Friends and fellow UFC heavyweights Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione will finally fight one another this Saturday at UFC 165. Both men were celebrated athletes long before they ever got into MMA and the UFC, with extensive football backgrounds in the AFL and NFL, respectively.
When you get two athletes who hail from similar backgrounds in the cage, there is often an added element of rivalry to the match up. Randy Couture facing Mike Van Arsdale, for example, or “Minotauro” Nogueira vs. Fabricio Werdum.
It doesn’t work that way with football, though, according to Schaub. “Not really,” he tells CagePotato.
“I think Matt is the more decorated football player and that I am more the decorated mixed martial artist. I pride myself on being a martial artist. I have a strong work ethic and was born to compete and fight. Martial arts is my true calling. Who the better football player is doesn’t really matter to me.”
Alright, the question was a silly one. But one still has to legitimately wonder what it will be like for Schaub and Mitrione to go all out against one another in the Octagon. They are not “friends” in the generic, early Tito Ortiz/Chuck Liddell sense. Schaub and Mitrione have been close and in constant contact with one another since they were both participants on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Friends and fellow UFC heavyweights Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione will finally fight one another this Saturday at UFC 165. Both men were celebrated athletes long before they ever got into MMA and the UFC, with extensive football backgrounds in the AFL and NFL, respectively.
When you get two athletes who hail from similar backgrounds in the cage, there is often an added element of rivalry to the match up. Randy Couture facing Mike Van Arsdale, for example, or “Minotauro” Nogueira vs. Fabricio Werdum.
It doesn’t work that way with football, though, according to Schaub. “Not really,” he tells CagePotato.
“I think Matt is the more decorated football player and that I am more the decorated mixed martial artist. I pride myself on being a martial artist. I have a strong work ethic and was born to compete and fight. Martial arts is my true calling. Who the better football player is doesn’t really matter to me.”
Alright, the question was a silly one. But one still has to legitimately wonder what it will be like for Schaub and Mitrione to go all out against one another in the Octagon. They are not “friends” in the generic, early Tito Ortiz/Chuck Liddell sense. Schaub and Mitrione have been close and in constant contact with one another since they were both participants on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
“Me and Matt are good buddies,” Brendan says.
“We talk once every week. We had the same trainer for years. We talk a ton. He was my closest friend in the [TUF] house. Before a fight we would talk game plans – what I think he should do to win, etc.”
All that made finding out he was fighting Mitrione a bit awkward for Schaub. “The way I found out we were going to fight was I got a call from Matt around midnight one night. I’m thinking, ‘what the hell is he calling so late for?’ I ignored the call. Then, the next day I look at my phone and I had about twelve missed calls from him. So, the first thing I do in the morning is to text Matt, ‘what the hell do you want?’ I thought he had drunk dialed me,” Schaub remembers.
“He wrote back, ‘we have to fight each other.’ I told him, ‘whoa, what do you mean? You’ve got to be kidding me.’ What can you do? You don’t say ‘no’ to Dana White and Joe Silva. Otherwise it can get real ugly.”
A fight between two close friends who feel forced by professional circumstances to face one another doesn’t seem like a sure-fire formula for fireworks. Brendan admits that, conceptually, fighting a friend can be a tough thing.
In the end, however, he’s certain that the fighter in him will come out against Mitrione at UFC 165, friend or not. “I think when you are outside the Octagon maybe there is a risk of not ripping his limb off if you get the chance,” he says.
“But when the juice is flowing in front of millions of people…I feel that in every fight my reputation on the line. Now he’s a guy messing with my reputation and my progress getting to the belt. I’m not going to let anyone do that.”
Friendship is, and always will be, one of life’s trickiest puzzles. It is also one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences a person will ever have. But despite all of the wonderful joys that come from having a friend, not all friendships are made to last the sands of time like Fred and Barney. How could they? Ego, pride, and the opposite sex often reduce the strongest of bonds to mere ashes. And we wouldn’t want it any other way because some guys make good friends, but much better enemies. Here’s a look at five classic friendships gone awry…
Jon Jones – Rashad Evans
In a time when instant gratification is king, the world is still awaiting the showdown between former friends and training partners, ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans and Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. Jackson’s MMA used to be a place where the two sweat and bled together, side by side, day after day — as friends. These two were more like brothers than Ken and Frank, so much so that they vowed never to fight each other, suggesting someone would fake an injury to avoid the confrontation at all costs.
We’ve had multiple in-cage showdowns, a twitter beef or two, and a minor club incident since the moment the young rising star confirmed that he would indeed fight the former TUF 2 winner if Dana White really wanted him to. Fast forward a year and the two have still yet to fight thanks to injuries, both real and imagined. Some would argue that “Good things come to those who wait,” but patience is not a virtue most of us possess. We want to see these dudes throw down now! All we are concerned with at this point is who the teacher is and who is the student.
