IF THE FIGHT'S AS GOOD AS THIS TRASH TALK...
"In this sport, its normal to threaten a little and provoke. But I think he crossed a line." - Former Pride OWGP Champion Mirko Filipovic, remarking on recent comments made by future opponent Alistair Overeem (Bloody Elbow)
"He says that he will knock me down in this minute or in that minute, that he will beat me down, that I am old." - Filipovic
"So I will say this: If he really degrades me as much as he says he will, I will go to Amsterdam to their Dam Square. I will throw myself in a barrel full of tar and pour some feathers onto myself. Then I will run around on Dam Square until the police arrest me. I assume forced hospitalization will be next, and then I will wait for them to deport me back to Zagreb, Croatia." - Filipovic, describing a performance that would rival his UFC career
AS AMERICAN TOP TEAM TURNS
"Hermes was my pupil from blue to black belt in BJJ. I bring him to America when he was a brown belt, even before American Top Team being created. We used to train at Silveira Brother’s, from Marcelo and Conan, when we, with Ricardo Libório, gave him the Jiu-Jitsu black belt. After that ATT was created and he joined it, but he did some shit and people wanted him out. We gave him another chance and he did shit again, and this time with Libório, and now he’s banned from the team. Then he went to Team Armony, but he did some shit there too." - UFC Lightweight Marcus Aurelio, on the feud between American Top Team and Hermes Franca (MMA News via Tatame)
"Obviously he got out pissed, but we weren’t friends for a long time ago. He always was a little fishiness, and a lot of people were pissed with him. Almost the whole team doesn’t like him. The funny thing is that not only people from our team doesn’t like him. A lot of people called me wanting to help me for this fight, it was pretty funny, people calling me and saying, 'Marcus, I wanna help you. You have to beat up this guy!'"- Aurelio
"I came to United Stated after a hard effort. Marcus Aurelio never bring me to America, I came with Wilson Gouveia." - Franca, offering a slightly different version of the events (Tatame)
"Marcus Aurelio came because of me and Wilson, I catch him at the airport and put him in my house, and then we went to Silveira’s Brother gym, when he started to train too. He came when the lunch was already on the table, that’s pretty easy." - Franca
"The second time I got out it was because I gave Kurt Pellegrino a BJJ black belt, because he was my athlete at Team Armony and I thought he deserved that, not only because of being a godo athlete, but he was a great instructor and actually beat Marcus Aurelio at a no gi championship when he was a blue belt. Liborio disagrees with that and I didn’t understand why, because I was four years with a black belt and Kurt was with me for more than one more. I said to Liborio that I’d create a bad situation if I changed that, and that’s why we disagreed again. I went to Team Armony and then I got out of the team, Kurt leave to create his own team and I’m creating mine." - Franca
"'Almost the whole team doesn’t like me?!' I’m surprised, every time I meet somebody from ATT we spoke normally." - Franca
RASHAD EVANS - WRESTLER, FIGHTER, DIPLOMAT
"Well you know it's still America. There's racial undertones in America and that's no secret." - UFC Light Heavyweight title contender Rashad Evans, answering a question about racism at MMA events (Big O and Dukes)
"It's everywhere. You can't get upset about it and take it personal." - Evans
"Sometimes what you gotta do when someone shows you the ugly side is give them a beautiful smile and make them second guess what they're doing. And that's all you can really do about it." - Evans, KOing this question more brutally than the overhand right to Chuck
BACK TO "TRAINING" OSCAR DE LA HOYA, RIGHT?
"Yesterday is a cancelled check, today is cash in hand, tomorrow is a promissory note." - Juanito Ibarra, making an inappropriate analogy
"I've never done anything I wasn't asked to do, and that's it. I would never take anything from anybody without them giving it to me. Never." - Ibarra
"If he and I could have spoken, I wish he would accept me and sit down with me. But, you know, people around him -- his advisors, etc. -- said that that wasn't going to happen." - Ibarra
ON HEAVYWEIGHTS
"You just drown out there." - Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, on TUF 8 coach and future opponent Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (MMA Junkie)
"It's almost like he's a shark -- and you're beating him up, you're beating him up -- and he's like, 'Yeah, but you're in the water. Eventually you're going to get tired, and I'm going to eat you.'" - Mir, with a very choice quote
"I've got respect for this kid." - Nogueira (MMA Junkie)
"He has come back from a very hard accident before, same as me. So he's kind of a special guy. I've got a lot of respect for that." - Nogueira, who will have an advantage in the auto accident department
"Brock Lesnar is a marketable fighter." - Nogueira (5 Ounces of Pain)
"Brock Lesnar sells tickets, bottom line." - Mir, they're even in the Brock Lesnar category
"But even some of my own family members are like, 'So, when you're fighting Nogueira, is it a three-round fight or a five-round fight? What are you guys fighting for? If [Couture] is the champ, what are you guys fighting for?' That's not the greatest thing to hear." - Mir
"But Couture is a more experienced fighter and I think he’s going to do better in the stand up with his hands and that’s why I think he’s going to be the winner of that fight." - Nogueira
KIMBO SLICE, ADCC GRAPPLING CHAMP?
"Being a good grappler like myself -- against a supposed-to-be striker like Ken -- I'll try and break his leg." - EliteXC posterboy Kimbo Slice, leaving thousands of internet MMA dorks scratching their heads (MMA Junkie)
"This (fight) is going to keep streaks the way they are. Ken's going to stay on his streak, and I'm going to stay on mine." - Slice
PARTING SHOTS
"Somebody better fight my brother for the title and stop being a weak ass punk." - UFC Lightweight Nate Diaz, continuing to use his place in the UFC to stump for his older brother (Yahoo)
"He needs a way. He desperately needs a win. Another loss and he’s going to have to go out and start working his way back up to the UFC." - UFC President Dana White, discussing the future of Houston Alexander (Yahoo)
"Chuck got predictable. We noticed that he dropped his left when he threw a right uppercut, so when Rashad saw it coming he did exactly what we practiced. He threw that overhand and found an unprotected chin." - Greg Jackson, showing why he's one of the top trainers in MMA (MMA Junkie)
"People are wrong about MMA. The time when the Gracie’s supremacy was total, when Jiu-Jitsu was the most important, but Gracie’s time is past." - UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, hammering the final nail into the Gracie coffin?
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