, paying attention to myself. And then my daughter was in my mindset. When she was born I think I was given a new energy and a spark. And ever since she’s been with us, since she’s been talking and walking, I haven’t lost. So I believe she’s been a catalyst to catapult me to where I am now.”
Get a good look at Newton as he fights at the Mohegan Sun Friday night. It’s some unorthodox stuff he does, but here’s another thing — “The Hardcore Kid” says he’ll retire at 33 years old “to do other stuff.” Thirty-three was the age that Christ and John Belushi died, but for Newton it’ll be the next chapter in his career.
Already he’s appearing in movies. He has a speaking roll in a film called The Green Ghost, where he and UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez play “martial arts masters.” His training partner and noteworthy Hollywood stuntman Arnold Chon set that up. And Newton likes to just let things happen in the way they are going to happen, whether it is movies or some other avenue.
He doesn’t like to make too many plans.
“Plans always fail, man, promises are always broken,” he says. “I just go with the flow and follow my light and stay patient and things come to me as it’s supposed to.”
So there’s no sense predicting how his fight with McGeary is going to down, right? Wrong again, bubba. It’s Newton himself that’s forever unpredictable.
“Either a knockout or a submission or a TKO,” he says. “I don’t say which round it’s going to be or how long it’s going to be, I just say I’m going to finish him.
One of the joys of speaking to Emanuel Newton is that pretty soon you feel like Carl Sagan in a sweat lodge. All you’ve got to do is ask a fairly straightforward question and then get the hell out of the way.
In this case, the question was: Why did it take so long for people to notice you?
“I understand things on a different level,” Bellator’s light heavyweight champion says. “What I believe — and what I see and know, as it is proven — there’s a grid that travels across the earth. That’s how we have cell phone connections. How can I speak to you on Skype all the way on the other side of the world? It’s the grid that runs across the earth.
“The same thing happens when you connect with people. So the more Instagram followers you have, the more Twitter followers you have, the more people you’re connected to. So I believe that it is the universe that made me slow to grow, that made me slow to be noticed. Because I wasn’t ready for it yet. I wasn’t prepared for it yet, because they probably would have just tore me down and beat me up and left me broken. So now I’m prepared, so now I’m ready as it comes as it should. As it’s supposed to. It is what it is, you know?”
That kind of answer can be called a lot of things, but cliché isn’t one of them. Newton, who will attempt to defend his 205-pound title against Liam McGeary on Friday night at Bellator 134: The British Invasion, is a man who investigates his own inner-workings. If he feels he’s in collusion with the very directors of the universe, he’ll damn well tell you so. It makes for interviews that careen off into the cosmos without so much as a second thought.
In other words: Fantastic.
The 31-year old fights a little like he talks, too. It’s a lot of confounding spinny stuff, backfists from divination. He’s proven that he’s somewhat of a master at adapting to his opponent in the cage, as he did with Joey Beltran in September. In that one, he spun a couple of times before something dawned on him. He needed to become a counter striker in this instance, and so he “baited” Beltran into his orbit one last time. Then Newton, gauging his aggression, dropped Beltran with a spinning backfist.
“I was really having a lot of head chatter that night,” he says. “I had a lot of things going through my mind.” Later on he says, “I always need to tap into an energy that helps me to adapt to my opponents.”
This all started for the broader public when he tapped into some raw energy against Muhammed Lawal during the Season 8 light heavyweight tournament. Same thing – a spinning backfist that put Lawal on the dream flow.
“The crazy thing is now from what I’m starting to see of myself in training versus what I see in myself in fighting, I think the majority of it’s instinct,” he says. “Granted, I know how to throw all these things and I practice them, but sometimes I’m in the gym and I’ll be like, man, I throw so much more in a fight…so much weird sh*t in a fight. But I just think at that time my mind goes into a different mode. It’s like, it’s fight time, let’s pull all the tricks out of the basket. And I adapt to my opponents. I adapt to what they do, and I always find a chink in the armor.”
Against McGeary he’ll be fighting a 6-foot-6 Briton who has finished all nine of his profession fights. Imposing? Not when you’re Newton, who sees advantages in being shorter and stockier.
“I prefer to fight taller guys,” he says. “I prefer to fight the bigger guys, because they’re usually not stronger than me and usually they don’t move as well as I do. So, bigger guys are better for me, taller guys are better, and I can get a hold of Liam and have a lot more real estate to work with.”
In Newton’s last fight, at Bellator 130, Newton choked out Linton Vassell, who stands 6-foot-4 and carries and 82-inch wingspan.
