Sad news for those of you who were still clinging to the fragile hope that it was only a matter of time before Fedor Emelianenko would rise from the ashes of mediocrity that he seems to have entrenched himself in lately. In a recent interview with Russian publication Rianovosti, “The Last Emperor” candidly spoke about his future in MMA, and claimed that it might be coming to an end after his fight with fellow legend Pedro Rizzo, which is set to transpire on June 21st in St. Petersberg. True to form, Fedor was not one to elaborate when discussing the possibility of retirement.
I think it’s time to call it a day. This fight may be my last one.
So there you have it. God is dead, there will be no Christmas this year, and Fedor f’ing Emelianenko is never going to fight an opponent that stands a chance of beating him ever again. And this is in no way an insult to Rizzo, it’s just that, well, if Gilbert Yvel was able to do this to him, just imagine what Fedor will do. Now combine that with the fact that Rizzo has not fought since nearly crippling the human punching bag that is Ken Shamrock back in July of 2010, and you have the makings for another brutal KO win on Emelianenko’s record over an opponent that no one wants to see get knocked out again.
But Emelianenko was nothing but considerate when discussing his opponent, as has become the standard with a true gentlemen like Fedor:
I have been learning from Pedro’s fights and have a lot of respect for him. He is a fighter of a great maturity, beating many of the strongest.
There’s no denying that in his prime, Rizzo was one of the most feared strikers in the sport, and deserves a boatload of respect for his accomplishments as a mixed martial artist. But come June 21st, we might see two illustrious careers come to an end. One via retirement, and the other via death.
Sad news for those of you who were still clinging to the fragile hope that it was only a matter of time before Fedor Emelianenko would rise from the ashes of mediocrity that he seems to have entrenched himself in lately. In a recent interview with Russian publication Rianovosti, “The Last Emperor” candidly spoke about his future in MMA, and claimed that it might be coming to an end after his fight with fellow legend Pedro Rizzo, which is set to transpire on June 21st in St. Petersberg. True to form, Fedor was not one to elaborate when discussing the possibility of retirement.
I think it’s time to call it a day. This fight may be my last one.
So there you have it. God is dead, there will be no Christmas this year, and Fedor f’ing Emelianenko is never going to fight an opponent that stands a chance of beating him ever again. And this is in no way an insult to Rizzo, it’s just that, well, if Gilbert Yvel was able to do this to him, just imagine what Fedor will do. Now combine that with the fact that Rizzo has not fought since nearly crippling the human punching bag that is Ken Shamrock back in July of 2010, and you have the makings for another brutal KO win on Emelianenko’s record over an opponent that no one wants to see get knocked out again.
But Emelianenko was nothing but considerate when discussing his opponent, as has become the standard with a true gentlemen like Fedor:
I have been learning from Pedro’s fights and have a lot of respect for him. He is a fighter of a great maturity, beating many of the strongest.
There’s no denying that in his prime, Rizzo was one of the most feared strikers in the sport, and deserves a boatload of respect for his accomplishments as a mixed martial artist. But come June 21st, we might see two illustrious careers come to an end. One via retirement, and the other via death.
Just three days ago, Alan Belcher was fed to the lions. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but like those who choose to stay in Omelas, the Zuffa head-honchos knew that a sacrifice had to be made for the good of the community. For if the insatiable beast known as “Toquinho” was not fed his daily quotient of appendages, theirs would surely be next. So they sent forth the only American brave enough to tattoo Kim Jong-il on his arm to narfle the Garthok, so to speak. But like the mighty Beldar Conehead before him, Alan Belcher emerged from the monstrosity’s repugnant dwelling unscathed, and earned a lifetime supply of free wishes for doing so.
At least that’s how “The Talent” sees it, because when asked on who he’d like to face next (if a title shot was out of the question, of course) Belcher was rather adamant about his options, telling the following to BloodyElbow’s Steph Daniels:
I think a fight with Michael Bisping makes a lot of sense. I mean, Boetsch looks like a beast at 185, and I’ve got to admit, he looks pretty scary. The other guys in the division, in my mind, I’ve already beat them so many times, and I know everything about them, and I know they don’t have anything really threatening. Boetsch has got some pretty powerful tools, and is a pretty scary dude.
