With how much he’s complained about everything from money, to respect to the way his opponents fight, combined with all the jerky things he’s done in recent years (take. your. pick), it can be difficult to remember that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is an all-time great and future hall of famer. A humble and touching interview that he gave to Fuel TV after losing a decision to Glover Teixeira in Chicago at the UFC on Fox makes it easier to appreciate Quinton as the hard fighting, fan-friendly guy that he has been for so long.
The interview also makes us worry for him a bit. First, the good things.
Jackson gave his opponent credit for beating him without making silly excuses. “Glover was just the better man tonight,” Jackson said.
“Glover did what he had to do. He took it to me standing up and he took me down a few times. He did what he had to do to win…Fighters like Glover is what makes MMA.”
With how much he’s complained about everything from money, to respect to the way his opponents fight, combined with all the jerky things he’s done in recent years (take. your. pick), it can be difficult to remember that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is an all-time great and future hall of famer. A humble and touching interview that he gave to Fuel TV after losing a decision to Glover Teixeira in Chicago at the UFC on Fox makes it easier to appreciate Quinton as the hard fighting, fan-friendly guy that he has been for so long.
The interview also makes us worry for him a bit. First, the good things.
Jackson gave his opponent credit for beating him without making silly excuses. “Glover was just the better man tonight,” Jackson said.
“Glover did what he had to do. He took it to me standing up and he took me down a few times. He did what he had to do to win…Fighters like Glover is what makes MMA.”
Jackson also said that his body felt great during the fight and didn’t blame his coaches for the loss. He was sullen but honest with his audience and himself, it seemed.
“Its hard to swallow when you get your ass kicked but its part of the job,” he said.
And fighting is a job that Jackson says that he still has a desire to hold. “I still want to fight. Its still in my heart,” the former champ said.
The fighter openly expressed doubt as to whether, thirteen years into a legendary career, he could still compete with “the top-level people anymore.” Usually when a competitor realizes this, it is a good time to walk away and retire.
Self-doubt and diminishing returns do not make for safe and graceful career endings. Jackson said that he still wants to fight, but may have to just be rolled out for one-off fights, for entertainment.
“I think I just have to listen to my reality and see,” he said. “I’ve been fighting for thirteen years, the game has changed a lot and maybe I’ll just be one of those fighters that comes and excites the crowd – be like Gary Goodridge, one of those guys that comes and puts on a great show. Gary Goodridge is a great ambassador for our sport.”
Goodridge is a warrior and indeed a fantastic ambassador for MMA and sports in general. He is also a cautionary tale.
Goodridge, still just a young man, is already suffering through the effects of serious brain damage sustained over the course of a fighting career that he extended on for too long. Promoters will always be willing to give cash to exciting, great fighters like Jackson and Goodridge but hopefully “Rampage” doesn’t walk willfully into exploitative situations like he seems content to do.
What do you make of Jackson’s fight Saturday and his interview above, nation?
Before Clay Guida was a UFC star, appearing on television screens all across the world, he fought constantly in the U.S. Midwestern regional circuit. Often, he fought multiple times per month. He was a lightweight and the UFC didn’t even have a lightweight division at the time, to say nothing of the three divisions below it that they have since added. Clay fought in halls, bars — anywhere there was a tough guy and a crowd, really. His locker rooms were sometimes bathrooms and closets.
It was small-time, but the energy in those halls and bars would spike when Guida came out to fight. He was a spastic ball of energy from his walk to the cage and on through the fights themselves, and Clay built a fan-base in the area that raucously cheered for him and rabidly followed him.
On local MMA shows, fighters get paid very little, if anything, to fight. Promoters use the fighters to sell tickets, however, and then give a small percentage of the sales back to the fighters. Matchmaking at this level often takes who can sell tickets into heavy consideration. Clay sold a lot of tickets. And he didn’t exactly have a personal assistant or PR team to help him handle the transactions. Back in the day, Clay would hock tickets while training for fights, weigh in, show up on fight night, and then combine warming up with getting tickets to those of his friends and family that needed them.
