Tag: Interview

[VIDEO] Dana White Talks Bad Judging, Title Contenders & Much More at UFC 166 Post Event Press Scrum

UFC president Dana White spoke with assembled press after UFC 166 Saturday night in Houston. Per usual, all topics were on the table including judging, reffing, who is and isn’t on the chopping block and the future of the heavyweight and light heavyweight division title scene.

Who’s up next for Cain Velaszquez? Is there a chance Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier could fight next?

Check out Uncle Dana’s interesting and non-committal answers alike to these questions and more in the video above.

– Elias Cepeda


UFC president Dana White spoke with assembled press after UFC 166 Saturday night in Houston. Per usual, all topics were on the table including judging, reffing, who is and isn’t on the chopping block and the future of the heavyweight and light heavyweight division title scene.

Who’s up next for Cain Velaszquez? Is there a chance Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier could fight next?

Check out Uncle Dana’s interesting and non-committal answers alike to these questions and more in the video above.

– Elias Cepeda

UFC 166: An Atypical Pre-Fight Interview with UFC Heavyweight Roy Nelson

Roy Nelson is truly in a league of his own. The iron-chinned heavyweight with cinder blocks for hands has been a staple at the highest level of the sport for the better part of the past decade, and his ability to dish out one-punch destruction has made him a favorite with the mixed martial arts […]

Roy Nelson is truly in a league of his own. The iron-chinned heavyweight with cinder blocks for hands has been a staple at the highest level of the sport for the better part of the past decade, and his ability to dish out one-punch destruction has made him a favorite with the mixed martial arts […]

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Everyone Excited for Potential Nick Diaz vs. Michael Bisping Fight Except For, You Know, Nick Diaz

(Video via Fighters Only)

Earlier this week, Nick Diaz friend and teammate Gilbert Melendez (who fights Diego Sanchez this Saturday at UFC 166) offered his opinion that “I think with the right opportunity, for the right thing, [Diaz will] come out [of retirement].”

One-eyed British superstar Michael Bisping then shouted out on twitter that “if Diaz wants a fight at 185 I would happily welcome him to the division.”

UFC prez Dana White chimed in on twitter himself next saying that “I love that fight.”

With that, the rumor ball got rolling about a possible middleweight match up between Bisping and Diaz, who has not fought since March and who has not won since 2011. Bisping is currently sidelined by a serious eye injury. Nick, of course, has thus far stayed silent on the possible matchup with Bisping and is also in the midst of his second fake retirement.

The first came after he lost a close decision to Carlos Condit and was then suspended for a failed drug test, and the second and current one came after he lost a tough decision to welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre last March. Diaz is only thirty years old but has been fighting professionally since he was a teenager and appears weary of taking part in anything short of mega-fights at this point in his career.

So, there’s really no new developments in this story yet until Nick himself comes out and…no, wait, Mike Bisping wants to tell us all something and he wants to do it while cooking steaks in his home.

In the above video, Fighters Only magazine visits with their countryman Bisping at home while the cocky Brit cooks dinner for his family. Bisping once more accepts the theoretical fight with Diaz and also talks about several other issues. Highlights after the jump.


(Video via Fighters Only)

Earlier this week, Nick Diaz friend and teammate Gilbert Melendez (who fights Diego Sanchez this Saturday at UFC 166) offered his opinion that “I think with the right opportunity, for the right thing, [Diaz will] come out [of retirement].”

One-eyed British superstar Michael Bisping then shouted out on twitter that “if Diaz wants a fight at 185 I would happily welcome him to the division.”

UFC prez Dana White chimed in on twitter himself next saying that “I love that fight.”

With that, the rumor ball got rolling about a possible middleweight match up between Bisping and Diaz, who has not fought since March and who has not won since 2011. Bisping is currently sidelined by a serious eye injury. Nick, of course, has thus far stayed silent on the possible matchup with Bisping and is also in the midst of his second fake retirement.

The first came after he lost a close decision to Carlos Condit and was then suspended for a failed drug test, and the second and current one came after he lost a tough decision to welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre last March. Diaz is only thirty years old but has been fighting professionally since he was a teenager and appears weary of taking part in anything short of mega-fights at this point in his career.

So, there’s really no new developments in this story yet until Nick himself comes out and…no, wait, Mike Bisping wants to tell us all something and he wants to do it while cooking steaks in his home.

In the above video, Fighters Only magazine visits with their countryman Bisping at home while the cocky Brit cooks dinner for his family. Bisping once more accepts the theoretical fight with Diaz and also talks about several other issues. Highlights after the jump.

0:05: Bisping describes some good-looking food that he begins to prepare in an accent that makes it all sound somehow disgustingly bland.

1:30: Bisping gives the camera a gross close-up look at his injured eye and then explains the details of his injury.

2:51: Bisping gives his take on the replacement fight between his originally scheduled opponent UFC Fight Night 30 opponent Mark Munoz and Lyoto Machida.

4:05: Bisping talks about Machida dropping down in weight from light heavyweight to middleweight as he himself did years ago.