Bisping, of course, is getting to be a professional point fighter, and he’s kind of hard to beat like that. That fight would be a nice payday, and a big fight for the media, so I’m kind of leaning towards that one. It would make sense, and the fans would love it. I can almost feel the energy I would get from the fans if I put him to sleep.
Join us after the jump for much more from the interview.
(WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY SPRAY TAN?!)
Just three days ago, Alan Belcher was fed to the lions. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but like those who choose to stay in Omelas, the Zuffa head-honchos knew that a sacrifice had to be made for the good of the community. For if the insatiable beast known as “Toquinho” was not fed his daily quotient of appendages, theirs would surely be next. So they sent forth the only American brave enough to tattoo Kim Jong-il on his arm to narfle the Garthok, so to speak. But like the mighty Beldar Conehead before him, Alan Belcher emerged from the monstrosity’s repugnant dwelling unscathed, and earned a lifetime supply of free wishes for doing so.
At least that’s how “The Talent” sees it, because when asked on who he’d like to face next (if a title shot was out of the question, of course) Belcher was rather adamant about his options, telling the following to BloodyElbow’s Steph Daniels:
I think a fight with Michael Bisping makes a lot of sense. I mean, Boetsch looks like a beast at 185, and I’ve got to admit, he looks pretty scary. The other guys in the division, in my mind, I’ve already beat them so many times, and I know everything about them, and I know they don’t have anything really threatening. Boetsch has got some pretty powerful tools, and is a pretty scary dude.
Bisping, of course, is getting to be a professional point fighter, and he’s kind of hard to beat like that. That fight would be a nice payday, and a big fight for the media, so I’m kind of leaning towards that one. It would make sense, and the fans would love it. I can almost feel the energy I would get from the fans if I put him to sleep.
For the record, we’re not counting either of the men who coached opposite Bisping on his TUF gigs, even though one of those led to the most satisfying beatdowns of all time.
But believe it or not, Belcher’s desire to fight Bisping is not the result of some backstage incident where Bisping managed to get under his skin, as is usually the case, but rather out of general disdain for “The Count”:
No, nothing personal. I don’t know what to think about him. I can already kind of feel the kind of smack talking that he would be doing, and I think that he just honestly believes that he’s better than he is. I don’t think he respects me or considers me to be one of the top guys. It would feel good to beat him, but I don’t want to let those type of personal emotions get in the way of what’s really important, and that’s competing for the world championship and winning.
Belcher was also quick to point out that, although he was successful, it wasn’t exactly his gameplan to stick his foot in the bear trap that is Rousimar Palhares:
I knew that I would shock some people. It wasn’t my intention to get into a grappling match with him. A lot of people thought that was my intent going in, and that the media sort of pushed me into it, trying to prove something, but that was surely not the case at all.
I knew I would be able to handle myself if he got me in a situation. I was prepared, and I’d been training with some of the best guys that do that kind of thing. I was probably kind of psyching myself up a little too much, and I was expecting some kind of super powers or super strength, but it was a lot easier once I actually got in there.
I knew that it was going to take some real tight mental preparation to beat somebody like this. I recognized that it was my time, not only in my career, in the title picture, but it was my time in the fight to finish him and make a big splash, and I think that’s what I did.
I think people will think twice about taking me down. Now they know I can grapple with the best of them. It was pretty nice watching him try to squirm out of the twister position, and out of all those submissions I was trying to throw on him. It was the highlight of the fight for me. I was pretty proud of it.
In a way, Belcher’s performance last Saturday night reminded me a lot of The Hurt Locker. “The Talent” showed incredible patience and precision when wiggling his way out of Palhares’ attacks, which impede one’s walking ability to the same degree as stepping on a landmine, if you think about it. And not only did he manage to avoid Palhares’ death grip, he attempted a twister and even a banana split at one point, I believe, all on one of the best Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the game.
All I’m saying is, if Alan Belcher is asking for anything or anyone in terms of matchups, he’s earned it, don’t you think?
(If either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama are looking for a new campaign slogan, may we offer the following.)