“When I can learn his range, and where to stay away from the end of his power, then it’ll be easier for me to spin away and get on the inside,” Newton says. “And then once on the inside, he’s not going to have as much, because his arms are so long. It’s going to be harder for him to hit me, harder for him to pummel with me. If anything, I think fighting a longer guy has its perks to it, too, especially with my style.”
The year 2009 was a pocket of turbulent energy for Newton, who lost all three fights he participated in that year. Since that time, though, he’s gone 13-1, with seven wins in a row in Bellator.
What happened…and what changed?
“Just living in the flesh, man,” he says. “Living in fear and worry, and getting sick and overtraining, and doing what this person wants me to do, and that person wants me to do, instead of paying attention to my inner-voice, paying attention to myself. And then my daughter was in my mindset. When she was born I think I was given a new energy and a spark. And ever since she’s been with us, since she’s been talking and walking, I haven’t lost. So I believe she’s been a catalyst to catapult me to where I am now.”
Get a good look at Newton as he fights at the Mohegan Sun Friday night. It’s some unorthodox stuff he does, but here’s another thing — “The Hardcore Kid” says he’ll retire at 33 years old “to do other stuff.” Thirty-three was the age that Christ and John Belushi died, but for Newton it’ll be the next chapter in his career.
Already he’s appearing in movies. He has a speaking roll in a film called The Green Ghost, where he and UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez play “martial arts masters.” His training partner and noteworthy Hollywood stuntman Arnold Chon set that up. And Newton likes to just let things happen in the way they are going to happen, whether it is movies or some other avenue.
He doesn’t like to make too many plans.
“Plans always fail, man, promises are always broken,” he says. “I just go with the flow and follow my light and stay patient and things come to me as it’s supposed to.”
So there’s no sense predicting how his fight with McGeary is going to down, right? Wrong again, bubba. It’s Newton himself that’s forever unpredictable.
“Either a knockout or a submission or a TKO,” he says. “I don’t say which round it’s going to be or how long it’s going to be, I just say I’m going to finish him.
MMA Fighting has Bellator 134 results for the Newton vs. McGeary event Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.In the main event, Emanuel Newton will defend his Bellator light heavyweight title against Liam McGeary. King Mo…
MMA Fighting has Bellator 134 results for the Newton vs. McGeary event Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
In the main event, Emanuel Newton will defend his Bellator light heavyweight title against Liam McGeary. King Mo faces Cheick Kongo in a heavyweight contest in the co-main event.
NEW YORK – Fedor Emelianenko isn’t sure when the last time he cried was. I know, because I asked the stoic himself. He was sitting in a small conference room at the Viacom offices on Hudson Street in Manhattan on Tuesday, and he took a long penetrating look into that godful abyss that he so often does before finally shrugging his shoulders and smiling. His interpreter says, “He doesn’t have a response.”
No, and then again he wouldn’t.
Back in the day, Fedor Emelianenko was so unbothered by the prospect of fighting much bigger men than himself that it became a special brand of terrifying. While the adrenaline was kicking through the crowds in Japan during Pride, and later in Anaheim with Affliction, and Hoffman Estates and San Jose with Strikeforce, and finally Russia, Emelianenko carried a sense of cathedral calm into the ring. Some people likened his emotional control to that of a psychopath.
Whatever it was, it was disturbing, profound…unknowable to the western mind. For all the audacity of the game’s great carnival barkers, Emelianenko was a reservoir of quiet Russian faith. There wasn’t any of the American-style bombast with him. He’d swallow a fuse-lit bomb, belch, and blow out a tiny puff of smoke. He traveled with his priests. He trained shirtless and wearing jeans, and part of his training was chopping wood. The most pretentious thing about him was his nickname as “The Last Emperor”…but then again, hey, he sort of was. With a demeanor like his and a winning streak spanning a decade, you weren’t sure whether to compare him to some great parallel like Michael Jordan or a heroic figure from 19th century Russian literature.
Either way, he became an ascetic with millions of rubles. And right now, he says he is happily retired in Moscow, where he works as an ambassador of the sport of MMA.
“I’m just enjoying the retirement,” he says. “Even though I am retired, I still train and I still go to workout and train to not lose that stamina that I worked very hard to build. Nonetheless, I’m still in retirement. If I do decide to come back, I’ll do a big press conference and invite you.”
