Tag: quick quote

Michael Bisping Makes His Case As The Top Contender In The Middleweight Division

UFC middleweight Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (22-4) is looking to make a big statement as the No. 1 contender when he steps into the Octagon later this month versus Brian Stann at UFC 152. ‘The Count’ spoke to MMAWeekly Radio on Tuesday and made his case as the man to challenge UFC champ Anderson Silva. […]

Michael Bisping at the UFC 127 weigh-ins – Photo via UFC.com

UFC middleweight Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (22-4) is looking to make a big statement as the No. 1 contender when he steps into the Octagon later this month versus Brian Stann at UFC 152.

‘The Count’ spoke to MMAWeekly Radio on Tuesday and made his case as the man to challenge UFC champ Anderson Silva.

Breaking down the rest of the 185-lbs division, Bisping had this to say about Alan Belcher, Mark Munoz, Chris Weidman, Stann and himself.

“There’s Alan Belcher, who’s a decent talent, no pun intended…I don’t really see him vying for the title, or doing very well at all.”

“You’ve got Mark Munoz – Mark Munoz who I never really thought was that good anyways….Do I think he’s all that? No, I thought he was overhyped all the time.”

“Chris Weidman, I think he’s overhyped as well. Up until the point when he fought Demian Maia I had never heard of Chris Weidman before in my life because he had been fighting bums on the undercard.”

“Brian Stann, obviously I’m fighting him in 10 days, so we’ll see what’s up with that.”

“So who does that leave? Oh yeah, that leaves me,” Bisping stated.

UFC 152 takes place on September 22, 2012 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Bisping will meet Stann on the main card of the pay-per-view event.

WSOF President Ray Sefo Promises To Keep Fighters Busy

World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo has promised to keep fighters signed to the promotion busy fighting in their cage, and if it’s not possible, he’ll release them so they can go fight somewhere else. The question surfaced on Tuesday during an interview on “The MMA Hour with Mauro Ranallo” when it came to […]

World Series of Fighting president Ray Sefo – image via WSOF

World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo has promised to keep fighters signed to the promotion busy fighting in their cage, and if it’s not possible, he’ll release them so they can go fight somewhere else.

The question surfaced on Tuesday during an interview on “The MMA Hour with Mauro Ranallo” when it came to former WEC champ Miguel Torres, who is also contacted to the Texas based Titan Fighting Championship promotion.

This attitude towards fighters is quite the opposite from other promotions such as the Chicago based Bellator promotion, who is currently in a contract dispute with fighter Tyson Nam. Nam, signed with the promotion but never competed inside their cage, recently knocked out Bellator bantamweight champ Eduardo Dantas in Brazil at a Shooto Brazil 33 event.

“Our contracts are definitely exclusive. The only person who has a leeway in his contract is Miguel Torres because he has one fight left with Titan FC. We’ve had friendly discussions with them and they were really accommodating and helpful in the sense that we could sign Miguel and in return we would allow them to fight his last fight in his hometown. That’s the only exceptions we’ve made, because are contracts are exclusive. We’re going to keep our fighters busy and if we can’t, we’ll release them because we won’t hold them back from making money.”

WSOF will hold it’s first event on November 3rd in Las Vegas, which will be aired live on the NBC Sports network. The promotion is hoping to hold tournaments in the bantamweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions.

Also featured on the podcast was Renzo Gracie as well as Tuesday’s UFC 152 media conference call.

Frankie Edgar Wanted To Give The Fans The “Super Fight” They Wanted

Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (14-3-1) has stepped up to the plate as a replacement for an injured Erik Koch, and will make his featherweight debut versus 145-lbs title holder Jose Aldo next month in Brazil. The bout marks the first “super fight” booked by the UFC that fans and critics have been asking […]

Frankie Edgar

Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (14-3-1) has stepped up to the plate as a replacement for an injured Erik Koch, and will make his featherweight debut versus 145-lbs title holder Jose Aldo next month in Brazil.

The bout marks the first “super fight” booked by the UFC that fans and critics have been asking for.

Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz tells Sherdog.com Radio that is one of the reasons (full interview at 8:52) his fighter took the fight, to give the fans the “super fight” they’ve been wanting.

“Frankie fought B.J. Penn two times,” Abdel-Aziz explained. “Gray Maynard. He fought Ben Henderson, Sean Sherk. These are all big fights. These guys are all great champions or most of those guys were champions. We definitely think Jose Aldo’s a great champion also, but this is something Frankie’s been training for all his life. Frankie had Jose Aldo on the radar for a while. Frankie had been training for Aldo for a while.”

“Honestly, Frankie always looks for a big fight,” Abdel-Aziz said. “At this point in Frankie’s career, Frankie wants to fight the best. He was probably going to fight 145 one time and fight Aldo. … He said you know what? The UFC likes it, I like it. The fans want a superfight. Many superfights have been talked about, but nobody’s stepping up to the plate. Frankie said, ‘I’ll step to the plate and I’m going to give the fans what they want.’”

Edgar meets Aldo on October 13, 2012 in the main event of UFC 153 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Strikeforce Champ Ronda Rousey Putting Her Foot Down, ‘Cyborg’ Must Come To 135-Lbs

Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (6-0) is holding to her convictions when it comes to the contested weight limit that any bout between her and Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos would take place at. ‘Cyborg’ has asked for a 140-lbs catchweight bout, while Rousey insists that the former featherweight title holder come down to 135-lbs where […]

Strikeforce Champ Ronday Rousey – Photo by Rey Del Rio – FOXSports.com

Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (6-0) is holding to her convictions when it comes to the contested weight limit that any bout between her and Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos would take place at.