Since joining the UFC in 2006, Clay has moved beyond fighting in smoky suburban Chicago rooms, but his fans often follow him around the country and world for his fights. If it wasn’t for the amount of work he puts in at the gym that reveals how serious he takes his job, you’d think life is just one big party for Guida. He enjoys having loved ones around him, and the more people that come out to support him, the better, because it makes the celebration afterwards that much more fun.
That said, all the attention and work that goes along with taking care of friends and fans can take a toll on a fighter and affect their energy and focus. There’s always another request for the fighter to fulfill as he prepares for battle, always another favor for him to do. As best as can be observed, Guida does all that he can with a smile on his face. He knew, however, that if he held his training camp back home because he was scheduled to fight in Chicago this Saturday at UFC on Fox 6, it would be a mess. Instead, Guida chose to stay in New Mexico and keep his camp there at Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn’s gym as he has the past few years.
“That’s why we’re out here in New Mexico,” Guida told CagePotato last week. “We’ve really got to focus. I love everyone back home and we’re going to have a great time there during the fight, but training camp needs to be just about preparing.”
Before Clay Guida was a UFC star, appearing on television screens all across the world, he fought constantly in the U.S. Midwestern regional circuit. Often, he fought multiple times per month. He was a lightweight and the UFC didn’t even have a lightweight division at the time, to say nothing of the three divisions below it that they have since added. Clay fought in halls, bars — anywhere there was a tough guy and a crowd, really. His locker rooms were sometimes bathrooms and closets.
It was small-time, but the energy in those halls and bars would spike when Guida came out to fight. He was a spastic ball of energy from his walk to the cage and on through the fights themselves, and Clay built a fan-base in the area that raucously cheered for him and rabidly followed him.
On local MMA shows, fighters get paid very little, if anything, to fight. Promoters use the fighters to sell tickets, however, and then give a small percentage of the sales back to the fighters. Matchmaking at this level often takes who can sell tickets into heavy consideration. Clay sold a lot of tickets. And he didn’t exactly have a personal assistant or PR team to help him handle the transactions. Back in the day, Clay would hock tickets while training for fights, weigh in, show up on fight night, and then combine warming up with getting tickets to those of his friends and family that needed them.
Since joining the UFC in 2006, Clay has moved beyond fighting in smoky suburban Chicago rooms, but his fans often follow him around the country and world for his fights. If it wasn’t for the amount of work he puts in at the gym that reveals how serious he takes his job, you’d think life is just one big party for Guida. He enjoys having loved ones around him, and the more people that come out to support him, the better, because it makes the celebration afterwards that much more fun.
That said, all the attention and work that goes along with taking care of friends and fans can take a toll on a fighter and affect their energy and focus. There’s always another request for the fighter to fulfill as he prepares for battle, always another favor for him to do. As best as can be observed, Guida does all that he can with a smile on his face. He knew, however, that if he held his training camp back home because he was scheduled to fight in Chicago this Saturday at UFC on Fox 6, it would be a mess. Instead, Guida chose to stay in New Mexico and keep his camp there at Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn’s gym as he has the past few years.
“That’s why we’re out here in New Mexico,” Guida told CagePotato last week. “We’ve really got to focus. I love everyone back home and we’re going to have a great time there during the fight, but training camp needs to be just about preparing.”
That Guida told us this while sitting in a desert, adds credibility to the idea that he’s committed to doing whatever it takes to become a champion. So is the drop in weight that he’s attempting for his fight against Hatsu Hioki on Saturday.
Guida has campaigned at 155 pounds for his entire career, despite being one of the smallest in the division. Coming off of two close decision losses to Gray Maynard and Benson Henderson — as good as it gets in the world at lightweight — Guida decided to lose ten pounds and try featherweight on for size.
“We want to see how it goes at 145,” Guida said.
The fighter seems to have a similar attitude as that of former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar when it comes to dropping down to featherweight. Edgar and Guida both walked around just a few pounds over the lightweight limit, while fighters like Maynard and Henderson reportedly push 190 pounds in between fights.