Fedor’s in New York for Bellator, which has a show on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. He’s part of the promotion’s Fan Fest that’s going on Thursday, alongside Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and others. They will do this at a Dave & Buster’s in Manchester, which as Bleacher Report’s Chad Dundas pointed out, is like catching a glimpse of the Statue of David as it exhibits at the Golden Corral.
He is doing this all for his friend and current president of Bellator, Scott Coker, whom he fought for in Strikeforce, and whom he says has not bugged him once to come out of retirement.
“I am still in the sport, but from a slightly different angle,” he says. “I still heavily advocate on behalf of MMA. I try and make it possible for beginners to start training MMA and not be scared of it as a sport. I try to actually give them the skill set that is necessary — to feel comfortable, maybe not on a big level. And not just Russia, but worldwide. I also work in advocating karate, judo, sambo, boxing, kickboxing and the combinations by themselves. I am the face and ambassador of sambo. The organization I’m working is trying really hard to make sambo a sport on the Olympian level. I’m doing a little bit of everything.”
If there’s any regret to never fighting in the UFC, you can’t detect it when talking to him. At one point, UFC president Dana White said Fedor had become his “obsession,” and that he was doing everything he could to sign the pride of Stary Oskol. At another point, just as the temple crumbled that 2010 night in San Jose when Fabricio Werdum defeated him, White tweeted out a smiley face. These were what you might call “mixed signals.”
And that Fedor never graced the Octagon remains one of the biggest “what if’s” in the sport. What if the mighty Fedor had fought Randy Couture back in the day, back when that was the biggest fight feasible? What if he and Brock Lesnar had fought, when Lesnar carried the belt? What if that event happened at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, as was flirted?
It is unbelievable how comfortable Emelianenko is that none of this ever materialized.
“I got the invite [to fight Lesnar] only after I was retired,” he says. “Everything has it’s time and place, and it wasn’t the right time for it. This is how God willed it, so it happened. I also believe it could have happened earlier had the UFC — primarily Dana — reached out and actually started a proper dialogue where both parties met halfway. Not just, ‘these are my rules, either take it or leave it.’”
Emelianenko and White could never get on the same page. Most people know what happened from White’s rendering, about the meeting on “an island,” where negotiations took place and broke down in 2009, about how M-1 Global — which was ran by Vadim Finkelstein (later dubbed “Vadummy” by White) — were the biggest impediments.
“In all actuality, we did have a couple of conversations here and there, and a lot of what Dana White had said came through as inadequate,” he says. “Meaning, during the dialogue that happened over the phone one thing would be said but when the paperwork was sent over it would be something completely different.”
But what about the meeting “on the island,” when White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta flew out with their mission to sign the great Fedor?
“We did meet on the island,” he says. “It was very short. It was unclear why he came. Of course, over the conversation one thing was promised, but when the paperwork was received it was something else. There was a very extensive dialogue between me and Dana, as well as Dana’s lawyers, but it didn’t go anywhere. In other words, Dana basically said, sooner or later you’re going to end up fighting here anyway. You’re still going to say yes to this contract I’m giving you.”
He doesn’t lament the fact that it didn’t happen. And in thinking back on it, Fedor concedes that the contractual snags were more about “proper treatment.”
“Throughout my entire career, I’ve heard and read on the Internet a lot of negativity coming from Dana,” he says. “Someone who says a lot of negative things about you and then turns around and invites you to join him, how do you react to that? And it’s not even about money. It’s all about mutual respect, meeting each other halfway. Not just one saying one thing to the other.”
The landscape has changed a bit since Fedor walked away from the fight game after defeating Pedro Rizzo in St. Petersburg back in 2012. In the day and age of exposing users of performance-enhancing drugs — spearheaded, in large part, by the UFC — Emelianenko sides with a the idea of cleaning up the sport. Having spent a large portion of his career in Pride, which was infamous for its lack of drug testing, he says thinks that there should be harsher penalties doled out to those who pop for PEDs.
“I feel that they should increase the punishment or control what’s happening,” he said. “There’s definitely more room for control over it. I feel betrayed by those who actually enhance their performance with various drugs. It’s unfair, and it should definitely be stopped. It reflects on the sport overall, as well as the fighters, in a very negative way. And athletes should get to where they’re going because of all the work they put in, not because they are taking something that will enhance their performance.
“When I was competing I would run daily 20 kilometers, and in addition to that I’d put in many hours of fighting and sparring. That’s why I was always able to keep the speed in the ring. I would train so hard that sometimes it was not only hard to stand up, but it would also be hard to lay down. Nowadays in not just this sport, but in other sports, people are trying to substitute that hard work with drugs.”