You know, we may have our fun at Josh Koscheck’s expense more than others here at CP, but it’s only because we know that he can take it as well as he can dish it out. The TUF 1 veteran has made his name off the heel/asshole moniker for a good seven years now, and in fact brought the term to new heights during his gig as coach on the twelfth season of The Ultimate Fighter, incorporating hypothetical ass-play and male nurse jokes into his repertoire of empty threats. He’s been called a dick by everyone from Phil Baroni to Brian Ebersole, and though he won’t admit it, we know Ariel Helwani would probably say the same.
And at the forefront of Koscheck’s embittered rants these days seems to be none other than the esteemed members of the MMA media, who apparently have given Koscheck slim to zero chance against Johny Hendricks in their upcoming clash at UFC on FOX 3 this Saturday. Now, we’re not sure which media outlets are writing Koscheck off, because, even though we dislike the guy, we still think he has a really good chance of pulling out a victory. The current betting odds seem to share this notion, but according to Koscheck, we’ve all claimed that he is simply too old to deal with Hendricks, and is basically a lamb being led to the killing field. When Koscheck spoke with these MMA media “retards” yesterday ahead of his clash with Hendricks, he let his feeling be known. That’s right, feeling:
I have a lot of ulterior motives that motivate me. There are a lot of people like you out here who write all these stories and shit like, ‘Oh, he’s old, he’s this, youth versus age….’ Bullshit. You guys are all fucking retards who think that. Retards. I’ve been hearing a lot of it — a lot of tweets and shit. I laugh at you idiots. Man, you guys are crazy…Who’s that guy, Bernard Hopkins? Didn’t he just kick someone’s ass the other day? And how old is he? Oh…he lost? Well, I mean, he was the champion, right? I mean how old is that guy, 47? C’mon, he’s still fighting. Let’s be real. Look at Randy Couture. Is that a rare case? Dan Henderson. Look at Dan Henderson’s 40, right? Is that a rare case? Chuck Liddell was what, 37-38? Real rare. You guys are retards for writing that shit.
We don’t know how to break this to you, Josh, so we’ll just come right out with it. YES, guys like Randy Couture and Dan Henderson are rare cases. Because for every Randy Couture, there are at least three Ken Shamrocks who are dangerously close to getting beaten to death in the ring. But for Christ’s sake, you’re 34, Josh. Your age should be the least of your, or our, concerns. But maybe we’re just being naive.
Again, we can’t seem to find these supposed articles that have earned the ire of Koscheck, but we’ve come to the realization that “Kos” is likely just making things up at this point to fuel the ever-present hate within him. Then again, if you believe that Twitter is where the real MMA reporting gets done, you are either FrontRowBrian or, well…a retard.
Join us after the jump for the full interview.
(If either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama are looking for a new campaign slogan, may we offer the following.)
You know, we may have our fun at Josh Koscheck’s expense more than others here at CP, but it’s only because we know that he can take it as well as he can dish it out. The TUF 1 veteran has made his name off the heel/asshole moniker for a good seven years now, and in fact brought the term to new heights during his gig as coach on the twelfth season of The Ultimate Fighter, incorporating hypothetical ass-play and male nurse jokes into his repertoire of empty threats. He’s been called a dick by everyone from Phil Baroni to Brian Ebersole, and though he won’t admit it, we know Ariel Helwani would probably say the same.
And at the forefront of Koscheck’s embittered rants these days seems to be none other than the esteemed members of the MMA media, who apparently have given Koscheck slim to zero chance against Johny Hendricks in their upcoming clash at UFC on FOX 3 this Saturday. Now, we’re not sure which media outlets are writing Koscheck off, because, even though we dislike the guy, we still think he has a really good chance of pulling out a victory. The current betting odds seem to share this notion, but according to Koscheck, we’ve all claimed that he is simply too old to deal with Hendricks, and is basically a lamb being led to the killing field. When Koscheck spoke with these MMA media “retards” yesterday ahead of his clash with Hendricks, he let his feeling be known. That’s right, feeling:
I have a lot of ulterior motives that motivate me. There are a lot of people like you out here who write all these stories and shit like, ‘Oh, he’s old, he’s this, youth versus age….’ Bullshit. You guys are all fucking retards who think that. Retards. I’ve been hearing a lot of it — a lot of tweets and shit. I laugh at you idiots. Man, you guys are crazy…Who’s that guy, Bernard Hopkins? Didn’t he just kick someone’s ass the other day? And how old is he? Oh…he lost? Well, I mean, he was the champion, right? I mean how old is that guy, 47? C’mon, he’s still fighting. Let’s be real. Look at Randy Couture. Is that a rare case? Dan Henderson. Look at Dan Henderson‘s 40, right? Is that a rare case? Chuck Liddell was what, 37-38? Real rare. You guys are retards for writing that shit.