For years, everyone in the world but Edgar thought he should at least move down to featherweight, to get the chance to compete against men more his own size. “The Answer” didn’t like the idea, considering featherweight a demotion of sorts, before ultimately accepting a title fight against 145 pound champ Jose Aldo.
“I definitely see where Frankie was coming from” Guida sympathized. “He is one of the very best in the world at lightweight. People told him to drop down because he was small but why should he, if he’s doing so well at 155?”
Guida had to be convinced, and perhaps still needs to be, that featherweight was a better weight for him. His loss to Henderson was close, and the split-decision loss to Maynard was even narrower, so no one can blame “The Carpenter” for thinking he can still do good work at 155 pounds. Nevertheless, Guida is on a two-fight losing streak and might have a long time to go before getting rematches with the likes of Bendo and Maynard. So, he chose to diet and test the featherweight waters.
As a lightweight Guida didn’t care too much about how he ate because he burned up all the fat training like a maniac. “I would go get tacos and sushi after practice and then do it all again at night,” Guida remembered. “I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.”
To prepare for featherweight and Hioki, Guida has hired a nutrition coach and has only eaten with a purpose. For the past months, Clay has only put in good things and kept out anything unnecessary.
The result, he says, is pounds dropped without sacrificing strength and energy. “I didn’t want to drop to featherweight just by cutting water weight the day before the fight. We’ve been getting down in weight through diet. And I think I’m still as strong as I was before,” he said. “At least that’s what my training partners are telling me.”
Guida says that even though he’s stayed away from Chicago to prep for this fight, he’s eager to get out on the same floor that his beloved Bulls and Hawks play on at The United Center and party with his Second City family. Fans that have grown accustomed to Guida bouncing, screaming, and singing his way to the UFC Octagon before fights can expect the hometown hero to be extra hyped Saturday night.
“If they thought I was excited during my past walk-ins, wait until Saturday in Chicago,” Clay promised.
With how often former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal talks about money, one might think it is his only motivation. He can go on and on about how cash motivates him during fights and how he invests wisely so as not to have to depend solely on professional fighting for income.
Lawal’s financial focus fits in well with the namesake of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, where Lawal does much of his training these days. (San Jose, CA, the home of the American Kickboxing Academy where he has previously trained during fight camps, got “too expensive,” according to Mo.) But just as with Floyd Mayweather Jr., there is a lot more substance behind the former wrestler’s style and talk.
The fighter known as “King Mo” has not been able to fight professionally for over a year because of a suspension stemming from a positive steroid test after his last fight against Lorenz Larkin. So, for the past year Mo has not gotten paid a red cent to fight — yet he says his motivation to train hard never waned.
“I never had a problem [staying motivated]. Never,” he tells CagePotato. “I love being in the gym, I love working out. My mind is always on fighting of some sort.”
With how often former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal talks about money, one might think it is his only motivation. He can go on and on about how cash motivates him during fights and how he invests wisely so as not to have to depend solely on professional fighting for income.
Lawal’s financial focus fits in well with the namesake of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, where Lawal does much of his training these days. (San Jose, CA, the home of the American Kickboxing Academy where he has previously trained during fight camps, got “too expensive,” according to Mo.) But just as with Floyd Mayweather Jr., there is a lot more substance behind the former wrestler’s style and talk.
The fighter known as “King Mo” has not been able to fight professionally for over a year because of a suspension stemming from a positive steroid test after his last fight against Lorenz Larkin. So, for the past year Mo has not gotten paid a red cent to fight — yet he says his motivation to train hard never waned.
“I never had a problem [staying motivated]. Never,” he tells CagePotato. “I love being in the gym, I love working out. My mind is always on fighting of some sort.”
Take, for example, a month-long training trip that Lawal took to Holland. “I just wanted to test myself,” he remembers.
“It was tough, man. I was up every day at 5:30, training by 7. We did that until 11:30 every morning and then came back at 6. We did pads, partner drills, sparring, ground and pound drills, conditioning,” Mo details.
The former collegiate and international wrestling standout says that because grappling comes more easily to him, he wanted to do intensive striking work. He chose Holland over Thailand to train Muay Thai kickboxing because, for one, the Dutch style is considered better for larger fighters, and also because he had friends like Melvin Manhoef who could ensure he’d get quality instruction.
