[UPDATE] – Click here to watch on UFC.com.
Warriors Shogun Rua and Jon Jones prepare for their title fight in Newark, plus veterans Urijah Faber & Eddie Wineland and headhunters Mirko Cro Cop & Brendan Schaub discuss their upcoming bouts.
Jon Jones quotes:
“My goals are to be the best champion that ever lived. I want to be like an Anderson Silva with amazing wrestling. I want to be a GSP with amazing striking. I want to have it all.”
“It’s funny I’ve been doing some autograph signings, I’ve been signing lately “Jon Jones Champion 2011″, almost as if I’ve spoken into existence. I just think it’s crazy.”
“I honestly believe in my heart that I can strike with Shogun. Mike Winkeljohn is a great striking coach. I’m confident in his strategies and the tactics that we need to use to defeat Shogun. I feel good about it. I definitely think I have knockout power. He doesn’t think I have knockout power, well I hope he stands in the pocket for a while and we’ll see.”
“(Shogun) gets taken down by a lot of guys who never wrestled so I’ll definitely be looking to exploit that. I think we can strike with him. I think we can roll with him, we can wrestle with him. I’m confident everywhere.”
“I’m going to be too strong, too hungry, too dynamic, too explosive; it’s about the rise of Jon Jones.”
Shogun Rua quotes:
“Keeping the belt is the top priority. This is the most important fight of my life. I’m planning to keep the belt for a long long time.”
After hearing about Jon Jones as a replacement, Shogun Rua told his manager Eduardo Alonso – “Eduardo I fight anyone, I can kick Jon Jones’ ass. I can win this fight. Let’s do this.”
“(Jones) has kind of a similar story (to mine). He’s a young guy, beating everybody, rising to the top. But I will do everything in my power to not let him get a belt at 23 years old like me. I’ve fought tall guys with long reach before. I’ve fought The Snake, Cyrille Diabate, I’ve fought Alistair Overeem twice and I won all of those fights.”
“(Jones) would be making a mistake if he stood with me. He can tap you and irritate you. But he doesn’t have big knockout power. Jones has long skinny legs, he should expect to have them slammed by leg kicks. I think he may very well want to take it to the ground. This will be a good opportunity to show the UFC fans my jiu-jitsu skills.”
Check out the full 40 minute episode of “Countdown To UFC 128” after the jump and Wednesday on UFC.com.
part 1
part 2
part 3