We don’t know how to break this to you, Josh, so we’ll just come right out with it. YES, guys like Randy Couture and Dan Henderson are rare cases. Because for every Randy Couture, there are at least three Ken Shamrocks who are dangerously close to getting beaten to death in the ring. But for Christ’s sake, you’re 34, Josh. Your age should be the least of your, or our, concerns. But maybe we’re just being naive.
Again, we can’t seem to find these supposed articles that have earned the ire of Koscheck, but we’ve come to the realization that “Kos” is likely just making things up at this point to fuel the ever-present hate within him. Then again, if you believe that Twitter is where the real MMA reporting gets done, you are either FrontRowBrian or, well…a retard.
Koscheck was relentless in his assessment of the media’s supposed assessment of him, continuing:
You guys are crazy, and I can’t wait to prove all you guys wrong. Every one of you. Keep counting me out. Keep doing it for all the years, because I’ll be fighting for like four or five more years, just keep counting me out. Every time you write a story about me, just say I’m too old, too washed up, too many fights, too many miles. I like that, because I got a lot to prove. I got a lot of people to prove wrong on Saturday night, and I’m looking at every one of you. You guys are probably all writing that shit about me. Keep writing it.
Once again, we’ve gotta call into question where Koscheck is getting his news from. He’s been the favorite going into every fight in recent memory against anyone not named Georges St. Pierre, yet acts like he’s the Rodney Dangerfield of the welterweight division. The guy is listed at a mere +100, but if you were to ask him, you’d think he stood as good a chance against Hendricks as one of Chris Cyborg’s average opponents. But we digress.
So what do you think? Will Koscheck’s new training camp reignite his apparently washed up MMA career? Rest assured, it hasn’t changed his outlook on life.
(In a rare misstep for Guida, he had no idea that the beer bong he was offered actually contained Four Loko. There were no survivors.)
It seems that you can’t come across an MMA interview these days that doesn’t bring up the Alistair Overeem situation. The phrase “testosterone replacement therapy” has been thrown around in more MMA blogs within the past month than the name “Tim Tebow” on your average Sportscenter episode, and that’s saying something. Is it a coincidence that both phrases emphasize the “T” sound? We think not.
Being the laid back, no worries, Winnebago-loving kind of guy that Clay Guida is, he was much more willing to forgive Overeem when speaking to MMAWeekly about the situation yesterday, believing that a lot of the blame should be placed on that of his coaches. And in case you’re wondering, he managed to relate the situation to the lion-esque mange that sits atop his head:
Yeah, Alistair not knowing that there is testosterone in his vitamins, is like me not knowing what kind of conditioner I’m putting in my hair. I’m not going to put the complete blame on him, I’m going to put it on his coaches, and, maybe not his team necessarily, but his trainer and this and that and whoever maybe slipped him a Mickey or whatever you want to call it. I’m a fan of the guy, don’t get me wrong, but, I think they had plans elsewhere or whatever it may be, but, it’s a bummer that the main event in one of the biggest cards of the year is going to be kind of tampered with, just because you know, they got careless and maybe they didn’t have all the belief in themselves, so. I just stick with my regular stuff. The fruits and vegetables, fish oils, glucose and stuff like that you know? I’ve never been big on supplements on stuff like that you know? I just take natural stuff.
It turns out that fellow lightweight contender Mark Bocek, ever the stickler, was not too pleased that Overeem received only 9 months for his botched surprise drug test, going as far as to say that any fighter needing TRT (or marijuana for that matter), shouldn’t be fighting in the first place:
(In a rare misstep for Guida, he had no idea that the beer bong he was offered actually contained Four Loko. There were no survivors.)