“In Thailand they’ve just got a guy holding pads yelling at you, ‘Harder! More! Faster!’ You don’t get no technical training out there. They just want to get paid.”
In Holland, Mo found himself being taught and pushed each day during strenuous training. To underscore the rigor, he remembers the day Japanese heavyweight prospect and former Olympic champion Satoshi Ishii walked into the gym.
“Ishii showed up one day. We sparred for an hour,” Lawal recounts. “He never showed up again after that. It’s hard training. Melvin [Manhoef] and I did 15-20 rounds out there. The guys are very good out there.”
In earlier years of MMA, it seemed that top practitioners from different styles, like wrestling or Brazilian jiu Jitsu, were reluctant to put in time to learn other styles. Lawal says he loves to stay in the gym year-round and also loves to turn his weaknesses into his strengths.
“I always enjoy other disciplines because I like to learn and I like to improve,” he says. “I like doing everything because you never know who you will have to face.”
The next man Lawal will face is Przemyslaw Mysiala at tonight’s Bellator 86: Askren vs. Amoussou card on Spike, and his attitude should serve him well in his new promotional home. Mo’s fight against Mysiala is part of this season’s light-heavyweight tournament, and if he is to advance through and win, he’ll have to fight about once a month.
The pace is breakneck for MMA, and pretty much un-matched outside of Bellator. Mo says that his wrestling experience, where he’d have to compete in tournaments on a weekly basis at times, prepares him well for this new fighting challenge.
“I guess so,” he chuckles. “It’s going to have to. I plan to go out there, get the knockouts and come out as healthy as possible. If I get injured, I’ll keep on fighting, because that’s how I am.”
His extensive, high-level, amateur wrestling experience has also helped Lawal deal with the pressure of fighting in a cage. The psychological and physical grind of professional MMA is nothing compared to amateur wrestling, according to Mo.
“I started wrestling when I was sixteen. The goal from that point on was to be an Olympic champion,” he explains.
The pressure he put on himself to succeed in wrestling far surpasses any that he places on his shoulders now as a fighter. Plus, the guaranteed pay is much better now than it was as an international amateur wrestler.
In terms of the physical toll competition takes, don’t let the punches and kicks of MMA fool you, Lawal says. Wrestling in a tournament is its own formidable meat grinder.
“Compared to amateur wrestling, MMA is a lot easier,” he maintains.
“These punches don’t hurt. These knees don’t hurt. Leg kicks hurt the next day. You go out there and do a wrestling tournament you’ll feel like you just went through a fight. That’s how it feels. You’ve got an Iranian in the first round, a Cuban the next round. Then you’ve got a guy from Azerbaijan after that and a Russians in the final. You are out there scrapping.”
(“Why yes, Dana, the blonde gentleman in the lower left *is* my doctor. What of it?”)
The Sam and Diane relationship between Josh Barnett and the UFC continues to forge ahead, Potato Nation. Fortunately, we have more than an outdated UFC.com profile to go with this time. During the media scrum following the UFC 158 press conference earlier today, Dana White was questioned by MMAMania about the likelihood of seeing “The Warmaster” back in the octagon, and the UFC President was surprisingly optimistic:
I have not (spoken with Barnett). It’s probably going to happen.
There you have it; absolute and undeniable proof that Barnett is back, baby. And here you thought we were just tugging your respective dicks this whole time. Shame on you.
(“Why yes, Dana, the blonde gentleman in the lower left *is* my doctor. What of it?”)
The Sam and Diane relationship between Josh Barnett and the UFC continues to forge ahead, Potato Nation. Fortunately, we have more than an outdated UFC.com profile to go with this time. During the media scrum following the UFC 158 press conference earlier today, Dana White was questioned by MMAMania about the likelihood of seeing “The Warmaster” back in the octagon, and the UFC President was surprisingly optimistic:
I have not (spoken with Barnett). It’s probably going to happen.
There you have it; absolute and undeniable proof that Barnett is back, baby. And here you thought we were just tugging your respective dicks this whole time. Shame on you.
