Tag: quick quote

Bellator Bantamweight Chase Beebe Wants Rematch With Joe Warren, But Will Have To Defeat Marcos Galvao First

Tweet Bellator Fighting Championships is set to kick off it’s Season Five Bantamweight Tournament this Saturday night in Ohio as eight very tough 135 lb fighters vie for the $100,000 prize, and a shot at the title against Zach Makovsky. Bellator 51 is scheduled to take place on Sept. 23 at the Canton Memorial Civic […]

Bellator Fighting Championships is set to kick off it’s Season Five Bantamweight Tournament this Saturday night in Ohio as eight very tough 135 lb fighters vie for the $100,000 prize, and a shot at the title against Zach Makovsky.

Bellator 51 is scheduled to take place on Sept. 23 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio with the main card airing live on MTV2 and the prelim card streaming live on Spike.com.

One of those bantamweight tournament fighters is former WEC bantamweight champ Chase Beebe (19-7), who is looking at a chance to show the world that he is one of the top fighters at 135 lbs.

Beebe is currently set to face Brazilian fighter, and BJJ black belt, Marcos Galvao in the opening quarterfinal round, but it’s fellow tournament fighter Joe Warren who Beebe has his eyes on.

Speaking to MMAMania.com, Beebe had this to say about both fighters.

You fought (Joe Warren) before in Japan and he beat you during your rough stretch. How much would it mean to you to get a chance to redeem yourself and fight him again?
Chase Beebe: Obviously, you can’t understand as a fighter, but my competitive spirit is so intense and it just grows more intense the older I get. Man, I’ve been counting down the days until I can redeem myself against him. I hate excuses, but for that fight with Warren I didn’t know there was a 10 minute first round until the day before the fight and if you watch that fight I was doing real well against him, kinda beating him up pretty good for the first seven minutes and he didn’t even come close to taking me down. I actually took him down twice and took his back briefly. He got really lucky in that one to be honest with you because he caught me with a knee in the last 20 seconds and in Japan they don’t allow you to use Vaseline because they want more submissions and he just barely grazed me.

That was extremely embarrassing. It really opened my eyes when I came home and my mom looked at it, she more made me show her and the plane ride made the swelling all the worse and it was just a great lesson to take away. I’ve taken away a lot of lessons in my career and no lessons are greater than losses. You can beat 100 guys in a row and one loss will give you more experience and more to learn from than any of that. Every time I lose I’m right back in the gym the next day training my butt off 10 times as hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Since that happened three years ago, I’ve been busting my butt and I want to show him that not only have I worked harder, but I’ve worked more intelligently due to my experience. I believe I’m more well-rounded than anybody in my weight class in the world. I can take anybody down and I can’t wait to outwrestle Joe Warren. I want to beat him in every aspect. It’s all words until I do it. I’m stoked man. I can’t wait for that fight. It’ll be the accumulation of a lot of hard work.

And before you get a chance to potentially fight Joe Warren, you’ve got to get through Marcos Galvao, a guy that a lot of people, including myself, thought he beat Joe in that superfight earlier this year. What are your thoughts on Galvao?
Chase Beebe: A lot of people have seen his fights in the WEC but he’s been looking far more impressive as of late. I’ve actually been training with some guys at Jackson’s and I’ve got some inside word that Galvao’s out there training with Jose Aldo. He’s looking tough and he looked good against Warren but, like I told the Bellator production guys, I wasn’t as impressed with Galvao as I was unimpressed with Joe Warren. I’m not saying that to be disrespectful in any way but I think Warren just tried to force things on him and didn’t have any respect for his game. He put himself in compromising positions. I remember thinking that Galvao definitely won that fight. It’s a great first match for me to make a statement. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t care if I fight the best in the tournament first or the worst. I’m gonna have to fight the to guys anyways if I plan on winning this thing. I’m not gonna underestimate him by any means.

After First Round Loss, Jason MacDonald Noncommittal On Retirement

Tweet For Canadian middleweight fighter, Jason ‘The Athlete’ MacDonald (25-15), his career has reached the point where he has already started thinking about other paths outside of fighting to make a living. At the age of 36, and a second run in the UFC, MacDonald had been talking of returning to his previous career as […]

Photo via UFC.com

For Canadian middleweight fighter, Jason ‘The Athlete’ MacDonald (25-15), his career has reached the point where he has already started thinking about other paths outside of fighting to make a living.

