THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE
“When he realizes he doesn’t have that to go to, he’s gonna see a lot of punches coming really quick at him. It’s something I don’t think he’s prepared for.” – UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn, forecasting his fight with Diego Sanchez at UFC 107. Penn ultimately dominated Sanchez for four-plus rounds, stopping the challenger due to a cut in the fifth round. (MMA Weekly)
“I think BJ’s better at everything Sanchez does.” – Kenny Florian, victorious in his bout with Clay Guida, offering his analysis on the UFC 107 main event. Penn outclassed Sanchez, who was unsuccessful in 27 takedown attempts and landed a meager 8 strikes throughout the fight. (The Lavar Arrington Show)
“He wants to portray himself as the crazy one; I think he’s just portraying himself as the weird one. And we’re gonna know which guy’s more crazy when we get into the Octagon.” – Penn, supplementing his victory with his usual traditional of blood sucking and BJPenn.com pimping.
I SUGGEST A NEW STRATEGY, R2: LET THE WOOKIE WIN
“I feel like I did enough, I could have done a little bit more, but the fans watched the fight. I was in the fight so it’s hard to judge it until I watch it on TV.” – Paul Buentello, returning to the UFC in a decision loss to Stefan Struve at UFC 107. (UFC.com)
“It’s pretty cool that the fans knew who the real winner was.” – Buentello. Unfortunately, no one else agreed with the well-educated Memphis crowd.
“Some times you just have to grab your (expletive) and go — and that’s one thing I didn’t do.” – Buentello. I’m not sure I want to know what’s on the other side of that (expletive).
UNTIL THIS BATTLE STATION IS FULLY OPERATIONAL, WE ARE VULNERABLE
“[Lesnar] did go to the Mayo Clinic. You can’t listen to him. You’ve got to listen to me.” – UFC President Dana White, who has never told a lie. Ever. (MMA Junkie)
“He’s a private guy. He doesn’t want anybody talking about it.” – White. Uh, whoops?
“I’m going to wait and see whether he has to have this major surgery before I make any big decisions. But it won’t be long. We’ll know about Lesnar in a month-and-a-half, and then I’ll make that decision.” – White, on introducing an interim title. First, Dana needs to spill the beans on Lesnar’s favorite positions with Sable.
“[H]e’s walking around and moving around. He’s not ready to jump into that cage, that’s for sure at this point.” – Minnesota Martial Arts lead trainer Greg Nelson. (MMA Weekly)
THE FORCE CAN HAVE A STRONG INFLUENCE ON THE WEAK-MINDED
“A big part of it is that Mazzagatti just didn’t handle things right.” – Jon Jones, disqualified after blasting Matt Hamill with “12-6” elbow strikes last weekend at the Ultimate Fighter 10 finale. (Sports Illustrated)
“You know, he’s standing over Matt Hamill, who can’t see at the time because he has blood in his eyes, and obviously he can’t hear, and Mazzagatti is standing there asking him if he’s okay. Then he stops the fight.” – Jones. Wait, Matt Hamill is deaf?
“I said in so many interviews, I respect him a lot for the inspiration that he is. It was awkward to keep hitting him like that, you know ‘let’s stop this.'” – Jones. Wait, you don’t enjoy beating on the handicapped? (UFC.com)
JABBA, YOU’RE A WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING
“I remember I panicked when he stuck me against the cage and then I remember staring at Herb. I even made a joke like, ‘I didn’t get out, did I?’ “ – Former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir, on his fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. Lesnar than approached Mir, gave him a handshake, and offered some kind words. (Las Vegas Sun)
“When I saw Brock screaming and yelling at me I was confused because I was thinking, ‘What happened from the time I blacked out and the time I woke up?'” – Mir. Oh yeah, that’s right. Lesnar also politely asked Mir if he had any more disparaging words for him now that Brock had decisively avenged the prior loss.
“When he got sick it screwed up my training because he was such a driving force for me. I went into a depression for two to three days where I didn’t go to the gym, I got sick — I drove myself insane thinking we may possibly not fight again. I couldn’t live with that.” – Mir, mentally healthy.
I TOLD YOU SHE WOULD NEVER CONSCIOUSLY BETRAY THE REBELLION
“He’s happy, but the reality is that I pushed him into signing that deal.” – UFC President Dana White, never outwitted in negotiations, on Dan Henderson signing with Strikeforce. (MMA Fanhouse)
“Well, at least I’ll be able to have Clinch Gear on in the cage when I fight for Strikeforce.” – Henderson. Zuffa banned the Clinch Gear line during negotiations with Henderson. (Sherdog)
“It was more funny to me than anything that they would do that. Dana has stated to me that it was nothing personal and that there were no hard feelings at all. If there were no hard feelings, why would they ban a clothing line?” – Henderson. There’s that word again.
“Do you think that there’s any guy we can’t get that I want? Other than Fedor [Emelianenko]? So far, he’s been the one guy we can’t get. But everyone else that we’ve wanted, we got. If I wanted Dan Henderson, I could’ve signed him.” – White, adjusting his monacle and top hat.
WHITE NOISE
“We didn’t say, ‘Hey, Rampage isn’t here, so we’re bringing in Houston Alexander.'” – UFC President Dana White. Sounds like he’s got his new whipping boy. (Commercial Apparel)
“I’m more disappointed in him than anything. I don’t know if you’ve followed me and how I react sometimes, but I get angry and I usually get in fights with all these guys.” – White, you don’t say?
“He sent me a really bad text so I sent him a really bad text back. He wrote back, ‘Call me, I can’t spell good enough to fight on texts.'” – White. Oh, Rampage, you’re even funny in the third person. (Las Vegas Sun)
PARTING SHOTS
“I think everyone talks about Marv being a joke because he’s not doing what everyone else is doing.” – B.J. Penn. I think the reason people think he’s a joke is because he bred his son to be an NFL quarterback from the womb. (Cage Writer)
“Like I said, I have these multiple personalities so that 25 year old that is inside is doing this fighting.” – Former NFL running back and 47 year old Herschel Walker. Someone’s really gonna license this guy to fight? (SportsRadioInterviews.com)
“I’m the official UFC suckmeter. If you can’t get past me, you’ll get that call from [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva saying you can’t fight no more.” – Roy Nelson, aspiring to the zenith of competition. (Cage Writer)
“At this level of the game, you have to be almost like genius-type smart. You have all these dimensions you have to bottle in one.” – Kimbo Slice. MMA in a nutshell. (Cage Writer)