It seems that you can’t come across an MMA interview these days that doesn’t bring up the Alistair Overeem situation. The phrase “testosterone replacement therapy” has been thrown around in more MMA blogs within the past month than the name “Tim Tebow” on your average Sportscenter episode, and that’s saying something. Is it a coincidence that both phrases emphasize the “T” sound? We think not.
Being the laid back, no worries, Winnebago-loving kind of guy that Clay Guida is, he was much more willing to forgive Overeem when speaking to MMAWeekly about the situation yesterday, believing that a lot of the blame should be placed on that of his coaches. And in case you’re wondering, he managed to relate the situation to the lion-esque mange that sits atop his head:
Yeah, Alistair not knowing that there is testosterone in his vitamins, is like me not knowing what kind of conditioner I’m putting in my hair. I’m not going to put the complete blame on him, I’m going to put it on his coaches, and, maybe not his team necessarily, but his trainer and this and that and whoever maybe slipped him a Mickey or whatever you want to call it. I’m a fan of the guy, don’t get me wrong, but, I think they had plans elsewhere or whatever it may be, but, it’s a bummer that the main event in one of the biggest cards of the year is going to be kind of tampered with, just because you know, they got careless and maybe they didn’t have all the belief in themselves, so. I just stick with my regular stuff. The fruits and vegetables, fish oils, glucose and stuff like that you know? I’ve never been big on supplements on stuff like that you know? I just take natural stuff.
It turns out that fellow lightweight contender Mark Bocek, ever the stickler, was not too pleased that Overeem received only 9 months for his botched surprise drug test, going as far as to say that any fighter needing TRT (or marijuana for that matter), shouldn’t be fighting in the first place:
There’s definitely got to be some type of punishment. You can put any twist on it want. I’m no doctor, I just think if your doctor’s telling you you need to be on TRT and you need to be on medical marijuana, you shouldn’t be fighting. He wasn’t under license at the time, he’s trying to flee the building over another series of testing, it makes you wonder about everyone else. I would think one year punishment for a guy like Overeem.
I think it’s a problem in every division. I think it’s just kind of become part of the sport. Definitely random testing could change or fix that. As you see with Overeem, he really wasn’t expecting that but it’s a part of any sport really. Any Olympic sport as well.
Although I personally disagree with Bocek’s stance on marijuana use in MMA — it in no way affects an MMA fighter’s performance, nor should it matter what a fighter does to ensure his own mental well-being in the off-season — you can’t deny that random drug testing would be the cure-all for these repeated infractions of the rules. Like Guida said, Overeem’s ignorance hits the fans, especially those who purchased tickets to UFC 146 prior to Overeem’s drug test debacle, the hardest, unless they’re die hard Frank Mir fans, of course. And if the Zuffa brass is worried about possible fighter backlash, we imagine Hector Lombard would quickly volunteer for the role of D.A.R.E officer.
After the WEC merged with the UFC in early 2011, most MMA fans were quick to write off the competitors in its lightweight division, claiming that they would simply be outmatched by their UFC counterparts. The success of current lightweight champ Ben Henderson, along with that of guys like Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis quickly disproved this notion, but one fighter who has gone almost completely unnoticed at 155 has been that of Danny Castillo. The Team Alpha Male standout’s record currently stands at 3-1 in the UFC, including a win over former number one contender Joe Stevenson in his promotional debut. On the heels of a split decision victory over noted striker Anthony Njokuani at UFC 141 in December, Castillo will be looking to build on his current two-fight win streak against Strikeforce veteran and submission savant John Cholish on the preliminary card of next weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 event. We were recently able to snag an interview with “Last Call,” who dished on everything from TRT to his stance on teammates fighting teammates. Enjoy, and make sure to follow Danny and all his Alpha Male cohorts on Twitter.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: Thanks for interview opportunity, Danny. I was wondering if we could first talk about your UFC 141 victory over Anthony Njokuani. How would you assess your performance in that fight?