You can’t help but think of the behemoths Fedor faced in his career. Even though he took some beatings, particularly later on when he lost to Dan Henderson and Antonio Silva, he says he didn’t suffer any long-term damage.
“Other than some broken fingers, nothing that extensive,” he says, holding up his hands. They are average looking hands. They aren’t gnarled or disfigured. They don’t look like the anvils they were. In fact, it’s hard to believe he was a heavyweight in his 6-foot frame, and with hands like his.
Yet he closes them in a fist, and as he turns and looks through you with his eyes, you can’t help but remember the kind of business they meant. Fedor says that he was always nervous before a fight, for every single one of them through his career.
“It never goes away,” he says. “But right now I enjoy the fact I don’t have to worry about that over those feature fights.”
He never came across as nervous. He always looked like he was listening to the symphony through invisible headphones when he came out for the opening bell. He looked as drowsy as he does in this conference room in New York. Where does he get that sense of serenity?
“With god’s help,” he says.
He must have had “more god” than the others, I say, because the others weren’t nearly so bloodless when they stepped into the cage against him.
“As human beings, our lives should be in retrospect with God,” he says.
That’s how the “Last Emperor” rolls. No pretense, no wasted words, no wavering faith. Oh, and no tears in retrospect with the fight game.
NEW YORK – Fedor Emelianenko isn’t sure when the last time he cried was. I know, because I asked the stoic himself. He was sitting in a small conference room at the Viacom offices on Hudson Street in Manhattan on Tuesday, and he took a long penetrating look into that godful abyss that he so often does before finally shrugging his shoulders and smiling. His interpreter says, “He doesn’t have a response.”
No, and then again he wouldn’t.
Back in the day, Fedor Emelianenko was so unbothered by the prospect of fighting much bigger men than himself that it became a special brand of terrifying. While the adrenaline was kicking through the crowds in Japan during Pride, and later in Anaheim with Affliction, and Hoffman Estates and San Jose with Strikeforce, and finally Russia, Emelianenko carried a sense of cathedral calm into the ring. Some people likened his emotional control to that of a psychopath.
Whatever it was, it was disturbing, profound…unknowable to the western mind. For all the audacity of the game’s great carnival barkers, Emelianenko was a reservoir of quiet Russian faith. There wasn’t any of the American-style bombast with him. He’d swallow a fuse-lit bomb, belch, and blow out a tiny puff of smoke. He traveled with his priests. He trained shirtless and wearing jeans, and part of his training was chopping wood. The most pretentious thing about him was his nickname as “The Last Emperor”…but then again, hey, he sort of was. With a demeanor like his and a winning streak spanning a decade, you weren’t sure whether to compare him to some great parallel like Michael Jordan or a heroic figure from 19th century Russian literature.
Either way, he became an ascetic with millions of rubles. And right now, he says he is happily retired in Moscow, where he works as an ambassador of the sport of MMA.
“I’m just enjoying the retirement,” he says. “Even though I am retired, I still train and I still go to workout and train to not lose that stamina that I worked very hard to build. Nonetheless, I’m still in retirement. If I do decide to come back, I’ll do a big press conference and invite you.”
Fedor’s in New York for Bellator, which has a show on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. He’s part of the promotion’s Fan Fest that’s going on Thursday, alongside Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and others. They will do this at a Dave & Buster’s in Manchester, which as Bleacher Report’s Chad Dundas pointed out, is like catching a glimpse of the Statue of David as it exhibits at the Golden Corral.
He is doing this all for his friend and current president of Bellator, Scott Coker, whom he fought for in Strikeforce, and whom he says has not bugged him once to come out of retirement.
“I am still in the sport, but from a slightly different angle,” he says. “I still heavily advocate on behalf of MMA. I try and make it possible for beginners to start training MMA and not be scared of it as a sport. I try to actually give them the skill set that is necessary — to feel comfortable, maybe not on a big level. And not just Russia, but worldwide. I also work in advocating karate, judo, sambo, boxing, kickboxing and the combinations by themselves. I am the face and ambassador of sambo. The organization I’m working is trying really hard to make sambo a sport on the Olympian level. I’m doing a little bit of everything.”
If there’s any regret to never fighting in the UFC, you can’t detect it when talking to him. At one point, UFC president Dana White said Fedor had become his “obsession,” and that he was doing everything he could to sign the pride of Stary Oskol. At another point, just as the temple crumbled that 2010 night in San Jose when Fabricio Werdum defeated him, White tweeted out a smiley face. These were what you might call “mixed signals.”
