I PLAYED THESE GEESE LIKE DANA WHITE
“Fedor and I are here in the States. If they want to come out and fly here, we are ready to conduct negotiations.” – Shady Russian Vadim Finkelchtein, teasing Zuffa, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, the MMA community, and these three geese. (M-1 Global)
“I was so confident this was going to happen. I literally did everything.” – UFC President Dana White, who probably didn’t literally do everything. (MMA Mania)
“Everything that he wanted, he could go fight in Sambo every [expletive] Thursday night if he wants to.” – White (Cage Writer)
“Nyet.” – Finkelchtein. I believe that’s Russian for “Reasonable offers mean nothing to us.” (L.A. Times)
“We will work only on co-promotion conditions.” – Finkelchtein
“The closest thing to it, you’ve got a basketball and you’re at a basketball court — and I know this sounds silly, but you go to the basketball court with your basketball.” – All-around a—— Gary “Jerry” Millen, adding nothing to the conversation. (MMA Fanhouse)
“And there’s a guy there with a pocketful of money and goes ‘Hey man, I’m going to buy your ball and you’re going to sit in the bench and watch me play ball with your ball.’ To me that’s a sell-out.” – Millen. It’s also called “good business.”
“We’re not asking for anything that’s crazy, we’re willing to take half the risk. We’re willing to take half the profit or half the loss.” – Millen. Half the risk of zero is still zero, a——.
“It’s basically them coming in saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got this guy, and some people say he might be the best heavyweight in the world, so for that we want half your business.’” – White, with a little better handle on the situation.
“They can call me right now, they can call me tomorrow, they can call me next month. I’m ready to roll.” – White
PREACH IT, BROTHER
“I don’t worry about the outcomes, winning, or money.” – UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. (Fighter’s Only)
“It’s not interesting for me to expose myself and run unnecessary risks.” – Silva. I’m a little interested in seeing you expose yourself, Spider.
“I’m getting old and since I started fighting I never had a scratch or my face broken. Anyone who knows about fighting can see what I mean.” – Silva. I think anyone with a set of eyes can see that, sir.
“God forgive me for saying it, but we’re years ahead of some fighters.” – Silva. Fighters like Chris Leben, Kalib Starnes, and Ryo Chonan, amirite?
COULDN’T WE JUST HAVE A BLACK-ON-BLACK MANLOVEFEST?
“He says things that someone in the Klan would say to us.” – “King” Mo Lawal, on the loud-mouthed, free swinging Quinton “Rampage Jackson. (Fight Hype)
“I think Rampage wants to be the only one. I don’t know if he wants to be the only brotha. I don’t know what it is.” – Former UFC light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans, who will fight Jackson at UFC 107. (Fight Hype)
“Vernon Forrest was shot to death this weekend. Black people are killing each other, and he’s joking about that?” – Lawal
LEFTOVER FEDOR
“People from other countries just don’t walk in and jump in business with the Fertitta brothers. There has to be full background checks and all kinds of crazy s—.” – UFC President Dana White. With the Fertittas being regulated by the Nevada Gaming Commission, Zuffa has extra due diligence that must be done. (Sherdog)
“I would enjoy fighting Fedor; hopefully the UFC can seal something together and I think the best should absolutely fight the best and if that’s what they want, that’s what they are going to have to try to get.” – UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar, who just got more popular. (USA Today via Bloody Elbow)
“All these talks about ‘strict’ contract terms with signing with UFC, come only from Vadim Finkelstein, who wants to push his owns business projects through Fedor’s fights.” – Fedor’s younger brother Aleksander Emelianenko, at his local Hepatitis clinc. (Sports.ru)
PARTING SHOTS
“I got pretty much owned on the ground.” – Former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir, on his fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. (Cage Writer)
“I believe I trained too long.” – UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn, explaining his loss to Georges St. Pierre. Another reason for his loss? Not being able to jump out of a three foot pool. (MMA Weekly)
“It was kind of funny, but I did need a hug. No one ever gave me a hug before.” – WEC bantamweight champ Miguel Torres, on a hug given to him by Mark Dellagrotte. (Cage Writer)
“I’d like it to be Josh Barnett, since he won’t be fighting in the United States.” – Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. (Tatame)
“And if he does kills me, book sales will really go up. Boom! Win-win, b—-.” – Former UFC light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin, making it really hard for me not to like him. (MMA Weekly)