True to his word, Jamie Varner was more than holding his own against Drew Dober at UFC on FOX 13 last weekend until bad luck befell him. While attempting to slam Dober to the mat, Varner pulled a Maynard and unintentionally knocked himself out, only waking up to find himself in a fight-ending rear-naked choke.
It was a particularly tough loss for Varner, being his fourth in as many contests and coming in front of his hometown crowd, and one that signaled that perhaps the game had passed by the former WEC champ. So for the second time, Varner called it quits in his post-fight interview, stating that it was a decision he had been planning to make for some time.
In an interview with media members after the fight, Varner expanded upon his reasons for retiring, what the future holds for him, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of starting a fighter’s union. Join us after the jump for the full interview.
(Photo via Getty.)
True to his word, Jamie Varner was more than holding his own against Drew Dober at UFC on FOX 13 last weekend until bad luck befell him. While attempting to slam Dober to the mat, Varner pulled a Maynard and unintentionally knocked himself out, only waking up to find himself in a fight-ending rear-naked choke.
It was a particularly tough loss for Varner, being his fourth in as many contests and coming in front of his hometown crowd, and one that signaled that perhaps the game had passed by the former WEC champ. So for the second time, Varner called it quits in his post-fight interview, stating that it was a decision he had been planning to make for some time.
In an interview with media members after the fight, Varner expanded upon his reasons for retiring, what the future holds for him, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of starting a fighter’s union. Check out the full interview below.
I would love to start some type of union for fighters. I mean, the sport is growing, and we’re getting all these big-time endorsement deals, and a lot of us – we’re just fighters. We don’t think about the next step.
I think it’s something that needs to happen. We are a mainstream, major sport now, and if you look at all the mainstream, major sports, they all have unions, and they have league minimums and some sort of retirement (plan) and all that kind of stuff. I think that’s something that needs to happen for fighters because this is one of those careers that when it’s over, a lot of these guys don’t have something else.
And just like that, Varner has likely been blacklisted.
I kid, but it is interesting to note how many fighters have felt comfortable discussing the potential of a fighter union in recent months, especially in light of the multi-million dollar lawsuit currently being filed against the UFC by some such fighters. Are the two directly related? Possibly, but it’s almost impossible to deny that the tide is starting to turn on the premiere organization in mixed martial arts. With guys like Brendan Schaub already coming forward to lament how badly the Reebok deal is screwing them over financially, it looks like the idea of a fighter union is starting to gain some steam. And it’s about f*cking time.
It looks like there’s once again trouble a’ brewing between UFC president Dana White and UFC HOFer/lughead Tito Ortiz. If you recall, the beef between these two got to such a boiling point back in 2007 that Spike TV aired a special hyping up a boxing match between the two (one which never came to fruition, of course). And while it seemed that White and Ortiz had repaired their relationship for long enough to have Tito get beat into retirement, Ortiz’s recent signing with Bellator has reopened the trash-talking floodgates.
Things really kicked off when Ortiz compared DW to a slave master during a recent interview with Sportscenter:
I thought slavery was over a long time ago. It’s just one of those things where you can’t trust a word the man says. And when you can’t do that, how can you work for him? When you work for a person and they’re badmouthing you no matter what, how can you work for them? When you apologize for the things that did happen and he still goes behind your back and says things about you, for no reason at all. Dana’s thing now is bullying and he is one of the biggest bullies in the business. He’s a big bully. One of these days, karma, it always come back around.
It’s hard to argue with Tito’s comparison when looking at the facts. As we all know, slaves regularly received compensation packages totalling upwards of $250,000 for their work in the fields, as well as top notch medical care whenever they came down with a bad case of “cracked skull.” In addition, it is a well known fact that all slaves drove Rolls Royces to and from their million dollar summer homes.
Being that White is slightly more aware of what gets said about him in the media than the average President of a billion dollar corporation, he responded with the vitriol of a “Ben Affleck is the new Batman” Reddit thread at the Fight Night 27 media scrum on Wednesday.
(For reference.)
It looks like there’s once again trouble a’ brewing between UFC president Dana White and UFC HOFer/lughead Tito Ortiz. If you recall, the beef between these two got to such a boiling point back in 2007 that Spike TV aired a special hyping up a boxing match between the two (one which never came to fruition, of course). And while it seemed that White and Ortiz had repaired their relationship for long enough to have Tito get beat into retirement, Ortiz’s recent signing with Bellator has reopened the trash-talking floodgates.
