Our host, Steve Cofield caught up with UFC Lightweight, Evan Dunham as he trains at Xtreme Couture for his upcoming bout against Shamar Bailey at UFN 25: Battle on the Bayou this September 17th. Cofield.
Our host, Steve Cofield caught up with UFC Lightweight, Evan Dunham as he trains at Xtreme Couture for his upcoming bout against Shamar Bailey at UFN 25: Battle on the Bayou this September 17th. Cofield asks about the mistakes made in Dunham’s last fight with Melvin Guillard which lead to his TKO loss in the first round. Dunham admits he stood in front of Guillard too long and hopes to get a rematch. Watch the full interview below:
Our host, Steve Cofield met up with George Sotiropoulos as he prepares to move past his first professional loss at UFC 127 against Dennis Siver. Sotiropoulos will now face Raphael dos Anjos at UFC 132..
Our host, Steve Cofield met up with George Sotiropoulos as he prepares to move past his first professional loss at UFC 127 against Dennis Siver. Sotiropoulos will now face Raphael dos Anjos at UFC 132. Cofield asks Sotiropoulos about the top Lightweights having off nights and losing their fights when it seems a shot at the title is on the line. Sotiropoulos says, “It’s a big mess right now. The guys who are up there…I think we’re all still up there, it’s just changed the timing of everything.”
Sotiropoulos was supposed to fight Evan Dunham who pulled out due to injury, but he thinks dos Anjos may be more dangerous than Dunham. Cofield also has a little fun poking at Wanderlei Silva‘s plastic surgery and asks what Sotiropoulos would get done.
Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — Melvin Guillard has his own way of doing things. Even normal things — simple things, at least in the world of pro fighting — quickly become a canvas for him to work on. Take Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts, fo…
LAS VEGAS — Melvin Guillard has his own way of doing things. Even normal things — simple things, at least in the world of pro fighting — quickly become a canvas for him to work on. Take Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts, for instance.
Before stepping on the mats to show off his skills for media and fans, Guillard first stripped down to his underwear so that he could be lathered head to toe in…something. As he stood there in a ballroom at the MGM Grand with his eyes closed and arms out wide, getting oiled up in the middle of the afternoon as if there weren’t a room full of strangers gawking at him, it was plain to see that this was not a man who spends all that much time worrying what people think about him.
If he was, he probably wouldn’t have mentioned to reporters that his plans after he retires from professional fighting include playing on the PGA tour. As in, the golf one. And no, he’s not joking.
“People laugh at me all the time,” said Guillard, who claimed that, despite only playing golf for about a year, he now shoots in the 80s. “If y’all see my golf game you wouldn’t be laughing, because I will smoke y’all out there.”
Confidence, in case you couldn’t already tell, is something Guillard has never lacked. He had it on season two of The Ultimate Fighter, back when he had more raw talent than polish. He had it through his up-and-down years after the show, when he’d mix flashes of fighting brilliance with almost pathologically self-sabotaging acts both in and out of the cage.
Now he finally seems to have pulled it all together, and with his current four-fight win streak comes a matching ego. So what if he’s fighting Shane Roller on the Spike TV prelims of this card, and right after what would seem to be a much more high profile win over Evan Dunham in January? Regardless of where he may be in the pecking order at any given time, Guillard still has no problem declaring himself the best lightweight in the world.
“I can sit here and say that from my heart and from my soul,” he said. “I know I’m the best 155er. I know when guys are scheduled to fight me, I know they don’t want that fight. A lot of times, their managers probably go other routes of wanting to fight other guys. I’m the one guy that fighters right now don’t want to fight, because this is my time. I’m at the peak of my career, and I’m not even in my prime yet. I just hit 28. I still haven’t gotten old man strength yet. Right now, every fight’s going to be tough, and I’m not knocking any fighter in my weight class, but I’m one tough dude, man. I’ve taken my beatings. I’ve taken my lashes. I’ve been knocked down. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let anybody knock me down again in my life.”
But the fact that Guillard thinks so highly of his own skills only makes it more perplexing that he’s one of the few UFC lightweights on a win streak who isn’t clamoring for a title shot every time the mic gets passed his way. Not that he’d mind one, of course, but he admitted that he’s almost purposely put those aspirations aside for the moment.
Instead, his focus is simple: he just wants to stick around.