Danny Castillo: “I would rate my performance about a D+. It wasn’t the best fight of my career. I was able to get a victory on four weeks of training, and I had just fought prior to that in November against Shamar Bailey. I pretty much went in there with the gameplan to wrestle the whole time; I knew that that was one of the flaws in [Njokuani’s] game. He’s a dangerous fighter. He was one of the most exciting fighters in the WEC, and he’s probably one of the top five strikers inside the UFC. On four weeks notice, I wasn’t prepared to necessarily stand with him or to sit in the pocket against his strengths. His ground game was greatly improved, and now that I’ve done some training with him I understand why; he’s got a phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu coach in Sergio Penha. As far as I’m concerned, I think I won the first and the third round. I probably had about six takedowns throughout the fight, and I think I did enough to win the fight.”
Follow us after the jump for Castillo’s thoughts on the TRT debate, the possibility of fighting a teammate, and more.
After the WEC merged with the UFC in early 2011, most MMA fans were quick to write off the competitors in its lightweight division, claiming that they would simply be outmatched by their UFC counterparts. The success of current lightweight champ Ben Henderson, along with that of guys like Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis quickly disproved this notion, but one fighter who has gone almost completely unnoticed at 155 has been that of Danny Castillo. The Team Alpha Male standout’s record currently stands at 3-1 in the UFC, including a win over former number one contender Joe Stevenson in his promotional debut. On the heels of a split decision victory over noted striker Anthony Njokuani at UFC 141 in December, Castillo will be looking to build on his current two-fight win streak against Strikeforce veteran and submission savant John Cholish on the preliminary card of next weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 event. We were recently able to snag an interview with “Last Call,” who dished on everything from TRT to his stance on teammates fighting teammates. Enjoy, and make sure to follow Danny and all his Alpha Male cohorts on Twitter.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: Thanks for interview opportunity, Danny. I was wondering if we could first talk about your UFC 141 victory over Anthony Njokuani. How would you assess your performance in that fight?
Danny Castillo: “I would rate my performance about a D+. It wasn’t the best fight of my career. I was able to get a victory on four weeks of training, and I had just fought prior to that in November against Shamar Bailey. I pretty much went in there with the gameplan to wrestle the whole time; I knew that that was one of the flaws in [Njokuani’s] game. He’s a dangerous fighter. He was one of the most exciting fighters in the WEC, and he’s probably one of the top five strikers inside the UFC. On four weeks notice, I wasn’t prepared to necessarily stand with him or to sit in the pocket against his strengths. His ground game was greatly improved, and now that I’ve done some training with him I understand why; he’s got a phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu coach in Sergio Penha. As far as I’m concerned, I think I won the first and the third round. I probably had about six takedowns throughout the fight, and I think I did enough to win the fight.”
Let’s move on to your upcoming fight with John Cholish at UFC on Fox 3. Do you see yourself as the underdog coming into this fight, and if so, are you the type of fighter who relishes that role?
“I’m not really sure if I like the role of being the underdog, but I’ve been the underdog my whole career so I’m kind of used to it. As far as John Cholish is concerned, I view him as one of my toughest fights to date, mainly because any fight that I have is my toughest fight. For someone who doesn’t get a lot of respect from the UFC, a loss could be detrimental to my career, especially to an unnamed guy like Cholish.”
How do you prepare for, as you said, a relatively unknown guy like Cholish?
“I know he’s a tough dude; he’s a solid wrestler, he comes from a great Jiu-Jitsu background, he’s got great foot work, and his striking doesn’t seem to be that bad. Losing to him would be horrible for my career, so I view it as a really tough fight. I’ve only got footage of two of his fights; one of his fights was two years ago. It seems like young fighters have huge changes in their careers from month to month because they’re still learning and improving. From his fight against Marc Stevens to his last fight in the UFC, I’ve just seen a huge improvement in him. I’m sure the pressure’s on him to step his game up, so I guarantee he’s been training like this is the toughest fight of his career, which it will be.”
Without revealing too much, how do you see this fight going down?
“I’ve been working a lot on my stand up. I got booed for wrestling in my last fight, so I’d like to repay the fans with a standup fight and sit there and bang with this kid. I think it might be one of his holes in his game. I don’t think he has a lot of power and I think I got a lot of power. I don’t see any knockouts on his record and I have a few knockouts in my career, so I’d like to stand with him. How I see the fight going is [Cholish] attacking my legs for fifteen minutes and me stuffing the takedowns, you know, just sprawlin’ and brawlin’.”
