Tag: quick quote

Coming off a career revitilizing win at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 11 over Aaron Simpson and taking home KO of the night bonus honors, UFC middleweight Chris Leben is stepping into the gap left by the injured Wanderlei Silva and will fight Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116. Leben will have basically two weeks to prepare, but should still be in fight condition for Akiyama who should be a solid test, though Leben doesn’t seem to think so. Leben recently talked to FiveKnuckles.com about his upcoming fight, and he doesn’t seem too worried:

“I don’t know a ton about Akiyama. My coach knows a bunch, but we haven’t even had a chance to talk much about our game plan. I saw him fight Alan Belcher and to be honest with you, I thought he lost that fight. He’s a good Judo guy, he’s got great Judo, fast kicks, maybe not the most power in the world. He’s a little bit shorter than me but he’s a good strong guy. I think that utilizing my skills, keeping it on the feet and clubbing him in the head with my left shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

UFC 116 is set for July 3 and will feature a collossal heavyweight matchup between champions Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. While the star power has dropped with the loss of The Axe Murderer the card still looks to be quite entertaining and The MMA News will carry complete coverage of UFC 116.

Contrary to what some sources are reporting UFC Hall of Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture did not go to Minnesota to coach UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. He did, as was obvious by the Youtube video we posted, go there to help the former WWE wrestler train for his upcoming bout against Shane Carwin. Confused? Here’s Couture’s take via Sherdog:

“I think the whole reason I went out there was to see what they’re doing in their camp, what their strength and conditioning is like, what kind of partners and situations is he putting himself in to face another wrestler in Carwin… It wasn’t about me going out there and training him or feeling like I’m going to contribute to helping him beat Carwin or any of that. None of that went on…Obviously, there was some technical adjustments that could be made, but I wasn’t there to be a coach. I was there to be a workout partner.”

In the article Couture also talks about Lesnar’s health, saying that the fighter is certainly 100 percent and that he may be more technically better than before. That’s not good news for Carwin, but this matchup should be great. The MMA News will carry live coverage of the July 3 UFC 116 with all the pre and post news you expect.

UFC Interim Heavyweight champion Shane Carwin is certainly one of the most humble and open fighters in mixed martial arts today, and he continued to speak openly via his blog at ShaneCarwin.com. Carwin took a moment to speak about his pay, and how it’s changed his life as well as his urge to get paid part of the PPV proceeds.

As for the money side of things. I wont lie and say I wish I was getting a piece of this PPV. Of course I want that, so does every other fighter on the card that is not. I love to fight but I would love to fight for millions of dollars. Who wouldn’t want to be paid millions of dollars for doing what they love (aside from that girl in Twilight)? But, I am not fighting for the money. If I was I would have checked out of this sport LONG ago. This is not the NFL and there is no league minimums. You eat what you kill and that is all. I have a great team making sure that I have plenty of game to hunt. I am not dependent upon fighting Brock to cash out. I am making more off of being a fighter than I could ever have imagined. I regularly make calls to my manager thanking him for “changing my families life”. I have been blessed by MMA, most of the MMA media, the fans, and even the haters and for that I am forever grateful. For those of you reporting I am only making $50,000 for this fight and that is the reason behind my limiting media, please get your facts right it is $80,000 ($40 to show and $40 to win) plus you have to factor in my generous sponsors (THANKS) and the KO and FOTN bonus that will be awarded to me on July 3rd. I would have done it for less, I love competing and testing myself.

Carwin also addresses his issues with the media, and his current media blackout as he prepares to take on UFC Heavywieght champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 116 on July 3rd.

You knew it wasn’t going to be long before UFC president Dana White had something to say concerning top heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko and his recent comments about the UFC. MMAJunkie recently did a great interview with White, and here’s his take on Fedor as it pertains to being signed:

“I’ve signed Brock Lesnar, who came from the WWE, James Toney from boxing – he’s a nut chasing me all over the place – Tito Ortiz, whom I hated, and he hated me. I signed him twice when we hated each other. I’ve kept Chuck Liddell, kept Matt Hughes, kept Rich Franklin, when they were all champions. Anderson Silva, I’ve dealt with all the crazy [expletive] with him.

“But I can’t sign Fedor? How is this possible that I can’t sign this guy? It’s not possible. These guys don’t want to fight the best in the world.”

The entire interview is quite interesting, epecially where White talks about the amount of tickets sold for the upcoming Fedor vs. Werdum card. Will Fedor ever end up in the UFC, or will he retire before that even becomes an option? Only time will tell.