“You see a lot of guys come and go,” Guillard said. “They get cut all the time. I think a lot of guys are worried too much about title fights and winning belts. I care more about keeping my job and always being able to give you guys great fights. I always ask myself, how would I feel if a kid walked up to me and said, ‘Hey when’s your next fight in the UFC?’ and I’m not in the UFC anymore. That’s kind of heartbreaking as a person. You feel like a failure. I try my hardest to not worry about the hype and title fights and rankings. I just want to keep fighting, bring you guys great fights, and I treat every fight like a title fight.”
Fighting a guy like Roller — who was a good-but-not-great WEC lightweight before debuting in the UFC with a knockout of Thiago Tavares — may not be the kind of fight that vaults a guy immediately into the title picture. It might even be a bout where he has more to lose than to gain.
But Guillard? He just wants to fight and keep fighting as often as possible, he said. Other people may worry about getting the title shot as soon as possible, but he isn’t like other people.
For George Sotiropulos, the past four months since his disappointing UFC 127 loss to Dennis Siver have been about finding a balance in his life between training and all of the extrinsic factors that prevented him from focusing fully on it. According to G-Sots, who has been noticeably absent from the limelight since the fight, he has set the wheels of change in motion to ensure that he isn’t being stretched too thin and that he continues to improve as a fighter and as a person.
We caught up with the UFC lightweight contender recently and spoke with him at length about the fight with Siver, the factors that he feels contributed to the first “real” loss on his record and the steps he’s taken to make sure he makes the best of the learning experience to ensure that he doesn’t make the same mistakes twice inside and outside of the Octagon.
Check out the extensive interview after the jump.
For George Sotiropulos, the past four months since his disappointing UFC 127 loss to Dennis Siver have been about finding a balance in his life between training and all of the extrinsic factors that prevented him from focusing fully on it. According to G-Sots, who has been noticeably absent from the limelight since the fight, he has set the wheels of change in motion to ensure that he isn’t being stretched too thin and that he continues to improve as a fighter and as a person.
We caught up with the UFC lightweight contender recently and spoke with him at length about the fight with Siver, the factors that he feels contributed to the first “real” loss on his record and the steps he’s taken to make sure he makes the best of the learning experience to ensure that he doesn’t make the same mistakes twice inside and outside of the Octagon.
Things are going really well. Training’s going well and I’m on track. I’m very focus. Weight’s not an issue. My weight’s actually really good. Everything’s going really well. I’ve progressed everything and everything’s in the last phase of my training and I couldn’t be happier.
Where have you been training?
I’ve been training here at home in Washington at Fisticuffs [Boxing and MMA] and [in Beaverton, Oregon] at Impact [Jiu-Jitsu] with my regular crew. I spent some time in LA with Eddie [Bravo] working on jiu-jitsu, but for the most part I’m doing everything out here. I work on my boxing at Fisticuffs with Leonard Gabriel and my jiu-jitsu at Impact.
It’s been a while since you last tasted defeat, which, coupled with the fact that you lost your last fight at home in Australia probably made it doubly hard to deal with. You’re not an excuse maker. You’re more so the type of guy that – win or lose – is back in the gym Monday morning working on things you could have done differently. How differently, perhaps as a result of maturity, did you deal with this lost than your last one five years ago?
That’s pretty much what I did. I definitely wasn’t happy about [the loss]. It was pretty disappointing, to say the least. I got back into the gym pretty much straightaway. I reviewed quite a bit of footage from the fight, made some notes and paid quite a bit of close attention to everything I did in the fight, in training and also on a personal level outside of training. I made a lot of adjustments to my life itself so I can focus more of my time on training and the fight and not be distracted by anything. I’ve come such a long way in my training and this sport that I knew I needed to tweak some things, so I made some subtle adjustments to ensure I improve and learn from the mistakes I made in my last fight.
The last time we spoke, you mentioned that one of the toughest things to get used to when you returned from living and training in Japan was that it was tough to find motivated training partners with the work ethic of the teammates you had there. Was that part of the adjustment you’re referring to or is it more a combination of factors you felt were lacking in your camp for the UFC 127 fight with Dennis Siver?
No, it was a combination of things. My training partners are actually pretty good. I’m surrounded with a dedicated bunch of guys. The guys I train with in boxing are really serious and they’re always there. The same with the wrestlers, jiu-jitsu and muay thai guys – they’re always there. I just think I was trying to do way too much outside of training that consumed way too much of my time. I was taking care of too much when I should have been resting or focusing on different aspects of training. Trying to manage myself just consumed way too much of my time. Now I’ve sort of delegated some stuff away to people around me and it’s allowed me to focus on doing what I need to do to be a better fighter.