At the age of 36, and a second run in the UFC, MacDonald had been talking of returning to his previous career as a corrections officer leading up to last weekends UFC Fight Night 25 bout with Alan Belcher. Unfortunately for MacDonald, the fight did not end at all how he wanted it, with Belcher unleashing a vicious ground-and-pound early in the fight to force an end to the fight at 3:48 of the first.

It wasn’t at all the way the Canadian middleweight wanted to go out, and in his latest blog, MacDonald remained noncommittal on retirement, possibly hoping to end his career on a high note rather than on a loss.

Our gameplan was to close distance, get in range and work the clinch. But I missed my takedown and he ended up on top of me. In hindsight, I should have kicked him off when I had the chance because he was posturing up, but instead I thought, I’ll stay in this position for a minute or two and work on it and hope to get a submission.

But I quickly took a couple elbows – in fact, one really hard elbow behind the ear, and pretty much everything after that was a blur. It’s pretty obvious that that was the beginning of the end. And the rest is history.

I hung in a little longer, but I think it was basically that instinct takes over. You’re defending yourself, blocking shots and doing the best you can, but really you’re on autopilot. I was no longer thinking of escapes or sweeps or trying to get submissions, I was just thinking about survival. Once you get in that desperation mode, things tend to go wrong fast.

Even after the referee stopped the fight, I was on rubber legs and a bit cloudy. I wasn’t confused as to what happened, I was just a little foggy. The fighter in you wants to keep going, but deep down you know it was the right decision for the fight to be over.

There was some talk before the fight of me retiring. Right now, I’m not making that decision. It’s just 48 hours after the fight, and that’s not the time. I haven’t even had the opportunity to talk about it with my wife and my managers.

Check out the rest of MacDonald’s blog at Sportsnet.ca

Alistair Overeem Leaves Golden Glory, Cites A Breach Of Trust As Reason

Tweet Former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem (35-11, 1NC) has split with his former management team, Golden Glory, citing “a breach of trust” as the reason for his leaving. Overeem, who spent his entire career fighting under Golden Glory, Tweeted a message on Tuesday afternoon (@Alistairovereem) notifying everyone of the news. “I would like to […]

Former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem (35-11, 1NC) has split with his former management team, Golden Glory, citing “a breach of trust” as the reason for his leaving.

Overeem, who spent his entire career fighting under Golden Glory, Tweeted a message on Tuesday afternoon (@Alistairovereem) notifying everyone of the news.

“I would like to make a statement regarding the recent news of the separation from my long-time management Golden Glory. As with any relationship, there are good times and bad times – you have your common ground and your differences. As with any relationship, you have trust. When differences lead to a breach of trust, there’s no turning back and no way to continue a positive, working relationship. I don’t air my dirty laundry. I would appreciate the respect regarding my privacy to not disclose any further details on this matter.”

“Again, I would like to thank team Golden Glory for all the years we worked together and wish them success for the future.”

The UFC and Golden Glory have had issues recently with the Zuffa releasing several fighters (Marloes Coenen, Valentijn Overeem, and Jon Olav Einemo) over the way the Dutch gym conducted business with fighter contracts. Those issues were apparently resolved between the two companies but it appears that there are still some issues with Golden Glory it’s fighters.

Overeem recently signed with the UFC and is set to make his Octagon debut against former champ Brock Lesnar on December 30.

Alistair Overeem Still Hasn’t Been Paid For Winning The K-1 World Grand Prix

Tweet Newly signed UFC heavyweight, and former Strikeforce champion, Alistair ‘The Reem’ Overeem (35-11, 1NC) says he still hasn’t been paid after winning the K-1 World Grand Prix Final last year. In an interview on The MMA Hour (@MMAFighting.com) Overeem said he plans on starting legal action against FEG, the parent company of K-1, but […]

Newly signed UFC heavyweight, and former Strikeforce champion, Alistair ‘The Reem’ Overeem (35-11, 1NC) says he still hasn’t been paid after winning the K-1 World Grand Prix Final last year.

In an interview on The MMA Hour (@MMAFighting.com) Overeem said he plans on starting legal action against FEG, the parent company of K-1, but doesn’t expect to see any money as the promotion is already buried under other financial obligations.