4:52: Bisping gets around to the topic of Nick Diaz and his possibly moving up in weight to 185 pounds. “If that’s what he wants to do, great. I have nothing against Nick Diaz…I enjoy watching his fights.”

This unrecognizable, classy Bisping slowly makes his turn to the trash-talking, arrogant guy we’ve all come to love, and then, with either sarcasm or an astounding lack of self-awareness, says how much he hates trash talk.

“It is a terrible fight for him, great fight for me,” Bisping says of a match up with Diaz.

“I’m certainly not going to turn down a petulant child of an MMA fighter.” And, there it is.

“I’m not going for this whole trash-talk phenomenon,” says one of the most successful trash talk phenomenons in all of MMA.

7:20: Bisping gives his take on Weidman vs. Silva I and II.

What do you think, nation? Is this all just the latest in a string of Nick Diaz teases or will the Stockton warrior indeed come back to the fighting and make Bisping his first victim?

–Elias Cepeda

Times Are Getting Hard, Boys: Jon Fitch Moves Cross-Country to Take Health Club Job


(As if Fitch didn’t have *enough* douchebags trying to get photos with him in public. / Props: Getty)

The past year hasn’t been easy for former perennial welterweight title contender Jon Fitch. After a loss to Demian Maia, Fitch was still ranked by the UFC as one of the division’s very best, but that didn’t stop the promotion from firing him.

After being priced out of his job with the UFC, the top-ten ranked Fitch next fought and lost to Josh Burkman in his World Series of Fighting debut. Now, Fitch finds himself apparently unable to make ends meet through fighting alone and he has packed up his family and moved them from San Jose, California, to Syracuse, New York, to take a job at a mega-gym called Pacific Health Club.

“There are financial things to take into consideration — it’s a salaried job with guaranteed income and health benefits for my family,” Fitch told MMAFighting in a recent interview.

“Those are huge, really. Honestly, California is falling apart. The whole country’s kind of falling apart. But the cost of living here in California is ridiculous, and the taxation in California is ridiculous. I’m not sure it’s any better in New York yet, but I’ve got to start doing something, thinking outside the box trying to keep yourself and your family above water and outside the sinking ship.”


(As if Fitch didn’t have *enough* douchebags trying to get photos with him in public. / Props: Getty)

The past year hasn’t been easy for former perennial welterweight title contender Jon Fitch. After a loss to Demian Maia, Fitch was still ranked by the UFC as one of the division’s very best, but that didn’t stop the promotion from firing him.

After being priced out of his job with the UFC, the top-ten ranked Fitch next fought and lost to Josh Burkman in his World Series of Fighting debut. Now, Fitch finds himself apparently unable to make ends meet through fighting alone and he has packed up his family and moved them from San Jose, California, to Syracuse, New York, to take a job at a mega-gym called Pacific Health Club.

“There are financial things to take into consideration — it’s a salaried job with guaranteed income and health benefits for my family,” Fitch told MMAFighting in a recent interview.

“Those are huge, really. Honestly, California is falling apart. The whole country’s kind of falling apart. But the cost of living here in California is ridiculous, and the taxation in California is ridiculous. I’m not sure it’s any better in New York yet, but I’ve got to start doing something, thinking outside the box trying to keep yourself and your family above water and outside the sinking ship.”

Fitch says that he’ll head up the mixed martial arts programs at the 90,000 square foot fitness center in upstate New York. “Just in my MMA section, we’ve got 8,000 square feet of mat space and two full-sized cages,” he said.

“It’s just a ridiculous facility, and that’s one of the reasons I made the move, just to take advantage of what they have going on up there. I’m running the MMA and grappling program, but I’m trying to start a fight team.”

The former Purdue wrestling team captain will still conduct his training camps at the American Kickboxing Academy gym in San Jose that he has helped build, and that helped build his career in return. Fitch next fights on October 26 in Florida against Marcelo Alfaya at WSOF 6.

What do you say, ‘Taters? Are you bummed out that a recently top-ten ranked fighter with one of the very best records in the history of the welterweight division has to travel the entire length of the country to take a civilian job at a gym in order to support his family? Or is cashing in on his reputation and building an MMA camp the best possible move for him at this point?

– Elias Cepeda

‘Glory 11? Exclusive: Five Questions With Kickboxing World Champion Tyrone Spong


(Photo via Glory/Tyrone Spong’s Facebook page)

By Elias Cepeda

Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.

CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?

Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.


(Photo via Glory/Tyrone Spong’s Facebook page)

By Elias Cepeda

Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.

CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?

Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.

CP: You fight this weekend in Glory — which has basically replaced K-1 as the biggest kickboxing organization in the world. Some of the very best kickboxers in the world fight there now, but the rules are far from real Muay Thai rules. Extended clinching isn’t allowed and elbows are not allowed, for example. Do you ever wish that the big kickboxing organizations, like K-1 before and Glory now, used real Muay Thai rules?

Spong: Yeah, I grew up training and fighting with those rules. I fought real Muay Thai fights with elbows and everything and did that at the highest level. I’ve been fighting Muay Thai since I was 18. I’ve been in Muay Thai main events since I was 18 years old.