Things really kicked off when Ortiz compared DW to a slave master during a recent interview with Sportscenter:
I thought slavery was over a long time ago. It’s just one of those things where you can’t trust a word the man says. And when you can’t do that, how can you work for him? When you work for a person and they’re badmouthing you no matter what, how can you work for them? When you apologize for the things that did happen and he still goes behind your back and says things about you, for no reason at all. Dana’s thing now is bullying and he is one of the biggest bullies in the business. He’s a big bully. One of these days, karma, it always come back around.
It’s hard to argue with Tito’s comparison when looking at the facts. As we all know, slaves regularly received compensation packages totalling upwards of $250,000 for their work in the fields, as well as top notch medical care whenever they came down with a bad case of “cracked skull.” In addition, it is a well known fact that all slaves drove Rolls Royces to and from their million dollar summer homes.
Being that White is slightly more aware of what gets said about him in the media than the average President of a billion dollar corporation, he responded with the vitriol of a “Ben Affleck is the new Batman” Reddit thread at the Fight Night 27 media scrum on Wednesday.
(Exchange starts a 17:42)
Now I’m a fucking slave master, or whatever Tito called me. That fucking buffoon. How about this fucking moron coming out and saying he was a slave. Do you even know…I shouldn’t even ask that question if he knows what being a slave means, because he’s one of the dumbest motherfuckers you will ever meet. Seriously. He’s a slave to stupidity is what he is. I could go to the fucking zoo, go over the fucking monkey cage and have a more intelligent interaction.
Expect Ortiz to check the box for “crushed soul” on his next post-fight medical questionnaire. Don’t worry, he’s undergoing surgery next Spring to fix it.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, White then really went for the throat, addressing the obvious problems fans have had with the Ortiz/Rampage matchup from the moment it was announced, as well as the duo’s need to continue bashing their old promotion via their new one:
And then you got fucking Bozo and the other Bozo over there going “This is the greatest place in the world to work and we’re so happy!” Then what the fuck are you talking about me for? If you love where you’re at…why are you talking about me? It makes no sense. You’ve moved onto a better place. It’s like going to Heaven and bitching about Earth.
What are they gonna go on Sportscenter and talk about? The fight?! The Sportscenter guy didn’t even know what to say: “So, you’ve both lost 10 of your fucking last 10 fights, neither of you have a win but you’re on Sportscenter for some reason.”
We’re not sure why every anti-MMA writer out there feels the need to compare the sport to some form of pornography, but when doing a write-up on the historic UFC 157 event some two weeks ago, OnMilwaukee contributing writer Dave Begel did just that, labeling women’s MMA a “disgrace” before declaring that women should just stick to tennis or golf or some sport that wont immediately be viewed as “some kind of porn” by male audiences nationwide.
Unfortunately, we here at CagePotato only have so much time each day to educate these fools via scathing emails, so you can imagine our excitement when we saw that Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice decided to take Begel to task for us. Although the dynamic Inside MMA duo did their best to try and shake some sense into this stubborn old bastard –bringing up such classic pro-MMA arguing points as “Hey, it’s not as bad as boxing” and “Hey, do you watch the Olympics?” — their words clearly fell on deaf ears.
“I don’t want to defend boxing or judo or Brazilian whatever,” Begel states, in doing so proving that he would totally be prepared to defend any of those sports if given the chance, “MMA is designed to hurt somebody. Boxing is one thing, MMA is another.”
Oh, and on the topic of WMMA? Begel believes that — and we’re paraphrasing here — because some of us men have fantasies about two women going at it, therefore the sport is pornographic in nature. We’re not going to delve into the fact that his “theory” could just as easily be applied to the men’s side of the sport, or wrestling, or couple’s ice skating, etc. Instead, we recommend that if you are seeking more sage-like wisdom of this nature, make sure to pick up Begel’s new book , Research: What Gives? — the follow-up to his groundbreaking bestseller, Women: Where Do They Get Off (And How?) — on Kindle today.
We’re not sure why every anti-MMA writer out there feels the need to compare the sport to some form of pornography, but when doing a write-up on the historic UFC 157 event some two weeks ago, OnMilwaukee contributing writer Dave Begel did just that, labeling women’s MMA a “disgrace” before declaring that women should just stick to tennis or golf or some sport that wont immediately be viewed as “some kind of porn” by male audiences nationwide.
