The Week in Quotes: May 9th - 15th

PAULO FILHO IS PORTUGUESE FOR CRAZY

"Honestly, I don’t know. I think maybe people knew I was in a good shape, strong, so they got scared." - Paulo Filho, who missed his scheduled fight against Hector Lombard in Bellator. Filho claims Bellator didn't file the proper paperwork in time to acquire a visa to travel into the United States. (Tatame)

"In fact, I’ve been informed it was a mistake of the event, which didn’t gave me the letter so I could take it to the council. Things were left to be solved at the last minute, unfortunately I won’t fight." - Filho

"My fight schedule is full, three fights within 20 days on July." - Filho. The over/under on Filho fights in July is 0.5 with the under going off at -350.

"As soon as he started doing it, I understood what was going on. I understood, ‘oh, okay, he’s checking out and this is his way of doing it.’" - Chael Sonnen, referring to his second fight with Filho in some relic promotion called "World Extreme Cagefighting". Filho appeared out of his wits and stared away from Sonnen, causing Frank Mir to famously remark that Sonnen was seeing Jesus. (Fight Opinion)

"He had asked me at one point in the fight to go to the ground with him and I said ‘No, I can’t do that’ and he said, "no, no submission attempts, just rest, come to the ground, let’s rest’ and I just said again, ‘I can’t’ and just went back to fighting." - Sonnen. I'm surprised Filho was lucid enough to communicate this.

"The company, Zuffa, was very unpleased with it. And I got it, I’m like, yeah that was a weird match but man I did my part, I don’t know what to do, it takes two to tango, there’s only one of us out there." - Sonnen

"If I had my way, I still would be retired and doing my thing." - Quinton "Ramage" Jackson, back to being unhappy with the UFC. (Fighters Only)

"You put two UFC symbols in the cage, see how many pay-per-views they get. Let the two UFC symbols fight each other." - Jackson

"I don't care if the UFC don't like what I say or not. For years, I fought in UFC and didn't agree with a lot of stuff and I kept my mouth shut." - Jackson

"It's hard to keep your mouth shut when people keep stepping on you. I can only take so much." - Jackson, sharing a sentiment with people who are hit by runaway monster trucks.

THE WEEK IN COKER

"The commission here [in Missouri] is drug testing and it will be random, and what we’ve decided to do is test all the athletes ourselves." - Strikeforce President Scott Coker, who must have reacted to questions from the fans and media about his champion Alistair Overeem. (Carmichael Dave)

"It wasn't based on any one specific fighter. It was just the right thing to do. It's so all the fighters, all the fans, and all the media know what's going on. I talked to all the fighters about it and they were all fine with it." - Coker. My mistake, doing the right thing and all. (MMA Fighting)

"To be very honest, the situation with Fedor (Emelianenko) is that he's fighting June 26." - Coker, responding to Overeem calling out the Russian. Thanks for the in depth explanation, Scott. (MMA Mania)

IS SOMEONE KEEPING AN EYE ON ANDREI?

"When I fought Rogers I didn't stick to my game plan and I didn't take him seriously." - Andrei Arlosvki, who was knocked about by Rogers last year. (Gant Daily)

"No more flying knees like against Emelianenko. No more putting my hands down like I did against Rogers. No more losing. I just can't lose again." - Arlovski, who entered his bout with Antonio Silva in danger of losing three straight. Silva defeated Arlovski by unanimous decision.

"It's very dramatic for me to lose fights and I want to climb back into the top." - Arlovski, hopefully continuing his break from Russian Roulette.

WHITE NOISE

"I’m no Josh Koscheck fan. Personally, I think he’s [expletive]. We actually don’t get along very well." - UFC President Dana White. I'm really interested what's behind that [expletive]. Did Iole forget a very important article? (Yahoo!)

"I cut Nick Diaz after he was fighting [Joe Riggs] at the hospital. People are sick and dying and you can’t be in the hospital fighting. I cut the guy even though I know he’s a very good fighter." - White. Nick Diaz fought three more times in the UFC within a year of the Riggs fight. Hm.

PARTING SHOTS

"I'm just glad all I have to do is show up and fight." - Din Thomas. Unfortunately, the promotion did show up and uphold their end of the bargain. Thomas's fight with boxing star Ricardo Mayorga was nullified by a court injunction initiated by Don King. (Fight! Magazine)

"The ability for Brett to take him [Overeem] down, overwhelm him and punish him is there and I think Brett has naturally heavy hands for a guy his size." - Randy Couture, who sided with Brett Rogers against Alistair Overeem. Overeem won by KO in round one. (The Fight Network)

"All Aoki did was, walked on a safe, glorious path created by DREAM and fought in Strikeforce, which is not necessarily the certified "Major League" of MMA." - Fighter agent Shu Hirata, responding to Shinya Aoki's remark that Japan had become "colonized MMA". (MMA Fighting)

"I liked the comment that he made at the end. It was awesome. He's a perfect villain. I like him even more cause of this." - Georges St-Pierre, reacting to Josh Koscheck's post-fight interview at UFC 113. (MMA Weekly)

"The best kind of wrestling is to never let the guy touch your legs." - Kenny Florian, who fights Gray Maynard at UFC 118. (MMA Nation)