And that Fedor never graced the Octagon remains one of the biggest “what if’s” in the sport. What if the mighty Fedor had fought Randy Couture back in the day, back when that was the biggest fight feasible? What if he and Brock Lesnar had fought, when Lesnar carried the belt? What if that event happened at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, as was flirted?
It is unbelievable how comfortable Emelianenko is that none of this ever materialized.
“I got the invite [to fight Lesnar] only after I was retired,” he says. “Everything has it’s time and place, and it wasn’t the right time for it. This is how God willed it, so it happened. I also believe it could have happened earlier had the UFC — primarily Dana — reached out and actually started a proper dialogue where both parties met halfway. Not just, ‘these are my rules, either take it or leave it.’”
Emelianenko and White could never get on the same page. Most people know what happened from White’s rendering, about the meeting on “an island,” where negotiations took place and broke down in 2009, about how M-1 Global — which was ran by Vadim Finkelstein (later dubbed “Vadummy” by White) — were the biggest impediments.
“In all actuality, we did have a couple of conversations here and there, and a lot of what Dana White had said came through as inadequate,” he says. “Meaning, during the dialogue that happened over the phone one thing would be said but when the paperwork was sent over it would be something completely different.”
But what about the meeting “on the island,” when White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta flew out with their mission to sign the great Fedor?
“We did meet on the island,” he says. “It was very short. It was unclear why he came. Of course, over the conversation one thing was promised, but when the paperwork was received it was something else. There was a very extensive dialogue between me and Dana, as well as Dana’s lawyers, but it didn’t go anywhere. In other words, Dana basically said, sooner or later you’re going to end up fighting here anyway. You’re still going to say yes to this contract I’m giving you.”
He doesn’t lament the fact that it didn’t happen. And in thinking back on it, Fedor concedes that the contractual snags were more about “proper treatment.”
“Throughout my entire career, I’ve heard and read on the Internet a lot of negativity coming from Dana,” he says. “Someone who says a lot of negative things about you and then turns around and invites you to join him, how do you react to that? And it’s not even about money. It’s all about mutual respect, meeting each other halfway. Not just one saying one thing to the other.”
The landscape has changed a bit since Fedor walked away from the fight game after defeating Pedro Rizzo in St. Petersburg back in 2012. In the day and age of exposing users of performance-enhancing drugs — spearheaded, in large part, by the UFC — Emelianenko sides with a the idea of cleaning up the sport. Having spent a large portion of his career in Pride, which was infamous for its lack of drug testing, he says thinks that there should be harsher penalties doled out to those who pop for PEDs.
“I feel that they should increase the punishment or control what’s happening,” he said. “There’s definitely more room for control over it. I feel betrayed by those who actually enhance their performance with various drugs. It’s unfair, and it should definitely be stopped. It reflects on the sport overall, as well as the fighters, in a very negative way. And athletes should get to where they’re going because of all the work they put in, not because they are taking something that will enhance their performance.
“When I was competing I would run daily 20 kilometers, and in addition to that I’d put in many hours of fighting and sparring. That’s why I was always able to keep the speed in the ring. I would train so hard that sometimes it was not only hard to stand up, but it would also be hard to lay down. Nowadays in not just this sport, but in other sports, people are trying to substitute that hard work with drugs.”
You can’t help but think of the behemoths Fedor faced in his career. Even though he took some beatings, particularly later on when he lost to Dan Henderson and Antonio Silva, he says he didn’t suffer any long-term damage.
“Other than some broken fingers, nothing that extensive,” he says, holding up his hands. They are average looking hands. They aren’t gnarled or disfigured. They don’t look like the anvils they were. In fact, it’s hard to believe he was a heavyweight in his 6-foot frame, and with hands like his.
Yet he closes them in a fist, and as he turns and looks through you with his eyes, you can’t help but remember the kind of business they meant. Fedor says that he was always nervous before a fight, for every single one of them through his career.
“It never goes away,” he says. “But right now I enjoy the fact I don’t have to worry about that over those feature fights.”
He never came across as nervous. He always looked like he was listening to the symphony through invisible headphones when he came out for the opening bell. He looked as drowsy as he does in this conference room in New York. Where does he get that sense of serenity?
“With god’s help,” he says.
He must have had “more god” than the others, I say, because the others weren’t nearly so bloodless when they stepped into the cage against him.