(“You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am yours. – Ben Franklin)
Friendship is, and always will be, one of life’s trickiest puzzles. It is also one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences a person will ever have. But despite all of the wonderful joys that come from having a friend, not all friendships are made to last the sands of time like Fred and Barney. How could they? Ego, pride, and the opposite sex often reduce the strongest of bonds to mere ashes. And we wouldn’t want it any other way because some guys make good friends, but much better enemies. Here’s a look at five classic friendships gone awry…
Jon Jones – Rashad Evans
In a time when instant gratification is king, the world is still awaiting the showdown between former friends and training partners, ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans and Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. Jackson’s MMA used to be a place where the two sweat and bled together, side by side, day after day — as friends. These two were more like brothers than Ken and Frank, so much so that they vowed never to fight each other, suggesting someone would fake an injury to avoid the confrontation at all costs.
We’ve had multiple in-cage showdowns, a twitter beef or two, and a minor club incident since the moment the young rising star confirmed that he would indeed fight the former TUF 2 winner if Dana White really wanted him to. Fast forward a year and the two have still yet to fight thanks to injuries, both real and imagined. Some would argue that “Good things come to those who wait,” but patience is not a virtue most of us possess. We want to see these dudes throw down now! All we are concerned with at this point is who the teacher is and who is the student.
Shaquille O’Neal – Kobe Bryant
When these ballers weren’t trashing each other in the media or asking how their ass tasted, they were putting boots to other people’s asses on a regular basis leading to an incredible four NBA Championships including a three-peat from 2000 to 2002. Like all locker rooms, there was probably a sign above the door that read something like this: Check your ego at the door — unless your name is Kobe f’n Bryant.
To put it plainly, Los Angeles just wasn’t big enough for the two of ‘em. What started out as “innocent” hazing slowly morphed into insults being hurled like flaming arrows over a castle wall. The Shaq-Kobe beef separated fans like the Mason-Dixon Line did the legality of slavery. The best part is that the airing of their dirty laundry was just as pleasant to witness as the greatness displayed in the paint.
Ultimate Fighting Championship – Spike TV
At a time when both were looking like the desperate guy outside a casino, smelling of stale cigarettes and booze, hoping to turn the ten bucks bummed from a do-gooder back into the thousands he lost the night before, they realized they were each other’s best, and possibly only chance at hitting the jackpot. In a way, they both made each other. For every fan the UFC has thanks to the amount of exposure given to The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV has another viewer to boost its Nielsen Ratings with shows like Manswers and 1000 Ways to Die. The symbiotic relationship between Zuffa and Viacom literally kept the UFC and Spike TV alive to fight another day.
Like all good things, this too came to an end. After the UFC signed the FOX deal, the fine gentlemen at Spike’s HQ made no secret about their intent to attack their former partner at all costs. Stealing a page out of White’s own book, Spike won the ratings war with a rerun counter-program to a live event. Not liking the taste of their wounds, the UFC will be forced to amp up their game and make sure the free fights that get tossed to the casual fans for free are actually worth watching. Competition breeds excellence, and that’s exactly what the fans deserve.
As with many things in the world of professional wrestling, storylines often change frequently over the course of a few years. During the 1980s, two of the WWF’s biggest stars played opposite roles. On one hand you had the baby face Hulk Hogan, on the other, you had Randy Savage playing the heel. It is pro wrestling math at its finest. However, things changed in 1987 when the former rivals formed The Mega Powers and decided to fight the good fight together.
Thankfully, Savage’s wife Elizabeth drove a wedge between the pair, granting fans the opportunity once more to see the two guys at the top get it on in the squared circle. Even among smarks, you’d have an easier time finding someone who believed in the Easter Bunny than you would finding someone who couldn’t wait for “Hulkamania” and “Macho Madness” to renew their epic battle.
Ben Fowlkes – Ariel Helwani
During his two-year stint at CagePotato, no one minded when Ben Fowlkes wrote while inebriated, or mailed it in when he had to chase a story for Fight! magazine. It’s a much different story, however, where Ben currently hangs his scarf. The folks over there don’t take too kindly to keyboard warriors who play hooky.
Most weeks, Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting hosts a live show with a bold-faced lie of a title, The MMA Hour. Amidst all the high-profile fighters and managers who stop by and break news or analyze fights, comedic relief was needed. Enter Ben Fowlkes. He and Ariel got along well and verbally sparred with the best of them. The ebb and flow of sarcasm and mutual respect was uncanny. A match made in Heaven they were, and fans ate it up. Until…
Apparently Fowlkes no-showed an episode, so Helwani, being the Judge, Jury and Executioner that he is, laid down the hammer and handed the MMA Journalist of the Year nominee a six-week suspension from the show. Fowlkes claimed he was getting an interview or maybe it was skiing, whatever. The jabs thrown on Twitter between the two created more entertainment in a few short weeks than our entire comments section has this year. Okay, I’m not actually sure if that’s true or not because, quite frankly, I don’t read anything on this site, including my own articles, but I digress. Watching the petty in-fighting among our biggest rivals gave us a sick satisfaction that has comforted us during these trying times.