Granted you are successful, are there any specific opponents at 155 that you’d like to face next?
“There’s no one in particular that I’d like to face, but I’ve got four losses to UFC opponents, and two of them are in the top ten. I’d like to have those losses back; a lot of those losses were earlier in my career and I feel like I’m a completely different fighter. I know my identity, so getting those fights against those opponents I lost to would be good for me. That would be a fight that I’d be fired up for, but as far as I’m concerned, any fight that pushes me up the lightweight division is a fight that I want.”
Being one of the select guys brought over from the WEC, do you feel any additional pressure going into a fight, like you have something to prove on behalf of the promotion that you built your name upon?
“I can’t speak for the rest of the guys, but for me there was a lot of pressure. My first fight was against one of the UFC vets in Joe Stevenson. Fighting a tough veteran that I had been watching before I even thought about getting in the cage was really tough for me. Not only being my first fight in the UFC and all that pressure mounting up, but fighting a tough veteran like [Joe], the pressure was really high. But I was able to pull out the victory against a really tough dude, so I was happy with that and I’m happy with the way that my career has gone so far in the UFC.”
Dana White has been adamant in the past about the willingness of teammates to fight one another. Guys like Jon Fitch, however, have repeatedly stated that they would rather retire than fight a teammate. Where do you stand on this issue?
“Fortunately, in team Alpha Male there’s only a couple lightweights, and none of them are in the UFC, so I don’t have to really worry about that. I have some training partners that I’m good friends with, like Nate Diaz, and I don’t see myself fighting them. I know the hot topic is ‘teammates should be able to fight teammates,’ and Dana White hates when teammates don’t fight each other, but I view my friendship with Nate and his brother and everyone at Cesar Gracie’s, you know, I value that friendship more than a few thousand dollars.”
While we’re discussing some of the current hotbed issues in MMA, what are your thoughts on the TRT controversy that has seemed to divide fans and fighters alike?
“I think it’s terrible. I’ve never cheated at anything in my life, sports-wise at least, and I don’t see myself doing that. I’m 32 years old, I know a lot of guys that are doing HGH and testosterone, it seems like everyone in the sport is doing something. I’m just not that guy. I’ve been able to train my butt off and get great results in terms of being strong and not having to use performance enhancing drugs. I’m totally against it. I think random testing for steroids would be the way to go and I’m all for it. You can test me year round and I have nothing to worry about, and I think that’s how the fighters I fight against should be as well. It’s only fair.”
You hold a victory over Dustin Poirier, who could be looking at a future title shot at 145 is he is able to defeat Chan Sung Jung. How would you asses the current featherweight landscape and who do you think presents the biggest challenge to Jose Aldo?
“Dustin Poirier is a tough, young, hungry kid. I fought him earlier in his career; it’s a big win and I’m happy to have it. I would say I’m friends with Dustin after the fight. My girlfriend and his wife are friends as well, so I like the kid and I know how hungry he is. As far as him getting a title shot, I think it’s deserved, but in terms of anyone that can beat Jose Aldo; the only person in the world that can beat Jose Aldo is Chad Mendes. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t really get to see the fight play out; Chad was taking him down, he grabbed the fence, and right after that Chad got knocked out. I think that takedown could have changed the whole dynamic of the fight, but we’ll never really know. I think Chad’s the number two dude at featherweight, and the number three, four, and five guys, not sure who those guys are, but I think Chad’s light-years ahead of them and he’ll just smash anyone of those dudes.”
Thanks for the interview opportunity.
“Thanks for having me. After I beat this dude up, I’d definitely like to come on again.”
Make sure to swing by CagePotato this Saturday, as yours truly will be liveblogging all the UFC on FOX 3 action, starting at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT.
(If it weren’t for Lou Ferrigno, Phil would’ve never had to deal with this MMA drug testing bullshit.)
