UFC 89 Pre-Fight Press Conference: The Update

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

First off I have to say that I was so busy shooting today (see shot above) that I didn't get to field any of your questions directy - that being said, a lot of the journalists present put forward their own ones which broadly mirrored those that folk put in my last post.

The most memorable part for me was Chris Leben talking some (minor) smack by saying that he though Bisping was a 'scaredy-cat' fighter. He elaborated on this by stating that - in his view - it appears that Bisping's primary concern when fighting in the Octagon is to not get hit. This was a veiled insult that got Mike bristling a bit.

Another throwout comment was Chris saying "Nice suit" to Bisping; Mike had turned up looking crisp and sharp and Leben threw a few vocal jabs at him for doing so.

Answering another question, Leben said that his "wild days" are well behind him. The move to Hawaii has removed him from all his past influences and he was just glad to be in the UK giving the fans a fight that he's been looking forward to.

Brandon Vera considers this fight to be a re-birth of sorts. He said that he's now dedicated 100% to training as an athelete should be; he said that he "wasn't there" for his fight against Reese Andy and doesn't even think about it these days. He also had put his controversial loss to Werdum at UFC 85 behind him

Vera was very respectful to Jardine and said that he "hoped they would learn a lot about each other" in the ring before "one of us goes to sleep." Jardine mirrored Vera's respectful tone and said not one bad thing about his opponent..

Paul Kelly cited that the addition of Cheick Kongo and Quinton Jackson to the Wolfslair camp had injected fresh vigor to the training there - although they're a very informal lot and that there's a load of laughing and joking around too.

Marcus Davis was asked (in a roundabout way) whether he thought that having Kelly as an opponent was a step backwards, given that his last match-up was against Mike Swick. Davis pointed to the barnstorming brawl that Kelly had against Paul Taylor at UFC 80 and said "that's why I'm fighting him"

Davis cited that he's always been the "bad guy" wherever he's fought since his home state of Maine hasn't sanctioned MMA and , accordingly, he's always had to travel to fight and thus gone up against his fair share of hometown favourites.

Keith Jardine said that he thinks the LHW division is in a state of flux and will take about a year for the true 'top ten' ranking fighters to be established. He wouldn't be drawn on his hopes for a title shot, citing that "Forrest and Evans have to go at it first" (or words to that effect)

Marshall Zelaznik stated that the UFC event in Dublin was set to go on presale tomorrow (17th) and they're excited to be holding their first event outside of the UK. When asked about further expansion, he said that he was confident that by summer '09, the UFC would have put on a show in at least one other European city. Countries mentioned were Germany, Italy and even Finland.

The matter of a UFC event in the Phillipines was also mentioned, to which Brandon Vera said that this past week was the first time he'd heard word of it from anyone inside the UFC.

On a lighter note, Mask and Skyscrape from Tapout were present in the auditorium as well, shouting out to the guys on the podium and getting up to hijinks with Dana White and other folks.

Well that wraps up my (poor) report from the UFC 89 pre-fight press conference. I'm guessing I should at least get a dictaphone or voice recorder for future events. For now, I'm going to head out from and explore some of Birmingham.