‘Cyborg’ has asked for a 140-lbs catchweight bout, while Rousey insists that the former featherweight title holder come down to 135-lbs where she is the champion.

Rousey explained her stance to MMAFighting.com on Monday, noting that ‘Cyborg’ has gotten away with “cheating” for a long time and that no one has ever “put their foot down” to protest the Brazilians actions.

Well the Strikeforce champ is doing just that, “because I can.”

“If you can make 145 [pounds] while you’re super juiced out, you can make 135 if you’re clean,” Rousey brashly declared.

“Cyborg has never had a fair fight. If you really look at it, she’s had fights where she came in and outweighed the other girl by 12 pounds and then they still fought. This girl has a long history of cheating and using drugs, and coming in overweight, and no one’s ever put their foot down ever about it.

“If we did a catchweight of 140, I 100-percent think she’d just come in overweight and be like, ‘Whatever, come fight me.’ Want to know why? Because she’s done it several times before. She has a track record of doing these things. This girl does things that are blatantly disrespectful to her opponents, over and over and over her whole career. Someone needs to put their foot down about it. So, yeah, I’m going to be the one that has to do it because I can.”

Rousey is coming off a 54-second submission victory over Sarah Kaufman last month in San Diego, and will likely face the winner of this November’s women’s bantamweight bout featuring Olympic Wrestling Silver medalist Sara McMann versus Liz ‘Girl-Rilla’ Carmouche.

Despite Meteoric Rise To The Top, Bellator Champ Michal Chandler Still Looking To Improve

With four victories inside the Bellator cage in 2011 including capturing the promotions lightweight title, former NCAA Division I wrestler Michal Chandler (10-0) has seen his star rise from relative obscurity, to one of the worlds top ten ranked 155-lb fighters. With an unblemished record and a world title around his waist, one might think […]

Michael Chandler defeats Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 58

With four victories inside the Bellator cage in 2011 including capturing the promotions lightweight title, former NCAA Division I wrestler Michal Chandler (10-0) has seen his star rise from relative obscurity, to one of the worlds top ten ranked 155-lb fighters.

With an unblemished record and a world title around his waist, one might think that the Bellator champ might look to perfect what got him to the top, but the former University of Missouri wrestler tells MMAFighting.com that after only “Three years into this sport. I just want to get better.”

“I wasn’t supposed to beat (Eddie) Alvarez on paper. I wasn’t supposed to beat Pitbull (Patricky Freire) either. But you have to go out and lay it on line. You have to perform like you train and like you see yourself. I saw myself as a champion. It’s not that I’m cocky or arrogant, but that I believe I was put in this sport for a reason. This was another stepping stone to get to where I want to be.”

“I see myself as a champ, a guy who makes the right decisions and is working his butt off to be No. 1 in the world,” he said. “For, me, the rankings don’t matter. It’s me vs. another man in the cage. There are 1,000 ways to win and 1,000 ways to lose. There are no reasons for me to listen to the naysayers or even the people who are pumping me up. I’m only three years into this sport. I just want to get better.”

Chandler beat former champ Eddie Alvarez last November at Bellator 58 to capture the title, and then went on to beat Akihiro Gono via first round TKO at Bellator 67 in a non-title match this past May.

The lightweight champ will defend his title against Rick Hawn this fall and then take on the Bellator Season Seven tournament champion after that.

Miguel Torres Happy To Work For A Fighter Who “Understands What I’m Going Through”

Former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres (40-5) has found himself a new home under the World Series of Fighting promotion, and will headline the promotions first show on November 3rd. Torres made his decision to sign with the untested WSOF promotion based on the experience of the companies president, Ray Sefo, as a fighter. Feeling […]

Former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres (40-5) has found himself a new home under the World Series of Fighting promotion, and will headline the promotions first show on November 3rd.

Torres made his decision to sign with the untested WSOF promotion based on the experience of the companies president, Ray Sefo, as a fighter. Feeling that Sefo is someone who “understands what I’m going through, where I’m coming from, and who I am as a person and as a fighter.”

The inaugural WSOF event will air on the NBC Sports Network and will take place on Nov. 3 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“There were other organizations that were established already that had different things going on. But for me to be in a start-up organization on NBC, to me it made sense,” Torres said. “I helped build the WEC, I was in the UFC and I fought all over the Midwest.

“But I never fought for a guy who was not just a fighter, but one of the best fighters in the world. In my deciding factors, that was one of the big selling points for me. He understands what I’m going through, where I’m coming from, and who I am as a person and as a fighter.”

….

“I knew what I was getting into from the beginning. That was one of the main things they told me. We’re getting picked up by NBC Sports, it’s gonna be a huge thing,” Torres said.

“It’s not a league that will be here and gone in a day or two. We’re gonna do big things and they need guys who can help carry them on their back. I believe I’m one of those guys.”

Torres was released from the UFC, for a second time, following a first round knockout loss to Michael McDonald at UFC 145 this past April. He was released last December following a controversial Tweet regarding a “rape van.”

‘Sugar’ Ray Sefo is a former K-1 kickboxer (56-21-1) who competed as late as this past March in Croatia versus Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic, losing a decision to the former PRIDE champ. Sefo has competed in mixed martial arts going 2-1, with his last match coming in February 2011 with a submission loss to Valentijn Overeem.

Read more of Torres WSOF press conference comments at MMAFighting.com.