Charles Barkley Talks UFC 136 and Enjoyment of MMA

Charles Barkley was a beast during his days in the NBA. Barkley is the shortest man to ever lead the NBA in rebounding, standing 6'6" (with shoes on). So "The Round Mound of Rebound" knows a little bit about what it takes to be tough enough to overcome the opposition.

He was cageside at UFC 136 and Yahoo! Sports' Cagewriter blog caught up with him to ask a few questions:

"You can't get in there messin' around. It takes a special person to handle that," Barkley said. "They are the best-conditioned jocks in the world. It's always a chess match. You see the guys who are better boxers, and then you see the guys who want to grapple. That's always the interesting part of MMA."

...

"I think the fights this weekend were the best ones I went to personally. I've probably been to about 20, and have gotten another 20 on pay-per-view. The fights were exciting. Sonnen, how we went after Silva after the match, that was awesome. Also, Frankie Edgar, he was impressive."
"That's the second time you thought he was going to lose, and he just showed amazing heart. The other night, I thought, 'Oh, he's in trouble.' Then he came back and won. It was impressive how well he handled the adversity. He's tough as hell."

Go check out the full article to see who "Sir Charles" considers his favorite fighter and hear him praise Georges St. Pierre and camp for how they handled the groin injury against Thiago Alves.