CP: You have a rematch with Nathan Corbett this Saturday at Glory. (In their first fight in 2009, Corbett TKO’d Spong but then hit him once more after the ref stopped the fight. The fight result was then changed to a no contest.) You are obviously familiar with him. How do you characterize him as a fighter?

Spong: He’s very strong. Physically strong. And he’s experienced and so is able to put it all together well.

CP: After this fight, what’s next, another MMA fight or another kickboxing fight?

Spong: Well, we have to get through this fight first but I’m actually very active in boxing as well right now and I want to make my pro boxing debut before the year ends.

5 Things We Learned About Alexander Gustafsson From His ‘On the Brink’ UFC 165 Documentary [VIDEO]

(Props: YouTube.com/FOXSports. Part 2 is after the jump.)

In the wake of Alexander Gustafsson‘s epic title fight against Jon Jones at UFC 165, FOX Sports 1 has released a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary that follows Gustafsson through some intimate moments leading up to and following the bout. We also learned a few new things about the Swedish star. For example…

1. That ‘no-fuss’ look hair style of Gustafsson’s does indeed require some fuss

We won’t admit to being exactly jealous of Gustafsson’s no-effort-needed, scruff-buff style but..ok, we were getting a little jealous. It’s hard enough being an MMA fan while watching a Georges St. Pierre fight while all the female fans within view are fawning over him. Recently, it seemed that Gustafsson was starting to get the same treatment. I mean, what does a brother have to do to simply watch a fight without being reminded of how inadequate he is?

Anyway, early in the ‘On the Brink’ doc, we see Gustafsson painstakingly mold his hair in front of a large mirror and then ask his room mate if it looked alright. Wait, was this whole first point a little weird? I’m starting to think it made me look weird…Next point!

2. Alexander Gustafsson believes that Jon Jones is “insecure”

Gustafsson wasn’t much for trash talk leading up to the Jones fight but in this segment he seemed agitated by Jones’ attitude. Jones’s perceived arrogance is the result of fundamental insecurity, according to Alexander. “He is insecure,” Gus says. “He likes looking down on people. Some people don’t see that but I see that.”

3. Gustafsson doesn’t cut a ton of weight, apparently

As Gustafsson gets into a cab on the Thursday before UFC 165, he tells the driver that he has just nine pounds left to go. “I’m 214,” he says. Now, nine pounds of weight lost in one day would be a lot to you and me, but the light heavyweight division has been home to some of the most monstrous cuts in UFC history from guys like Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson who have reportedly showed up to fight weeks well over twenty pounds above the 205 pound limit.

4. After the final horn, Gustafsson didn’t believe that he would was going to win the decision


(Props: YouTube.com/FOXSports. Part 2 is after the jump.)

In the wake of Alexander Gustafsson‘s epic title fight against Jon Jones at UFC 165, FOX Sports 1 has released a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary that follows Gustafsson through some intimate moments leading up to and following the bout. We also learned a few new things about the Swedish star. For example…

1. That ‘no-fuss’ look hair style of Gustafsson’s does indeed require some fuss

We won’t admit to being exactly jealous of Gustafsson’s no-effort-needed, scruff-buff style but..ok, we were getting a little jealous. It’s hard enough being an MMA fan while watching a Georges St. Pierre fight while all the female fans within view are fawning over him. Recently, it seemed that Gustafsson was starting to get the same treatment. I mean, what does a brother have to do to simply watch a fight without being reminded of how inadequate he is?

Anyway, early in the ‘On the Brink’ doc, we see Gustafsson painstakingly mold his hair in front of a large mirror and then ask his room mate if it looked alright. Wait, was this whole first point a little weird? I’m starting to think it made me look weird…Next point!

2. Alexander Gustafsson believes that Jon Jones is “insecure”

Gustafsson wasn’t much for trash talk leading up to the Jones fight but in this segment he seemed agitated by Jones’ attitude. Jones’s perceived arrogance is the result of fundamental insecurity, according to Alexander. “He is insecure,” Gus says. “He likes looking down on people. Some people don’t see that but I see that.”

3. Gustafsson doesn’t cut a ton of weight, apparently

As Gustafsson gets into a cab on the Thursday before UFC 165, he tells the driver that he has just nine pounds left to go. “I’m 214,” he says. Now, nine pounds of weight lost in one day would be a lot to you and me, but the light heavyweight division has been home to some of the most monstrous cuts in UFC history from guys like Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson who have reportedly showed up to fight weeks well over twenty pounds above the 205 pound limit.

4. After the final horn, Gustafsson didn’t believe that he would was going to win the decision

In part two of ‘On the Brink,’ (below) Gustafsson admitted that, though he hoped they would announce his name, he believed that the fight had been too close for the judges to award it to him. Not that he didn’t believe he didn’t deserve to win, just that he didn’t think they judges would give it to him.

5. Gustafsson Knows Exactly How to Beat Jones the Next Time Out

Far from dejected, Gustafsson claims he knows how to take it to Jones even more convincingly in their assumed rematch. “We will fight again,” he says. “And next time we fight, I know exactly what I will do.”

– Elias Cepeda