“As human beings, our lives should be in retrospect with God,” he says.
That’s how the “Last Emperor” rolls. No pretense, no wasted words, no wavering faith. Oh, and no tears in retrospect with the fight game. ?
The beginning of 2015 was bittersweet for UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who defended his title against Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 only to have it come to light that he tested positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition test.
Though the drug certainly didn’t help Jones in his fight on Jan. 3, it did alert people that there might be a behind-the-scenes problem. Jones himself propelled the notion when he checked into rehab for a night. Since then those close to him have gone on record saying that the champion doesn’t suffer so much a drug problem as a “partying problem.”
And one of those who echoes such sentiments is his striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, who trains with Jones in Albuquerque, N.M. “Wink” made an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, and said that it doesn’t help that Jones has bad influences around him.
“No, he doesn’t have a problem,” he told Ariel Helwani. “He parties. In my opinion, it’s definitely not an addict type of thing at all. I think he sometimes finds himself hanging out with idiots.”
Jones, who became the youngest champion in UFC at 23 when he defeated Mauricio Rua at UFC 128, will try and defend his title for a ninth time on May 23 against Anthony Johnson. A native of upstate New York, he said during the lead-up to the Cormier fight that he is now relocating permanently to Albuquerque, which will help with his focus.
His coaches are all for the idea.
And Winkeljohn, who along with Greg Jackson runs one of the most successful gyms in the country, is a straight shooter. He referred to himself as a kind of elder family member who harps on doing the right things in and out of the gym. And he didn’t sugarcoat his feelings on his initial discovery of the failed test.
“Well, it’s disappointing,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s disappointing that he’d be partying before a fight. With that being said, I don’t think it helped him in the fight, I think it probably hurt him in the fight, because partying…it’s taking away from his focus, and he’s not rehabbing the way he should. But, the main thing about it is, okay, now it’s out there, he did it, we got to fix it, he’s got to overcome it and be better for it. It’s so hard. I’m kind of like the older uncle yelling at him all the time.
“With that being said, I also believe in Jon Jones. I believe in his legacy. I believe he’s going to make it to the top. Honestly, he’s a young kid with everything thrown to him. And it’s a tough situation. Almost every other athlete that has been put in that situation, in some ways it’s crash and burn.”
Winkeljohn said he’s surprised that Jones avoided a worse fate, given the sudden fame and fortune.
“Honestly, I would have thought long ago, if you would have asked me five years ago, I would have thought, gosh, Jon would have fallen off a cliff, because of the influences from all these idiots hanging out with him,” he said. “I thought he would fall off the cliff. But Jon has good balance. Apparently he stood at the edge of the cliff, but he didn’t fall off, so now he’s getting back on the path.”
Jackson said a few years ago that the one man who could beat Jon Jones was Jon Jones himself. In 2015, Winkeljohn still thinks that’s the case. When asked if it’s a fear of his that Jones could tarnish his legacy before reaching the greatest summits in MMA, he said it was.
“Sure, I’m definitely worried about it,” he said. “We’ve had that conversation. So, not only does he hang out with idiots, he acts like an idiot sometimes, and if he keeps doing it he will become an idiot himself.”
The good news is that Winkeljohn thinks Jones has taken back control of his life, and is headed in the right direction as he gets ready for “Rumble” Johnson.
“I think he has it under control, and you’re going to see a great fight in May when he comes back,” he said. “He’s already back to training a little bit, slowly but surely getting back into it. He’s never done that before in the past. Jon is just a believer. He has a lot of self-confidence. I really enjoy teaching him, because he’s almost like a video game. If I ask Jon to do something, he just does it. And how cool is that — that I have that situation? That I can kind of control what he does in the cage. He listens to all my codes and stuff. So not only am I proud of where we’ve got him, but I’m looking forward to taking him to a higher level.”
The beginning of 2015 was bittersweet for UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who defended his title against Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 only to have it come to light that he tested positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition test.
Though the drug certainly didn’t help Jones in his fight on Jan. 3, it did alert people that there might be a behind-the-scenes problem. Jones himself propelled the notion when he checked into rehab for a night. Since then those close to him have gone on record saying that the champion doesn’t suffer so much a drug problem as a “partying problem.”
And one of those who echoes such sentiments is his striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, who trains with Jones in Albuquerque, N.M. “Wink” made an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, and said that it doesn’t help that Jones has bad influences around him.
“No, he doesn’t have a problem,” he told Ariel Helwani. “He parties. In my opinion, it’s definitely not an addict type of thing at all. I think he sometimes finds himself hanging out with idiots.”
