THEY TOLD ME THEY FIXED IT! I TRUSTED THEM TO FIX IT! IT’S NOT MY FAULT!
“I was given verbal approval for our Sept 10 event by the Virginia state commission 32 days prior to the fight date.” – Shine Fights CEO Devin Price, commenting on the Virginia athletic commissions decision to deny a license for Shine’s Lightweight Grand Prix. (MMA Mania)
“The commission did not express any problems with our event until certain members of the MMA community accused Shine of having reneged on our responsibilities following the cancellation of our May 15, 2010 ‘Worlds Collide: Ricardo Mayorga-Din Thomas’ fight card in Fayetteville, NC.” – Price. I wonder if by “certain members of the MMA community,” he means fighters that had yet to be paid.
“The Virginia commission was understandably concerned, but instead of allowing us to prove the concerns were unfounded, they refused to provide a license.” – Price
“It is unfortunate things had to end this way; however, I know we will still have a great show on Sept 10 and we are happy to be working with the First Council Casino.” – Price. Because the only thing less sketchy than holding a one-night, eight-man tournament is to hold it in an unregulated Native American territory.
FILE UNDER: HOW NOT TO GET BACK IN THE UFC
“To this day I’ve still never heard nothing from Dana.” – Paul Daley, who says he hasn’t heard from UFC President Dana White since he was released for throwing a cheap shot at Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. Do you really need to hear from Dana to know why that led to your release? (MMA Weekly)
“With all the talk Dana gives and the attitude of being a big man that he is, he could have at least came to my face and said ‘Paul, I don’t respect what you did, I think you’re an [expletive] or a jerk or whatever, you’re not going to fight here again.'” – Daley. So, the dude who threw a cheap shot is calling someone else out for not being, in his eyes, the bigger man about something?
“But still to this day, I’ve had no phone call, no e-mail, no nothing, so that just goes to show the treatment I received having fought Kampmann at late notice, and fought co-main event on my second fight in the UFC, and done a bunch of media work for them in the U.K.” – Daley
“The UFC is the UFC. It’s like a secret society type club, there’s a lot of favoritism going on and all kinds of [expletive].” – Daley. Yeah, I’d probably favor the guys who don’t throw cheap shots too.
HEY DAN, 1996 CALLED, AND IT WANTS IT ARGUMENT BACK
“I’ve been asked if…Rough House needs to bring in new wrestling coaches in order to be successful in the UFC.” – Dan Hardy. I bet he said yes. (This Is Nottingham)
“Rather than saying ‘oh, these guys can’t wrestle’, I think the problem is there’s beginning to be too much wrestling in UFC Octagon, not too little of it in the gym.” – Hardy. OK, that’s an interesting take on it.
“[T]here’s guys out there who just want to use wrestling to hold a stalemate for 15 minutes, without ever risking going for ground and pounds or attempting submissions.” – Hardy
“This isn’t ‘cheating within the rules’ – it is actually against the rules. ‘Timidity’ is outlawed in the Unified MMA rules and what better describes the act of holding on to an opponent and waiting for the clock to tick down with no attempt or inclination to do any damage?” – Hardy. What about the timidity of the guy on bottom to get back to his feet?
“If a guy is in a dominant position, but not actually doing anything offensive – stand ’em back up.” – Hardy. No.
“If he is consistently trying to tie the other guy up to avoid actual fighting – warn him and then start taking points.” – Hardy. No.
“It is supposed to be a fight.” – Hardy. Then you better start figuring out a way to get out from under guys.
AND IN OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
“That’s just coming from someone who isn’t a good wrestler.” – Nate Marquardt, responding to Hardy’s comments. (MMA Mania)
“I just hired the assistant wrestling coach at Boston University to be my wrestling coach here in Boston.” – Kenny Florian, with something he should have said 12 weeks ago. (Sherdog)
YVES DROPPING
“I did not give him an interview on or off record. Those are not my quotes. This is not me. Is that enough?” – Yves Lavigne, denying reports that he gave an interview in which he verbally assaulted Josh Koscheck. (MMA Fighting)
“Whether it was on the record or off the record, a referee should never state his opinion about a fighter publicly. Yves Lavigne can suck my [expletive]. He’ll never ref me again just because of the fact that.” – Koscheck. You don’t want him reffing your fights because you want him to fellate you? (MMA Fighting)
WHITE NOISE
“There’s no such thing as an automatic rematch.” – UFC President Dana White. Anywhere. They don’t exist according to Dana White. (MMA Weekly)
“We rematch fights that we think a) deserve it or b) people want to see.” – White. Like Liddell-Ortiz III.
“Chael Sonnen wins 4.75 of those rounds and then loses by armbar. The first guy ever to really take it to Anderson Silva and put on a fight like that, and people are still talking about the fight today.” – White. The fight happened a month ago, Dana.
PARTING SHOTS
“I know Floyd isn’t looking to do MMA, but I would still be willing to fight Mayweather and Pacquiao in a boxing match and both camps have been reached, so we will see what happens.” – K.J. Noons. I just want to let this out there. I know Roger Federer isn’t looking to do BJJ, but I have contacted him about playing tennis. (Fight Hype)
“This is step one on my way back to a UFC title. My career’s not going to be complete until I fight for that UFC title.” – Keith Jardine, on his fight with Trevor Prangley at Saturday’s Shark Fights event. That’s going to be a long walk to complete that career. (MMA Weekly)
“That’s a great fight to take a year layoff with injury fighting a guy coming off like a hot three-fight win streak.” – Forrest Griffin, on being offered Jon Jones. (MMA Fighting)
“Emotionally, I’m hurt. I’m hurt more than anything because I don’t know why. As a man, you just want to hear why so you can understand.” – Todd Duffee, who broke up with the UFC this week. (MMA Junkie)