Phil Baroni has never been afraid to speak his mind. Whether he’s dishing on pre-fight abstinence, the fragility of his own mind, or childhood obesity, “The New York Bad Ass” never pulls any punches, and in fact it’s one of the many reasons we love the guy. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that, during a recent interview with Fight Sport Asia, Baroni not only came out as a proponent of steroid use in MMA, but more or less admitted that most of his PRIDE cohorts were probably juiced during the Japanese promotion’s heyday. Here’s what he told the publication:
I want to see the best fighters, I want to see who is the strongest the best! Guys should be able to do whatever it takes to be the strongest. Getting choked and kicked in the head is really bad for you, worse than pot , TRT, or steroids. I don’t care who’s the cleanest, I wanna’ see the strongest, the fastest and the most gnarly fighters. I don’t want to see who is the best at passing drug test. Overeem isn’t the only guy taking shit, he just got caught. I wanna’ see the baddest mother fuckers going at it. That’s why PRIDE was the best — I wanna see a 205 (ripped) Wanderlei Silva kill dudes!
Most of you will not likely find this revelation to be all that surprising considering, you know, the above photo of Baroni. It does, however, seem a little inconsistent of Baroni to be advocating a substance that he has vehemently denied using in the past, despite testing positive for Boldenone and Stanozolol Metabolites in the aftermath of his second round submission loss to Frank Shamrock back in 2007. Unfortunately for guys like Baroni and Alistair Overeem, the various athletic commissions regulating the sport don’t seem to agree, as Baroni was suspended for six months for his infraction. And we all know what fate Alistair was sentenced to.
(If it weren’t for Lou Ferrigno, Phil would’ve never had to deal with this MMA drug testing bullshit.)
Phil Baroni has never been afraid to speak his mind. Whether he’s dishing on pre-fight abstinence, the fragility of his own mind, or childhood obesity, “The New York Bad Ass” never pulls any punches, and in fact it’s one of the many reasons we love the guy. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that, during a recent interview with Fight Sport Asia, Baroni not only came out as a proponent of steroid use in MMA, but more or less admitted that most of his PRIDE cohorts were probably juiced during the Japanese promotion’s heyday. Here’s what he told the publication:
I want to see the best fighters, I want to see who is the strongest the best! Guys should be able to do whatever it takes to be the strongest. Getting choked and kicked in the head is really bad for you, worse than pot , TRT, or steroids. I don’t care who’s the cleanest, I wanna’ see the strongest, the fastest and the most gnarly fighters. I don’t want to see who is the best at passing drug test. Overeem isn’t the only guy taking shit, he just got caught. I wanna’ see the baddest mother fuckers going at it. That’s why PRIDE was the best — I wanna see a 205 (ripped) Wanderlei Silva kill dudes!
Most of you will not likely find this revelation to be all that surprising considering, you know, the above photo of Baroni. It does, however, seem a little inconsistent of Baroni to be advocating a substance that he has vehemently denied using in the past, despite testing positive for Boldenone and Stanozolol Metabolites in the aftermath of his second round submission loss to Frank Shamrock back in 2007. Unfortunately for guys like Baroni and Alistair Overeem, the various athletic commissions regulating the sport don’t seem to agree, as Baroni was suspended for six months for his infraction. And we all know what fate Alistair was sentenced to.
We’ve had this debate far too many times here at CP ever since Overeem pissed dirty, and the general consensus amongst the nation seems to be that we should create a promotion, a literal “Super Fight League” if you will, in which fighters are allowed to juice, snort meth, and roll their gloves in broken glass before every fight, and leave promotions like the UFC to the “clean,” “natural,” and “morally righteous” fighters of the world. The bums.
Former UFC Heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez would apparently be one of these fighters to fall into the latter category, as he told MMAWeekly earlier today that he is all for more drug testing in the sport, as it creates an even playing field for those involved:
All I can say is I don’t do any of that stuff and I’m happy to test. It puts you at ease to know that your opponent is also clean like you are. Puts everybody on the same playing field. And that’s all I hope for, for myself, is to fight somebody on the same playing field as I am. I support [more frequent testing], why not? I’m not doing anything that I need to watch out for, so I’m all for it. It’s no big deal to me.
How’s the weather up on that pedestal, Cain? YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN US?!
We’re not going to ask you where you stand on this issue, because we’ve already beaten that chemically-altered horse into an early grave. Instead, we’d like you to lay out what exactly we can do to make this “Super Juice League” idea a reality, and what other kinds of crazy stipulations we can throw into the mix. A ring of fire? A mat littered with tacks and dirty needles? Somehow incorporating a jousting element?