Jones, who became the youngest champion in UFC at 23 when he defeated Mauricio Rua at UFC 128, will try and defend his title for a ninth time on May 23 against Anthony Johnson. A native of upstate New York, he said during the lead-up to the Cormier fight that he is now relocating permanently to Albuquerque, which will help with his focus.
His coaches are all for the idea.
And Winkeljohn, who along with Greg Jackson runs one of the most successful gyms in the country, is a straight shooter. He referred to himself as a kind of elder family member who harps on doing the right things in and out of the gym. And he didn’t sugarcoat his feelings on his initial discovery of the failed test.
“Well, it’s disappointing,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s disappointing that he’d be partying before a fight. With that being said, I don’t think it helped him in the fight, I think it probably hurt him in the fight, because partying…it’s taking away from his focus, and he’s not rehabbing the way he should. But, the main thing about it is, okay, now it’s out there, he did it, we got to fix it, he’s got to overcome it and be better for it. It’s so hard. I’m kind of like the older uncle yelling at him all the time.
“With that being said, I also believe in Jon Jones. I believe in his legacy. I believe he’s going to make it to the top. Honestly, he’s a young kid with everything thrown to him. And it’s a tough situation. Almost every other athlete that has been put in that situation, in some ways it’s crash and burn.”
Winkeljohn said he’s surprised that Jones avoided a worse fate, given the sudden fame and fortune.
“Honestly, I would have thought long ago, if you would have asked me five years ago, I would have thought, gosh, Jon would have fallen off a cliff, because of the influences from all these idiots hanging out with him,” he said. “I thought he would fall off the cliff. But Jon has good balance. Apparently he stood at the edge of the cliff, but he didn’t fall off, so now he’s getting back on the path.”
Jackson said a few years ago that the one man who could beat Jon Jones was Jon Jones himself. In 2015, Winkeljohn still thinks that’s the case. When asked if it’s a fear of his that Jones could tarnish his legacy before reaching the greatest summits in MMA, he said it was.
“Sure, I’m definitely worried about it,” he said. “We’ve had that conversation. So, not only does he hang out with idiots, he acts like an idiot sometimes, and if he keeps doing it he will become an idiot himself.”
The good news is that Winkeljohn thinks Jones has taken back control of his life, and is headed in the right direction as he gets ready for “Rumble” Johnson.
“I think he has it under control, and you’re going to see a great fight in May when he comes back,” he said. “He’s already back to training a little bit, slowly but surely getting back into it. He’s never done that before in the past. Jon is just a believer. He has a lot of self-confidence. I really enjoy teaching him, because he’s almost like a video game. If I ask Jon to do something, he just does it. And how cool is that — that I have that situation? That I can kind of control what he does in the cage. He listens to all my codes and stuff. So not only am I proud of where we’ve got him, but I’m looking forward to taking him to a higher level.”
If all goes according to plan, this year’s UFC Memorial Day card is shaping up to be one of the biggest of the year.
As reported on Wednesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight, two title fights are official for UFC 187. Light heavyweight champi…
If all goes according to plan, this year’s UFC Memorial Day card is shaping up to be one of the biggest of the year.
As reported on Wednesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight, two title fights are official for UFC 187. Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will try and defend his belt for a ninth time against Anthony Johnson, while middleweight champion Chris Weidman will finally square off with Vitor Belfort.
UFC 187 is slated to take place in Las Vegas on May 23. No venue has been set for the card yet.
Jones, 27, will be making his second title defense in 2015. He defeated Daniel Cormier via unanimous decision at UFC 182 on Jan. 3, in what many people believed was his toughest test to date. The Jackson-Winkeljohn fighter tested positive for cocaine metabolites in an out-of-competition test in early December, which prompted him to enroll with a rehab facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico after the fight.
Johnson emerged as the No. 1 contender by upsetting Alexander Gustafsson on Jan. 24 in Stockholm. The 30-year old fighter has been one of the great turnaround stories in MMA, having undergone a beleaguered stint as a welterweight his first time through the UFC. After missing weight on numerous occasions, Johnson restarted his career at 205 pounds in other promotions, most notably the World Series of Fighting. Since losing to Belfort at UFC 142 in 2012, “Rumble” has gone 9-0, including 3-0 in the UFC.
Weidman and Belfort were supposed to fight at UFC 184 on Feb. 28, but was postponed when Weidman injured himself in training. Now the co-main for UFC 187, Weidman (12-0) will look to defend his title for the third time.