On a serious note, bringing Barnett back to the UFC despite his past transgressions seems like a good move by the promotion for a multitude of reasons. There is surely a great amount of risk involved in the deal, but consistently entertaining upper echelon heavyweights like Barnett are not exactly a common occurrence in MMA. Throw in his marketability, experience, business savvy, etc. and there’s no way the UFC can turn him down. That being said, expect Barnett to take a decent sized pay cut should he sign with Zuffa, because there is no way in hell they will be paying him 250k to show.
Plus, Barnett seems to have finally smartened up with the whole “steroid” thing that saw him stripped of his newly-earned Heavyweight title at UFC 36 (Author’s note: Well, there was also that time he killed Affliction, but just go with me here), so at least some of Dana’s concerns should be quelled for the time being. That, or Barnett’s just found some next-level shit that no test can detect yet. In either case, if Dana can so easily forgive Overeem, Diaz, and Sonnen for their personal issues in the past, he should be able to do the same with Barnett. But only time will tell, of course.
In the meantime, let’s put on our matchmaker pants and get to work. Who would you like to see Barnett paired up with first should he actually make it over to the UFC?
(And when I say “bitch,” I mean it in the politest sense of the word possible.)
*takes a seat in rocking chair, lights up corn cob pipe*
You know, kids, there used to be a time when words like “retirement,” “marriage,” and “my totally real dead girlfriend” used to mean something. Perhaps it was just a simpler time back then, but when a man (or a woman that had somehow shoehorned her way into an office environment) gathered his co-employees around and announced that he was hanging it up, it was meant to be permanent. Bill Russell never came back. Vince Lombardi never came back. Pete Maravich tried to come back and dropped dead on the spot. Retirement was supposed to be a one way street, paved with early bird discounts, cheap medications, and eventually death. Sweet, sweet death. But then Muhammed Ali had to go and ruin everything.
*sets down pipe to chase Jehovah’s Witnesses down sidewalk*
In the past couple years, we’ve seen such notable fighters as Jamie Varner, Matt Hamill, and Chris Lytle announce their retirement from MMA. Of those three, the first two have already returned to the sport, and the latter has suggested that he would fight again under the right circumstances. And now, you can add UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz to the list of fighters who feel they might have called it a career a bit early. In an interview with BloodyElbow, Ortiz stated that he would be open to the idea of coming out of retirement, but only once all of the injuries that have plagued his MMA career since ever were finally dealt with:
Right now, I’m only four weeks out of neck surgery, and then I have to get the ACL surgery. I still need to recover from that before I start thinking about anything, and if I’ll compete again. You never know, I may come out of retirement. It’s all about how my body recovers.
(And when I say “bitch,” I mean it in the politest sense of the word possible.)
*takes a seat in rocking chair, lights up corn cob pipe*
You know, kids, there used to be a time when words like “retirement,” “marriage,” and “my totally real dead girlfriend” used to mean something. Perhaps it was just a simpler time back then, but when a man (or a woman that had somehow shoehorned her way into an office environment) gathered his co-employees around and announced that he was hanging it up, it was meant to be permanent. Bill Russell never came back. Vince Lombardi never came back. Pete Maravich tried to come back and dropped dead on the spot. Retirement was supposed to be a one way street, paved with early bird discounts, cheap medications, and eventually death. Sweet, sweet death. But then Muhammed Ali had to go and ruin everything.
*sets down pipe to chase Jehovah’s Witnesses down sidewalk*
In the past couple years, we’ve seen such notable fighters as Jamie Varner, Matt Hamill, and Chris Lytle announce their retirement from MMA. Of those three, the first two have already returned to the sport, and the latter has suggested that he would fight again under the right circumstances. And now, you can add UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz to the list of fighters who feel they might have called it a career a bit early. In an interview with BloodyElbow, Ortiz stated that he would be open to the idea of coming out of retirement, but only once all of the injuries that have plagued his MMA career since ever were finally dealt with:
Right now, I’m only four weeks out of neck surgery, and then I have to get the ACL surgery. I still need to recover from that before I start thinking about anything, and if I’ll compete again. You never know, I may come out of retirement. It’s all about how my body recovers.