Unfortunately, we here at CagePotato only have so much time each day to educate these fools via scathing emails, so you can imagine our excitement when we saw that Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice decided to take Begel to task for us. Although the dynamic Inside MMA duo did their best to try and shake some sense into this stubborn old bastard –bringing up such classic pro-MMA arguing points as “Hey, it’s not as bad as boxing” and “Hey, do you watch the Olympics?” — their words clearly fell on deaf ears.
“I don’t want to defend boxing or judo or Brazilian whatever,” Begel states, in doing so proving that he would totally be prepared to defend any of those sports if given the chance, “MMA is designed to hurt somebody. Boxing is one thing, MMA is another.”
Oh, and on the topic of WMMA? Begel believes that — and we’re paraphrasing here — because some of us men have fantasies about two women going at it, therefore the sport is pornographic in nature. We’re not going to delve into the fact that his “theory” could just as easily be applied to the men’s side of the sport, or wrestling, or couple’s ice skating, etc. Instead, we recommend that if you are seeking more sage-like wisdom of this nature, make sure to pick up Begel’s new book, Research: What Gives? – the follow-up to his groundbreaking bestseller, Women: Where Do They Get Off (And How?) — on Kindle today.
(Trust us, when this moment arrives you will be doing anything but laughing.)
When Jason “Mayhem” Miller was fired from the UFC, he was basically left with two career paths to follow. He could follow the path of guys like Joey Beltran or — to a lesser degree — Anthony Johnson, which is to say, recognizing his mistakes/flaws and trying to earn his way back into the promotion through hard work, a couple decent wins, and in his case, probably some begging. Or, he could take a page out of someone like Rampage Jackson’s book, which consists of complaining a lot, going on nonsensical Twitter rants, and acting like a delusional pyschopath at every possible turn.
It saddens us to inform you that Miller has apparently chosen the path of Charlie Sheen.
There are simply no words that aptly describe Miller’s recent appearance on The MMA Hour, but I’ll try to use a few: batshit, kerfuffle, delirium, wantwit, rudesby. Like sharting in a hot tub while on a blind date.
In a terribly misguided attempt to plug his upcoming film, Here Comes the Boom, Miller appeared on the radio show as his character from the movie, Lucky Patrick. But what began as a simple ruse quickly devolved into one of the most bizarre and outright sad things we have witnessed in the continually depressing downfall of “Mayhem” Miller. He referred to “Arius Heelwani” as a “Jew,” refused to break character or answer questions as to his current mental state (or perhaps answered them all, really), and vehemently stormed off the set 45 minutes short of its expected run time. As Helwani noted, Miller was clearly attempting to channel Andy Kaufman, but unfortunately came off looking a lot more like Crispin Glover.
Video after the jump.
(Trust us, when this moment arrives you will be doing anything but laughing.)
When Jason “Mayhem” Miller was fired from the UFC, he was basically left with two career paths to follow. He could follow the path of guys like Joey Beltran or — to a lesser degree — Anthony Johnson, which is to say, recognizing his mistakes/flaws and trying to earn his way back into the promotion through hard work, a couple decent wins, and in his case, probably some begging. Or, he could take a page out of someone like Rampage Jackson’s book, which consists of complaining a lot, going on nonsensical Twitter rants, and acting like a delusional pyschopath at every possible turn.
It saddens us to inform you that Miller has apparently chosen the path of Charlie Sheen.
There are simply no words that aptly describe Miller’s recent appearance on The MMA Hour, but I’ll try to use a few: batshit, kerfuffle, delirium, wantwit, rudesby. Like sharting in a hot tub while on a blind date.
In a terribly misguided attempt to plug his upcoming film, Here Comes the Boom, Miller appeared on the radio show as his character from the movie, Lucky Patrick. But what began as a simple ruse quickly devolved into one of the most bizarre and outright sad things we have witnessed in the continually depressing downfall of “Mayhem” Miller. He referred to “Arius Heelwani” as a “Jew,” refused to break character or answer questions as to his current mental state (or perhaps answered them all, really), and vehemently stormed off the set 45 minutes short of its expected run time. As Helwani noted, Miller was clearly attempting to channel Andy Kaufman, but unfortunately came off looking a lot more like Crispin Glover.
Ariel was willing to play along with Miller’s shtick at first, but when it began to wear thin roughly two minutes in, Helwani tried to steer the conversation in a somewhat comprehensible direction. It is at this point that Mayhem decided to go full retard. I should not have to warn you about why one should never go full retard.