Cerrone and Nurmagomedov have been on a collision course for the last year. “Cowboy” Cerrone has won seven straight fights, including two already in 2015 over Myles Jury and Benson Henderson.
Nurmagomedov, who is returning from a knee injury, has gone 6-0 in the UFC, with his last victory coming over dos Anjos back in April.
With the UFC holding a press conference on Wednesday to declare its revamped plan to combat the use of performance-enhancing drugs, it turns out that its record-breaking champion Anderson Silva was the catalyst for change.
During the hour-long press conference, in which UFC president Dana White, CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and COO Lawrence Epstein vowed to increase enhanced testing and enact harsher penalties for users of PEDs, it was made clear that Silva’s positive tests from UFC 183 prompted the action. Silva tested positive for drostanolone and androstane on a Jan. 9 out-of-competition test, and later failed for drostanolone in the post-fight test, along with the banned substances Oxazepam and Temazepam.
As the UFC officials declared the measures they would take to help rid the sport of PEDs, the shock of Silva’s positive test was brought up a couple of times.
“What happened was we started spending half a million dollars on out of competition testing,” White said. “And I think when a guy like Anderson Silva gets caught, it definitely sends a message. I think that shocked the entire MMA community and the sports world. It shocked me. We were pretty blown away by it. And now we’re going to dig in.”
Fertitta would later echo White’s sentiments, saying that Silva’s positive tests — exacerbated later by Hector Lombard’s recently failed test from UFC 182 — prompted the UFC to act urgently.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years,” Fertitta said. “We’ve been in conversation with third parties for at least six or seven months. We made a lot of progress.
“What the Anderson Silva thing has prompted us to [do is] come out and address these issues, to make sure we’re speeding up the process. We don’t have the luxury of kind of sitting back and being academic and debating all these legal points. We just got to go. And however the cards fall they’re going to fall. But we’re going to make sure that fighters are being tested, and the results will be what the results will be.”
Epstein added that the UFC still supports Silva, who is entitled to his due process with the Nevada Athletic Commission, and that his they would continue to do so as things unfold.
“Regardless of what happens, Anderson Silva has been a great champion and he’s been a great representative of the sport,” Epstein said. “If something bad happened here, the Nevada Athletic Commission will handle that. But, he does have, he had a great career, and we’ll continue to honor that and stand behind him regardless of what happens with the athletic commission.”
With the UFC holding a press conference on Wednesday to declare its revamped plan to combat the use of performance-enhancing drugs, it turns out that its record-breaking champion Anderson Silva was the catalyst for change.
During the hour-long press conference, in which UFC president Dana White, CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and COO Lawrence Epstein vowed to increase enhanced testing and enact harsher penalties for users of PEDs, it was made clear that Silva’s positive tests from UFC 183 prompted the action. Silva tested positive for drostanolone and androstane on a Jan. 9 out-of-competition test, and later failed for drostanolone in the post-fight test, along with the banned substances Oxazepam and Temazepam.
As the UFC officials declared the measures they would take to help rid the sport of PEDs, the shock of Silva’s positive test was brought up a couple of times.
“What happened was we started spending half a million dollars on out of competition testing,” White said. “And I think when a guy like Anderson Silva gets caught, it definitely sends a message. I think that shocked the entire MMA community and the sports world. It shocked me. We were pretty blown away by it. And now we’re going to dig in.”
Fertitta would later echo White’s sentiments, saying that Silva’s positive tests — exacerbated later by Hector Lombard’s recently failed test from UFC 182 — prompted the UFC to act urgently.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years,” Fertitta said. “We’ve been in conversation with third parties for at least six or seven months. We made a lot of progress.
“What the Anderson Silva thing has prompted us to [do is] come out and address these issues, to make sure we’re speeding up the process. We don’t have the luxury of kind of sitting back and being academic and debating all these legal points. We just got to go. And however the cards fall they’re going to fall. But we’re going to make sure that fighters are being tested, and the results will be what the results will be.”
Epstein added that the UFC still supports Silva, who is entitled to his due process with the Nevada Athletic Commission, and that his they would continue to do so as things unfold.
“Regardless of what happens, Anderson Silva has been a great champion and he’s been a great representative of the sport,” Epstein said. “If something bad happened here, the Nevada Athletic Commission will handle that. But, he does have, he had a great career, and we’ll continue to honor that and stand behind him regardless of what happens with the athletic commission.”