It seems like some of the distractions were some of the media obligations you had for your last fight. I know it’s an important part of being a fighter and that the UFC urges that you guys are very hands on in social media and interacting with fans and the media, but when you’re as busy as you are it must become tough to balance with training and your everyday life since it takes a ton of time and energy and is very consuming. We haven’t heard much from you since February, so I figured you may have sequestered yourself away out of the limelight to focus your time on training. Is it safe to say that sometimes the PR duties are hindering to your training and ultimately to your performance?
That’s the truth. Unfortunately, it’s the reality. I did around thirty interviews [each] for my last three fights and that’s not including all of the interviews I did for the UFC [for their website, the countdown show and the pay-per-view broadcast], which are pretty comprehensive. I have a lot of Australian media commitments that I fulfill as well, so I spent a lot of time and energy setting up and doing interviews. This time around I haven’t had that problem because I’ve taken a step back. Because I’m not fighting on the pay-per-view, it means less media focus on me. All of these things add up. They just consume you and your time. I was always in a rush – in a frenzy – and I never had a spare minute. It got so out of hand that it made life very difficult.
I think that’s one of the things fans and the media don’t take into account when they analyze fighters, is that you’re people with your own lives and issues just like everyone else. You’re not supermen. It must be tough dealing with how fickle they can be. Some people crumple you up and throw you away after a loss and say things like “He was never that good anyway,” or “He was overrated.” Look at Dan Hardy. He was a fan favorite and a media darling until he lost a few fights in a row. Now everyone has turned on him and is writing him off as being a “has-been” or a “never-was.” Do you find that the reality is when you’re on top, everybody wants to talk to you and claims to be a fan and then you lose, you realize that it was all artificial?
Yep. That’s exactly how it is. It’s the truth. Everybody loves a winner. People, when they see you fall are like, “Yep, there it is.” Winning is great and I’m all about winning, but part of this business is if you can’t deal with a loss, you ain’t gonna make it. I was very disappointed about that last fight, but I’ve moved on. The emotions that I experienced have run their course and I’m moving on. That loss is not something that’s going to destroy my life. I look at the positive side and I look at the adjustments I have to make to better myself and rather than focus on the problem, I’ve created a solution. I’ve implemented some strategies and methods and that’s all I can do. I have everything put into action and I’m just working on it.
In this episode of his UFC 130 vlog, Dana spends some time with his son, attends the UFC Fighter Summit and gears up for this weekend’s event.
If you don’t have time to watch it or your boss is a tight ass who banned YouTube in your workplace, the key points in a nutshell are after the jump.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)
In this episode of his UFC 130 vlog, Dana spends some time with his son, attends the UFC Fighter Summit and gears up for this weekend’s event.
If you don’t have time to watch it or your boss is a tight ass who banned YouTube in your workplace, the key points in a nutshell are as follows:
• Jon Jones is rooting for fellow white boy Matt Hamill over Quinton Jackson, but says Rampage will probably win.
• Jones also picks Frank Mir to knock out Roy Nelson with a high kick or to win by decision. Later in the show we get to hear Jones tell the boss that he doesn’t require surgery and that he could be back in action by the fall.
• Jones and White will be in a Bud Light commercial being released soon.
• Evan Dunham stops by to drop some F-bombs in front of Dana’s son, (Dana Jr) and talks about his foot injury and upcoming wedding.
• We get to witness the moment Josh Barnett and Dana take the infamous photo of the two of them that made the rounds two weeks ago with their arms around each other, to which Barnett remarked, “No one ever thought they’d see that again.”
• ‘Mayhem’ Miller thanks Dana for bringing him back to the fold.
• Vitor Belfort says he’s recovered from his KO he suffered against Anderson Silva, but says he was “scared for a few days” afterwards.
• Roy Nelson has lost some weight.
• Nelson and Mir are very friendly with each other.
• Although it was no “The Secret,” Rampage liked Hamill’s movie.
Evan Dunham will have to wait a little longer to snap his two-fight losing streak.
The lightweight was forced to pull out of his UFC 132 fight against George Sotiropoulos due to an undisclosed injury, MMA Junkie reported on Tuesday. UFC.com later reported that Rafael dos Anjos had agreed to replace Dunham and will face the Australian Sotiropoulos on the July 2 card.
“Really frustrated that I had to pull out,” Dunham tweeted. “I was really looking forward to this fight. I will be back in there as soon as I am heeled (sic) up.”
LAS VEGAS — 
Evan Dunham