“They didn’t pay me,” Overeem said. “It’s a lot of money, I can tell you that.”

“We’re on the verge of starting up legal action, but Japan is a hard environment to move. You have the language barrier, you have the culture barrier. Are we expecting something from it? It’s hard to say. I actually think it’s going to be really hard. FEG has a lot of outstanding liabilities, a lot of unpaid bills, so maybe mine is just going to be put underneath the stack of the other bills. They have a lot of debt.”

Overeem faced Peter Aerts in the K-1 World Grand Prix final last December, earning a first round knockout win over his fellow Dutchman. ‘The Reem’ earned wins over Ben Edwards Tyrone Spong, and Gokhan Saki to make it into the final.

He did express some sympathy for his opponent, Aerts, noting that despite not getting paid he at least walked away with a championship. While Aerts got his “ass kicked and you don’t get paid. That’s a shame.”

Court McGee Unsatisfied With Eighth Straight Win, Could Have Pushed Pace Versus Yang

Tweet Season eleven “The Ultimate Fighter” winner Court ‘The Crusher’ McGee (14-1) won his third straight in the Octagon and eight straight fight overall on Saturday night. McGee faced South Korean fighter Dongi Yang in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans. Despite winning a Unanimous Decision on the judges score […]

Season eleven “The Ultimate Fighter” winner Court ‘The Crusher’ McGee (14-1) won his third straight in the Octagon and eight straight fight overall on Saturday night.

McGee faced South Korean fighter Dongi Yang in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans.

Despite winning a Unanimous Decision on the judges score cards, ‘The Crusher’ was not satisfied with his work in the Octagon feeling he could have pushed the pace a bit once he had his opponent hurt.

“I feel good, not satisfied. I feel I hurt him late in the first round and I kept composed. Maybe that was a good thing. I definitely could have pushed and committed more when I hurt him. I found myself waiting to counter what he was trying to do and it set me up straight in front of his left hand. I thought I’d be able to move on him to finish my shot. He was definitely prepared and he was very tough.”

“Number one I do this to carry the message to those that struggle. Number two, the payout. I do it to better take care of my family. Number three. I love the competition, I love being in there fighting.”

The middleweight will certainly face some stiffer competition for his next fight especially backed by his eight-fight win streak. Hopefully fans will see ‘The Crusher’ back in the Octagon soon, but will have to see what sort of injuries he sustained versus the Korean.

Hard Work Pays Off For Jake Ellenberger After Earning The Biggest Win Of His Career

Tweet It took exactly 53-seconds for UFC welterweight Jake ‘The Juggernaut’ Ellenberger to finish opponent Jake Shields Saturday night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 25. The win, the fifth straight for Ellenberger, and tenth in eleven bouts, certainly moves the young fighter into the upper tiers of the 170 lb division. During […]

It took exactly 53-seconds for UFC welterweight Jake ‘The Juggernaut’ Ellenberger to finish opponent Jake Shields Saturday night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 25.

The win, the fifth straight for Ellenberger, and tenth in eleven bouts, certainly moves the young fighter into the upper tiers of the 170 lb division.

During the post-fight interview, Ellenberger praised his coaching staff for pushing him to work hard, all of which paid off with one of the biggest wins of his career.

“One of my biggest wins, I mean, I can’t take away anything Jake Shields has done. He’s been a world champion…a multiple time world champion, and that’s just what I want.”

“Keep working hard. These last eight weeks we’ve been working so hard and not fun at all but it’s all for this night. Like I said, my coaches are there for me all the time, they believe in me. It’s hard to believe. The skies the limit, that’s what they tell me every day. The skies the limit. Keep working hard every day.”

Ellenberger trains alongside UFC middleweight Mark Munoz at his gym, Reign training center in California, and noted that the specific training the two had been working on paid out.

“Tonight really showed. It happened really fast, I hit him in the clinch with some knees. Mark Munoz and I have been working on that, when a guy is in your legs just strike from every position. I knew he was hurt so I went for the finish.”

“I worked my butt off and it proved tonight, helped out tonight big time it’s awesome.”

At the post-fight press conference, Ellenberger made mention of champ Georges St-Pierre and current No. 1 contender Carlos Condit, but it’s likely that ‘The Juggernaught’ will have to score another big win before he’s put into title contention.