Having collected just one win in the past six years, it’s safe to say that Ortiz has yet to come to the conclusion that his buddy and fellow UFC HOFer Chuck Liddell has: It’s not a question of whether you still want to compete or not, it’s a question of whether you still can. And for a guy who exaggerates his injuries as bad as Ortiz does, it would be best to assume that the former LHW champ is being optimistic over realistic here. This notion would be driven home when Ortiz declared that he would come out of retirement “without hesitation” to fight, you guessed it, Frank Stallone Shamrock, the notorious UFC castaway who punched Ortiz into submission way back at UFC 22. On my personal list of fantasy fights, that rematch is just below Michael Bisping vs. Fedor on Zeus’ shoulders, and they can both punch but only Zeus can kick.
Of course, Ortiz didn’t state outright that he planned on coming out of retirement, and in fact seemed to be leaning towards the opposite. Mainly, towards that of his budding career in fighter management, which has already gotten off to a great start:
Right now, the number one priority for me is to run my businesses. I want to show that I’m a great businessman. I’ve shown that through my clothing company, and now I want to focus on my management company. I want to focus on my family and give my children all the things that I never had. Right now, the chances of me coming out of retirement are about 1 in a million.
I’m sick of surgeries. I don’t want to have to worry about possibly getting paralyzed or sustaining some lifelong injury. I have three kids I have to take care of. I have a family to take care of. That’s the number one thing in my life. I was able to make a lot of money with the UFC, and I’m so thankful to them for that. I worked very hard to get to where I am today, and I just want to be the father that I never had growing up.
Oh, Tito, you sly dog you. First you tell us it’s just a matter of some nagging injuries needing to be addressed, and now all of a sudden you’ve got this “family” and these “health concerns” to worry about? Well, you’ll excuse me, but I ain’t buying it. Start the twitter-bombing campaign now, Potato Nation: ORTIZ vs. (Frank) SHAMROCK II at UFC 157!! WHO’S WITH ME?!
In either case, Sonnen recently appeared on his favorite venue for trolling the MMA world, The Jim Rome Show, and picked up where he left off in regards to the now disgraced cyclist, even delving into how Armstrong had threatened to sue him for his statements at one point:
Why are they calling him a bully? That’s what I can’t wrap my mind brain around. Lance is a dweeb, the only thing he’s missing is the tape on the glasses and the high water pants. That guy couldn’t get respect at the local Honky Tonk in my hometown. He threatened to sue me so I threatened to kick his ass and the whole thing went away.
In either case, Sonnen recently appeared on his favorite venue for trolling the MMA world, The Jim Rome Show, and picked up where he left off in regards to the now disgraced cyclist, even delving into how Armstrong had threatened to sue him for his statements at one point:
Why are they calling him a bully? That’s what I can’t wrap my mind brain around. Lance is a dweeb, the only thing he’s missing is the tape on the glasses and the high water pants. That guy couldn’t get respect at the local Honky Tonk in my hometown. He threatened to sue me so I threatened to kick his ass and the whole thing went away.
Look, I get it and I’m kidding but Lance did do some bad stuff and he was a jerk about it. Yeah, he hit me up with the whole ‘I’m gonna sue you’ routine and I hit him back with the whole ‘I’ll kick your ass’ routine. That’s it, that’s where it ended. I thought he was going to go through with the lawsuit but he did not.
So there you have it, Potato Nation: Oregon is apparently such a backwards, underdeveloped state that it still has local Honky Tonks at which the townspeople must throw down to earn respect. That’s what we were supposed to take away from this, right?
You can listen to Sonnen’s entire interview here, and we’d highly recommend it. Sonnen barely lets Rome get the introduction out of the way before he starts attacking Armstrong for using PED’s “to do something that my six year-old niece does up and down the driveway every day,” and it only gets more entertaining from there.
Hopefully the 17th season (!!!) premiere of The Ultimate Fighter tonight won’t absolutely suck, because Sonnen has simply put too much effort into his convoluted attempts at hyping the season up to let it go unnoticed.
