The Week in Quotes: February 21st - 27th

YEAH, 'CAUSE THIS SOUNDED TOTALLY LEGIT

"I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks. I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts. I’m sorry that I stepped out of line." - Former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir, ghost written by some copywriter in Zuffa's PR department. (Bloody Elbow)

"When I got called in and they told me, 'Listen man, this is an issue,' I kind of had a smirk on my face the whole time. I was like, you're kidding, right? This is a joke, right?'" - Mir.  Fight hype is srs bizness, Franklin. (Sports Illustrated)

"I've heard people say that this is to the death. I've heard people say about an opponent, 'I'm going to kill him.' I heard Brock say he was going to put his hand up my rear end to pull out a horseshoe. I didn't hear anyone get too upset about that." - Mir. 

"I thought we understood that what we say on camera is part of the entertainment aspect of our sport and we kind of get a little artistic license." - Mir.  An artistic license to kill, even.

"It's not like I said this to my neighbor, that if his dog shows up in my yard one more time I'm going to kill him. That would be bad. That's a problem." - Mir. Where's the "FRANK MIR VALUES LIFE OF DOG, NOT LESNAR" headlines?

I'M SURE SHANE CARWIN HAS AN OPINION ON ALL OF THIS

"I have never said Frank Mir was mentally unfit or a terrible human being." - Current UFC self-righteous champ Shane Carwin, clarifying earlier remarks. (Shane-Carwin.com)

"Do I think Frank is unfit or a bad guy? I do not, every experience I have had with him has been good and I really do not have much negative to say about him." - Carwin.  O RLY?

"I can tell you that ANY athlete wishing death upon a competitor is either a terrible human being or mentally unfit to fight." - Carwin.  Mir: athlete, wished death upon a competitor.  Logicometer...reaching capacity... (MMA Bay)

"Fighting is an emotional sport and we all say some stupid stuff, fighters just have a tendency to say it when the mic is on, when our emotions are at our highest." - Carwin.  Your emotions are at their highest in front of a microphone?  Not, you know, in a cage with a goddamn 265 pound beast trying to pistol whip you in the face with his fist?

"I expect he will be in amazing shape and seems to be as hungry as we all are to get a crack at Brock's title." - Carwin.  Yeah, you should probably just stick to the Georges St-Pierre School of Pre-fight Interview.

BROCKLESNARVOICEOFREASON

"You know I don't know what he [Frank Mir] thought... he's still trying to pull his foot out of his mouth and when you say something like that and your wife has to go out and apologize for you, you know you pissed somebody off." - UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar (KFAN)

"Yeah it was out of line but in the fighters mentally I don't want to go in the Octagon and kill somebody but I do want to do whatever I can to win. And maybe that's what he was saying, I don’t know." - Lesnar

"For a guy to take an ass whopping like the last I gave him and for him to get up and keep running his mouth. You know I just got to laugh at it." - Lesnar.  Wait, you aren't getting your torch and pitch fork like the rest of us?  Fuck.

I CHOOSE BUSINESS ETHICS

"I like MMA a lot less than I used to." - Former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. (Fighters Only)

"They’ve said some things and done some things I don’t agree with — that’s not the way I do business." - Jackson, with an exemplary record outside the cage.

"I’m a loyal person so I take care of people who take care of me, but people who don’t take care of me, I don’t take care of them. So I’m done with the UFC." - Jackson, who would probably be taking a trip to San Quentin without the Zuffa's care.

"Dana lied to me. He told me I didn’t have to fight Rashad, I could fight Machida. I did the show and then after that he told me I had to fight Rashad." - Jackson.  The same fight you kept talking about for months?

THE WEEK IN CHAEL

"He doesn't get to bring a friend with him; he doesn't get to bring a lead pipe with him." - Chael Sonnen, on a likely fight with UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. (Pure Fight)

"He's never fought a wrestler and I don't just mean he's never beat a wrestler, he's never fought one." - Sonnen.  Somewhere in the world, teammate Dan Henderson is confused without changing the expression on his face. (MMA Live)

WHITE NOISE

"I was disappointed by Frank Mir’s comments. Frank’s been with the UFC a long time, he’s a two-time heavyweight champion and a commentator for the WEC.  I think his emotions are running high right now, he has a big fight coming up next month and he’s still upset about his loss to Lesnar.  He’s been talked to, he regrets what he said, and he won’t be saying anything like that again." - UFC President Dana White.

"Mir is a [expletive] idiot! I have never heard something so unprofessional and idiotic in my life." - White: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mainstream (Cage Writer)

PARTING SHOTS

"The only person that can beat BJ is me." - Antonio McKee, launching a tsunami from the heart of Chile. (Fight Hub TV)

"I conquered the world in the boxing ring all the while I was puffing cigarettes and drinking beer. " - Ricardo Mayorga, stealing a line from Alexander the Great. (Boxing Scene)

"Dana White is a straight up ho!" - James Toney everyone.  (Fight Hype)

"Frank will be making a statement this afternoon from the UFC headquarters. Frank is disturbed by the reaction to his comments regarding Brock Lesnar. Frank is a warrior and an ambassador for this sport. After his statement, he will not be speaking about Brock again, and will choose to instead focus on his next opponent, Shane Carwin." - Jennifer Mir, who must have loved when her husband proceeded to renege on his "apology". (Cage Writer)

"If you really think about it, we're getting more coverage than all of their UFC fighters combined, especially on Twitter." - Jose Canseco (Cage Writer)