Helwani’s reaction quickly changed from jovial to concerned as he continued to try and “talk to Mayhem.” Suddenly, it’s as if we are watching a doctor try and reach the traumatic center of a schizophrenic child, and the gravity of Mayhem’s plight begins to settle in. After a few minutes of pointless back-and-forth, Miller became enraged that Helwani kept referring to him as “Mayhem” and stormed off the set amidst a cloud of cuss words and childish banter.
Ariel took a few minutes to collect himself and gave the following response:
Now, we understand that this write-up is only keeping Miller’s name on all of our tongues like he set out to do, but we are legitimately concerned for Mayhem’s well-being at this point. The fact that he wouldn’t even talk straight with Ariel when the segment was over should be the only indication we need as to the direction he is heading. We don’t know about you, but while watching the fourteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, we thought Mayhem came across as a generally likable and intelligent guy. The fact that he’s let himself disintegrate into this is utterly tragic, and we sincerely hope that it doesn’t end in Miller harming himself or those around him.
I’m not normally one to offer inspirational words of advice, but I would recommend Miller take some time and reflect upon those penned by Marilyn vos Savant:
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
However effective you thought our plan may have been, it’s looking like the UFC could be pursuing a completely different and much more intriguing option to solve the dilemma at 185 lbs.: a good old fashioned tournament. And although the flyweight tournament had some hiccups of its own, we would be hard pressed to find a more efficient method of determining a number one contender than this. But before we jump the gun, just check out what Dana White recently told Ariel Helwani (and what BG just implied) and decide for yourself:
We’re working on so much crazy shit right now — you know how I get. I get all nutty and start telling you shit I’m not supposed to be telling you. We’re working on really, really exciting stuff that we’re just going to kill it at the end of this year. Some really fun stuff…. I am very excited about the 185-pound division — it’s all I’ve been talking about for the last four days. I was on the road, in Australia, on the phone every day talking about the 185-pound division. It’s never been more exciting. I will let the cat out of the bag on Saturday about what we are going to do. Whoever wins on Saturday, I will have answers for you at the press conference.
We hate to prematurely celebrate, but…
After the jump: A full video interview with Dana White, in which he discusses all things UFC 149, the alleged nastiness of Hector Lombard, and his continuing hate-hate relationship with Dave Meltzer.
However effective you thought our plan may have been, it’s looking like the UFC could be pursuing a completely different and much more intriguing option to solve the dilemma at 185 lbs.: a good old fashioned tournament. And although the flyweight tournament had some hiccups of its own, we would be hard pressed to find a more efficient method of determining a number one contender than this. But before we jump the gun, just check out what Dana White recently told Ariel Helwani (and what BG just implied) and decide for yourself:
We’re working on so much crazy shit right now — you know how I get. I get all nutty and start telling you shit I’m not supposed to be telling you. We’re working on really, really exciting stuff that we’re just going to kill it at the end of this year. Some really fun stuff…. I am very excited about the 185-pound division — it’s all I’ve been talking about for the last four days. I was on the road, in Australia, on the phone every day talking about the 185-pound division. It’s never been more exciting. I will let the cat out of the bag on Saturday about what we are going to do. Whoever wins on Saturday, I will have answers for you at the press conference.
We hate to prematurely celebrate, but…
With so many plausible contenders currently floating around the middleweight pool, so to speak, you’ve gotta imagine that Dana is hinting at something much bigger than a possible Boetsch/Lombard winner vs. Chris Weidman number one contender bout. Considering he’s also hinting at the end of the year, which has and always will be the best time of the year to be an MMA fan, White must be talking about a tournament, right? RIGHT? Agree or disagree in the comments section. And by disagree, we mean agree.
Check out a video of the interview below.
As noted by Helwani, The Baldfather was uncharacteristically amped throughout his interview, and dished on everything from Urijah Faber’s chances of getting another title shot down the line if he fails to deliver against Renan Barao on Saturday (hint: they aren’t great) to the validity of Dave Meltzer’s recent report on the Showtime/Zuffa deal that apparently blocks Strikeforce fighters from signing with the UFC .
When the topic of Hector Lombard was brought up, however, White revealed a rather interesting bit of info the former Bellator middleweight kingpin:
I hear things about him, you know. A lot of other fighters aren’t big fans of him and, you know, understand this…you’re dealing with fighters. We have an entire roster of guys that are really good guys, mild mannered, but every once in a while you’re going to find those guys that aren’t. And they’re mean, and their nasty, and he’s definitely one of those guys.
A word to the wise, Potato Nation: Don’t ask Hector Lombard for the typical fist pose photo should you happen to run into him on the street, or you will more than likely find that fist somewhere unexpected and less than favorable. Just sayin’.
