THAT’S PRETTY MUCH WHAT HAPPENED FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES
“What can I say? I had bad luck in preparations. At the last training, in the last minute, I got a pretty bad eye injury.” – Mirko Filipovic, who sustained a nasty injury to his eye leading up to UFC 119. (Cage Writer)
“Mirko’s eye is good and ready to go. He wouldn’t be fighting if he wasn’t.” – UFC President Dana White, lambasting “silly MMA websites” for reporting on the eye injury. Pictorial evidence didn’t help his case. (MMA Torch)
“I guess a shitty win is better than a shitty loss.” – Frank Mir, who knocked out “Cro Cop” with a knee late in the fight. The knee followed 14 minutes of clinching along the fence and apprehensive counterstriking. (MMA Junkie)
“I didn’t huff and puff one time, and in the past, I’ve always sort of been known for [bad] conditioning. That wasn’t a factor at all. I felt in great shape the whole time.” – Mir. Well, at least you’ve got that going for you.
“I will most certainly go for a win, but I think I did a lot just by accepting this fight. That’s my opinion.” – Filipovic, clairvoyant.
ABOUT THAT POSITIVE STEROID TEST
“I have it but I haven’t really reviewed it yet, it is a steroid substance.” – CSAC Executive Director George Dodd, on the positive test turned in by Chael Sonnen. (Sherdog)
“The next [meeting] after that probably won’t be until the following year, and from what I understand, he has a rematch with Anderson Silva possibly in February. He’ll probably be maintaining the suspension unless he gets on the agenda next time.” – Dodd, putting the big kabosh on the Silva-Sonnen rematch. (MMA Junkie)
“[Sonnen] just let me know he was taking [something] and that’s when I called over an inspector to get it documented. But when you do take it you still have to show a medical reason.” – Dodd. So why was Sonnen allowed to fight if he admitted to taking illegal substances? (Sports Illustrated)
“We have to have confirmation from a labratory before we can say ‘yay’ or ‘nay.'” – Dodd
“If his levels were normal, and you actually didn’t have a reason why, then we actually stopped somebody from earning a living.” – Dodd
“Health and safety is our [number one] priority but you have to weigh everything. And our rules do say you have to have confirmation from a laboratory.” – Dodd
WHAT DOES DANA WHITE THINK ABOUT ALL THIS?
“Chael’s in a really good place.” – UFC President Dana White. Is Chael dead? (MMA Fighting)
“Listen, there’s more to this story than is being told and that meets the eye and it will come out in the athletic commission hearing.” – White
“So Chael is going to have to go before the athletic commission, and we’re going to have to see how this thing plays out.” – White, who might want to tell Sonnen to use the James Toney technique of insulting the commission for an hour to get his suspension reduced.
FRANK FIRS HEAVYWEIGHTS
“Right now it’s on pause. It’s definitely on pause. I want to do it.” – Frank Mir, who’s not letting go of the idea of dropping down to light heavyweight. (Fighters Only)
“The tenth guy [in the light heavyweight division] is more dangerous than the tenth guy in the heavyweight division.” – Mir
“[I]t was brought up one time and because certain people around me their reply was ‘absolutely not, there is no way you could do that.'” – Mir
“Being a multiple weight class champion would be a phenomenal feat. If ever another opportunity arises, if I take time off for another surgery or an injury, I’ll come back as a 205’er for a little bit.” – Mir
I GUESS IT’S BETTER THAN A THIRD FIGHT WITH JENS
“I was flying home, [and] I was kind of like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to do this anymore; I don’t know what’s wrong.'” – B.J. Penn, following his uninspired loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 118. (MMA Junkie)
“[Dana] said, ‘What do you think about Hughes?'” – Penn
“And I said, ‘I’ve got nothing else better to do. Let’s do this.'” – Penn
WHITE NOISE
“[O]ne day, I was in the gym, and this guy walked in. Locally, a lot of people knew him. He was 35 years old, his career was over and he was shadow boxing around the gym and I looked at him and thought, ‘Oh my God, what if that’s me when I’m 35?'” – Dana White, when asked if he ever wanted to be a fighter. (Indy Star)
“That was the day I realized I wasn’t a real fighter. Real fighters are different from you and me. They’re made differently, man. That’s what they were put on this Earth to do.” – White
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t like Duffee’s attitude.” – White, on why he cut heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee. (MMA Weekly)
“He made it seem to me that he doesn’t want to be in the UFC, like being here didn’t matter to him and he didn’t like it.” – White. Get busted for ‘roids? No problem. Have a bad attitude? Don’t let the door hit you on the ass.
PARTING SHOTS
“Pride, at that time, was just rolling. But their contracts were the silliest things you’ve ever seen. They wanted me to fight anybody, within two weeks notice, within 35 pounds, for X amount of dollars.” – Frank Shamrock, shedding more light on Pride’s contract negotiations. (Bloody Elbow)
“In fact I think I am going to learn open palm technique just for his sorry ass.” – Josh Koscheck, continuing to call out Tito Ortiz. (Bleacher Report)
“When he gets his flight back to the US, he will have trouble clearing customs because he will look nothing like his passport photo.” – Dan Hardy, on UFC 120 opponent Carlos Condit. (This is Nottingham)
“To be honest when they offered me the fight with Dunham, I didn’t know who he was and I just said ‘OK, sounds good.'” – Sean Sherk