(“Hey darlin’, wanna lie down underneath some palm trees?” / Photo via MMAFighting)
Remember that bizarre interview Cub Swanson did with Sherdog in which the UFC featherweight contender claimed that he’d beat Jose Aldo “10 out of 10 times” in a rematch? The same Jose Aldo who exposed Cub’s skull in just eight seconds the first time they fought? The same Jose Aldo who hasn’t lost a fight in seven years? At the time, it sounded like Swanson’s words had crossed the border from heat-seeking boast into “Are You Fucking Kidding Me?™” territory. Especially when Swanson added that he’d like his brother to fight Scarface instead, as that would be a more fair fight.
The good news is, he didn’t mean it. When he was giving that quote, he actually thought the interviewer was asking him about Jens Pulver, which makes sense since both “Jose” and “Jens” begin with a hard-J sound. If you’ll recall, Pulver submitted Swanson in 35 seconds during Lil’ Evil’s WEC debut back in December 2007, but is nowhere near the competitive threat he once was. As Cub said during a follow-up appearance on Sherdog’s “Beatdown” radio show:
“We were going back and forth about different past opponents, and that was a mental error on my side. I was talking about Jens Pulver, and I thought you guys had asked me about a rematch with him. That’s why I said that was a long time ago and that I had put it past me…No, [I don’t want my brother to fight Aldo.] My brother is a [flyweight], and he fights at 135 [pounds] as well, but that’s the fight that I would love for my brother to have — with Jens. Jose Aldo is the fight that I want.”
And since you’re asking, a rematch against Aldo would obviously be a different story than their first go-round:
“I don’t feel that [a rematch with Aldo] would play out like it did that time. I feel like that was a once-in-a-longtime type of thing, and it’s not going to happen again. If we fought again, I’m very confident, and I think it would be a hell of a fight…Personally, I’ve grown up a lot mentally [since the first bout]. I don’t get nerves like I used to. I feel that the key for me is just being calm and confident. In that fight, I was very one-track-minded, and I just felt like I had to do one thing right off the bat. It was too close-minded for me and not really my usual game plan, and it backfired.
“People want to be quick to remind you of what happened, but I feel like I’ve earned the respect to get another shot. It sucks getting people talking crap to you for something you didn’t say or didn’t mean to say. I just don’t want to be seen as somebody who’s a cocky jerk. I’m going to say that I’m confident in my ability, but I’m not ignorant [enough] to say that I’m going to demolish every fighter out there and that nobody has a chance against me. That’s not me.”
Unless you’re talking about Jens Pulver, because that guy definitely has no chance against you, right? Makes sense to us…